If you’re a hardware manufacturer who would like to submit your hardware for review, please feel free to get in touch.

What were the most popular articles of this year? Let’s take a look:

1. Windows Media Center 7 Revealed
2. Windows XP SP3 Update Breaks Windows Home Server Remote Access?
3. Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 – Coming Your Way!
4. Hands-On: Chenbro ES34069 Home Server Chassis
5. Installing PHP for IIS on Windows Home Server
6. How To: Play Blu-ray and HD DVD Movies from Vista Media Center
7. Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 In Depth: External Backup
8. Turn Your USB Flash Drive into a Windows Install Disk
9. Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 In Depth: WHS Connector Installation Walkthrough
10. Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A3 Harmony Home Server – Hands-On Review

 Best wishes from all of us here at We Got Served for a great 2009!

German system builder, Hush Technologies, has built a reputation for high-quality, low power machines over the past few years with great design that would look good in any home (or office, if you work somewhere funky enough!). Like the UK’s Tranquil PC, they’ve specialised in fanless chassis which are flexible enough to work in a number of scenarios, from standard XP/Vista desktops, through to dedicated HTPCs running Windows Media Center, with almost silent running thanks to an innovative cooling system that transfers heat from inside the system through to aluminium fins on the exterior of the chassis – a trick we’ve seen prviously with Tranquil’s T2-WHS-A3 model.

Back in November, Hush announced that they would be releasing a Windows Home Server system, the Hush HS1. It’s certainly the most beautiful home server hardware we’ve tested, but it’s also one of the most expensive – after a long wait, we finally had a chance to test it out in the real world this week.

What’s in the Box?

Certainly, the Hush is one of the more succinct home server packaged we’ve opened up – in our case, the system came with no installation guide, and not even any Windows Home Server CDs! (Hush clarified that they usually bundle the standard WHS installation discs and Quick Start guide). Luckily we have a few WHS Connector CDs knocking around, so we were able to get the Hush installed correctly.

The system comes well packed and protected in a Hush branded carton. The Hush HS1 package consists of:

• Hush HS1 Home Server
• Power Supply
• Motherboard Manual and Driver CD (not required for initial Windows Home Server installation)
• Windows Home Server OEM Installation Discs and Quick Start Guide

You’re out of luck if you’re expecting copious amounts of support materials – you get a thick slab of high quality anodised aluminum with some silicon inside, and a plug. Job done. For the price you’re paying, I’d expect to see a decent installation guide as well as an Ethernet cable bundled in the system, so whilst the hardware looks fabulous, Hush haven’t been as generous as they could be with the overall package.

First Looks

So, let’s take a look as that chassis – it’s Hush’s standard HTPC chassis, which is available across their product range. Whilst I say “standard” don’t let that word detract from the quality of the design – it’s a beautiful looking system, made out of a heat-conducting aluminium alloy, brushed and anodised all over. The environmentalists amongst you will be pleased to hear that it’s fully recyclable too.

As a HTPC, the system could sit underneath a TV if required, but would look great in any room and is available in a choice of silver, black or bronze. It’s not one to be hidden away.

Along the sides, thick aluminium fins allow heat to be dissipated from the chassis without the need for internal fans.

Around the Back

Hush, like a few system builders who have released Windows Home Server hardware eschew Microsoft’s logo requirements for a headless unit and include VGA and PS2 connectors for keyboards and mice. You’ll also find four Ethernet connections (the most we’ve seen on any home server – do they not have routers in Germany?) if you need extra networking support (this is a 40 euro paid upgrade), 2 USB ports, a firewire socket and various unnecessary audio and video connectors.

Around the Front

The front of the HS1 is a minimalist but quality affair, with the Hush logo engraved into the front panel, which looks very cool indeed. No nasty Windows stickers here thank you very much. Elsewhere, a large power button glows with a blue ring when the unit is switched on, and you get a further two USB ports at the front. In case you needed to be reminded what format of motherboard the HS1 uses, Hush have also handily engraved mini-ITX on the front panel also – who knows, it may make for entertaining dinner party conversation. Meanwhile, don’t be fooled by that slot in the front panel – there’s a blanking plate behind it, rather than the DVD drive you’re expecting.

Clearly, this is a frontplate from Hush’s E1 Media Center systems – you can understand them reusing components, but i can’t help but think it would have been nicer if they could have tooled a specific front panel for the HS1 without the DVD slot and extraneous IR sensors. The aesthetics are a little compromised at the moment, and bear in mind, you’re paying for the aesthetics as well as the build quality with the HS1.

Certainly the HS1feels very solidly built – it has the highest quality “feel” of any of the home servers we’ve reviewed to date. However, future expansion is not helped by the use of non-standard screws which hold the unit together – swap your screwdriver for an allen key, and you’ll be fine.

Under the Hood

Let’s take a look at the HS1′s specification, putting up against Tranquil PC’s T2-WHS-A3i, which is probably the most similar unit currently available.

The HS1 is based around the popular Via combination of the C7-D processor (although the faster of the two C7 processors is selected here) plus the Jetway CN700 Mini-ITX motherboard – we’ve seen this combination used in a variety of home servers, including the previous revisions of Tranquil PC’s home server hardware. Tranquil have subsequently refreshed their specification to the new Intel Atom processor which gives strong performance at very low power, which may explain the difference in power consumption. That said, the Via processor and chipset is absolutely fine for running Windows Home Server.

You’ll see in other areas, there’s a few differences – you’ll get more memory with the HS1 (and if you’re likely to install add-ins and other software on the home server, the extra juice is needed), and you also get the benefit of a firewire socket which is handy if you want to use an existing firewire drive.

What you can’t miss though is the price differential – the HS1 is over twice the price of the Tranquil unit, coming in at £699. Add taxes and shipping on and you’re looking at well over 1100 euros (£860 | $1700) to get your hands on a well-built, exquisitely made home server. Unfortunately, other than those aesthetics, there’s very little value-add to justify the additional cost. The Hush HS1 Home Server is certainly built and priced for the professional installer market.

Final Verdict

Hush have certainly produced the finest looking Home Server in the market with the HS1, and if aesthetic qualities are your number one criteria for choosing a home server, you’ll certainly fall in love with this machine – it has a great spec, is well-built and oozes class. But those looks will cost you a pretty penny.

If Hush had included more value-adding features to their package, in the way of premium add-ins, or a higher specification of components, then there would be a lot more to recommend the HS1 than a great looking chassis. Cutting corners in the lack of bundled Ethernet cables and a DVD drive is, at this price point, pretty unforgiveable. I’m sure it will do very well in the professional installation market – but, at the current price, for everyday users, there are home servers out there that do a better job at a cheaper price.

More Info: Hush Technologies

Tranquil PC have today launched a refresh of their Windows Home Server range, replacing the previous T7-HSA and T2-WHS-A3 with two new models, the T7-HSAi and the T2-WHS-A3i.

So, what’s the “i” all about? At first glance, the systems looks the same on the outside, but inside, Trannquil have swapped the old model’s Via C7 based motherboard and processor for the sparkling new Intel Atom processor, a 1.6GHz 45nM chip which provides faster performance and a lower power consumption, from just 29W. The processor is also 64-bit ready, so you can take advantage of extra processing power in the future.

The T7-HSAi also now has a multi-drive option – whether this is due to a smaller motherboard profile, I’m not sure, but is officially a good thing, as the original was very limited with a single drive.

Tranquil have also dropped the price of the T7-HSAi to £278 ex VAT (£326) whilst the T2-WHA-A3i remains at £299 ex VAT (£351).

Revised specs as follows:

T7-HSAi

T2-WHS-A3i

Check out our reviews of the previous models, the T7-HSA and T2-WHS-A3.

More Info: Tranquil PC | Tranquil PC Blog

Ah, the Belgians – home of great beer, great chocolates and Hercule Poirot – and now, courtesy of the Channel Tunnel, Belgian Home Server enthusiasts can now take advantage of Djinx’s strangely familiar new home server, the WHS-A3.

What’s that you say? Looks a bit like the Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A3? Hmm, yes I agree. Still, it’ll save the Belgians a huge shipping bill if they can buy direct from Djinx, and erm, the branding on the front panel is different too!

Specs are as follows:

Storage: 2 x 500Gb Western Digital GP Drives (1 Tb Total, 911Gb available)
RAM: 1Gb
Network: Gigabit
USB Ports: 4
Processor: 64-Bit Ready Intel Celeron 220
Dimensions: 356(d)x66(h)x387(w)

If you want the lowdown on this system, check out our review of the Tranquil PC unit we did back in December.

The WHS is now available to order at 849 euros.

More Info: Djinx

Whilst Windows Home Server may very much be a product of the United States (supported by some of their friends over at Microsoft China), it has been Europe that has led the way developing and launching hardware systems for the platform. Within Europe, the UK and Germany are front and centre in releasing home server systems, with companies such as Tranquil PC, Fujitsu-Siemens and Medion having released, or about to release hardware to the marketplace.

Back in November 2007, Microsoft announced a series of new partnerships with OEMs, and tucked amongst them was an agreement with German OEM, LEO Computer, who were set to release their Piranha Home Server in Germany towards the end of 2007. I’m pleased to say that LEO agreed to ship one of their home server’s across Europe to the UK, so your good friends at We Got Served could take a look.

A Little About LEO

LEO Computerhas been around for about 15 years, selling a range of business and consumer oriented PCs directly to the trade market in Germany, Austria and Holland. Their systems sell under the Delphin (Business) and Piranha (Consumer) brands, across a variety of hardware resellers in the three countries mentioned. They do have a history in selling servers to business under the Delphin brand, and, as you would imagine, this is their first home server to hit the market. Here’s how we got on with it.

What’s In the Box?

Interestingly, the system we were sent from Germany was shipped in an Aopen G325 box, which is a dead giveaway of where the chassis has come from. The G325 is a multi-purpose chassis that Leo have used for their Piranha Home Server – whilst this means that you’re blessed with a variety of connectivity choices (see later), don’t be fooled that this is a dedicated server chassis, so matter how it may look in the photos.

The package I received was an extremely spartan affair – the system was well packaged and protected, and came with a German OEM edition of Windows Home Server, plus a copy of the G325′s driver CD, which is always extremely useful. However, that was it. No power cable, no ethernet cable, no instructions. Now, it may be that LEO’s partnership agreements mandate the reseller to provide these extras – let’s hope so, because if a beginner buys one if these machines packaged in this way, well, they may struggle to get up and running. So far, so basic. In our last hardware review of Tranquil PC’s T2-WHS-A3 I was left unimpressed with the quality of the enclosed manual, but at least they’ve had a go at providing documentation!

First Looks

The Piranha Home Server is a pretty good looking system – the Aopen G325 chassis is not the smallest of units, but it’s square form factor suits its purpose well as a home server. The chassis itself is metallic, but the grab handles at the top are made of plastic  – whilst they’re very handy for moving the system around, they do feel quitye cheap each time you pick the unit up. The very good news is that the unit wasn’t the silver and red boy-racer design as shown on the box, and better still, does not have the badly sized Windows Home Server logo you see on Piranha’s press shots (see top of page).

On the front of the unit are 3 pull-down plastic flaps, which hide (from top to bottom) a DVD-RW drive, 15 in 1 card reader (for SD/ Compact Flash cards etc) and at the bottom. a microphone and headphone socket, two front USB ports and a blanked off firewire port. Whoever wrote the Windows Home Server logo requirements would be decidedly gloomy if they saw this unit, as a headless, refined home server specification this isn’t. Whilst on first looks,. the added connectivity seems like a bonus, this is all kit that you’re paying for in the list price, which you probably won’t ever use.

The front panel is finished by a silver DVD Eject button, a central power button and three cool blue edge lit lights which illuminates the front of the unit when powered on. Bizarrely though, there are no hard drive access lights. All in all, a great looking, but oddly configured chassis for a home server.

Around the Back

When you get around the back, you realise how they’ve managed to keep the unit looking pretty tidy from the front. It’s because the PSU isn’t actually in the main chassis, but is hanging off the back like some bizarre growth!

Now, I know this is a home server, and, in many cases, will hide under the stairs but in this case it really needs to. This is one server with a big backside There will be those that tell you (mainly marketers from AOpen, I guess) that hanging the PSU off in this way is deliberately designed to reduce heat and improve ventilation – and, to be fair, the system runs relatively cool with not too much noise. That’s pretty remarkable as other than the fan sitting atop of the processor’s heatsink, the only other fan in the Piranha Home Server is the PSU fan, so it has a lot of work to do to keep things cool – it looks like Piranha specced a decent fan, so good job there – but you’re going to want to look at this server from the front, on an ongoing basis. Thankfully, cooling is helped by a series of large perforations on each side of the unit, which therefore leads to a little more noise, but it’s not distracting.

Connectivity opens are as a standard, basic desktop at the rear. Once again, forget all pretence of being headless, and let’s have a Parallel port, PS2 mouse and keyboard ports, a VGA monitor port, 3.5mm microphone, and audio sockets four USB ports (at last, something useful) and an ethernet socket. For expansion, there’s also 4 PCI slots available, if you fancied popping in a few expansion cards. No attempt is made to conceal any of these sockets like we’ve seen on other units – this is a desktop system through and through which has been re-purposed for home server usage. Whether it succeeds or not depends on what’s inside.

Under the Hood

If you open up the chassis, you won’t find a lot of room in there, as there’s a lot packed in to a smallish space. The build itself is relatively neat, with cables all appropriately cable tied to keep everything tidy. Let’s take a look at the specs:

The Piranha Home Server is based on the Foxconn 45CM-S motherboard, which is a great value Socket 775 Micro ATX board for Intel processors. It’s compatible with a wide range of processors, from the older Pentium 4 and Pentium D chips through the fitted Celeron class, all the way up to the more powerful Core 2 Duo range, so you have future upgrade options available to you if you need a little more grunt in the future.

We’re seeing an increasing number of home servers being fitted with the Celeron processor, and the 1.8GHz Celeron 430 should be absolutely fine for all of your home server needs, including media serving to home computers and DMRs around the house. Resellers may offer upgrade options, but at this point, they shouldn’t really be needed.

The Foxconn board comes fitted with 1 Gb of RAM, which increasingly we think is the minimum recommended for the comfortable running of Windows Home Server. Once again, going forward, you have the option of upgrading the memory right up to 2Gb if required.

Storage comes via two 250Gb Seagate Barracuda hard drives, which gives the average user a great starting point for backing up their hard drives. It’s great to see the selection of two drives, rather than one 500Gb drive, as it means that the user can take advantage of Windows Home Server’s Folder Duplication technology right out of the box. There are two spare SATA sockets on the board, and whilst internal space for additional drives would be a challenge, adding extra internal hard drives is theoretically possible. Switching to 500Gb/1Tb drives is probably a better bet if you need extra in the future, or you can utilise one of the six (2 x Front, 4 x Rear) USB sockets available for external hard drives.

The lack of Gigabit Ethernet will annoy most power users running their networks with a Gigabit router and switches – I generally have little trouble running my network on 10/100 Ethernet, with audio and video streaming working well. If you’re planning to be streaming a lot of HD video, however, you may need to consider this carefully, although spare PCI slots are available for a Gigabit network card if you want to upgrade.

The Piranha is not a silent server – the provision of a single fan helps keep noise down, but this is offset by a lot of ventilation holes punched into the sides of the chassis – bear in mind this is basically a desktop computer re-purposed as a server, and as such, it sounds like a desktop when running. Definitely not distracting if you’re using it in a room with other computers, but if it’s on its own, you’ll certainly know it’s there.

In all, the Piranha provides an ideal starter specification to run Windows Home Server well, with reasonable options for future expansion across all areas of the hardware.

Running Windows Home Server

As mentioned, the system is packaged with the German OEM edition of Windows Home Server. On first boot, the Piranha has to self-install a couple of drivers for the Foxconn board which requires a server reboot, but once that’s done, you can install the Home Server Connector in the usual way on yout home computers around the house. As the system has USB and VGA ports on board, you can connect a keyboard, mouse and monitor if you want direct access to the home server. If you do this, you’ll see the server’s system clock is strangely set to GMT -12, but this corrects as soon as you install the Conncector CD on your home computers and the server is able to access the internet.

One thing I’d like to see corrected is that the server ships without the Windows Home Server November Update installed, meaning that the user has to apply these updates manually – I’m all for OEMs keeping their WHS builds bang up to date, so this is a point knocked off for laziness  

As mentioned earlier, Piranha do not supply any additional information in terms of a manual or user guidance on installing, configuring or using Windows Home Server, so if you’re a beginner who is looking for more detailed documentation on using WHS, then it’s a good idea to pick up a Windows Home Server book as well as the home server itself, as Piranha aren’t likely to do the job for you.

Verdict

If you’re a European (German/Austrian/Dutch) user seeking a well specified (if a little quirky) home server, with good future expansion options and are happy to dive into to using the server without too much support, then the Piranha Home Server is a well-built, carefully considered system that ticks most boxes. It gives all the feel of a self-build home server, without any of the workload. Just position it carefully so you don’t have to look it from the rear! 

Over the past few weeks, hundreds of We Got Served readers have been voting for their favourite Windows Home Server hardware, software and community add-ins. On Christmas Day, voting closed and we’ve been counting the votes ever since. Today, on the first day of the New Year, we announce the results of the inaugural We Got Served Reader Awards for 2007!

Best Windows Home Server Hardware 2007

With a slew of new home server systems made available this year from OEMs large and small, this was always going to be an interesting battle. With HP’s MediaSmart Server getting all the headlines, smaller businesses such as Tranquil PC, Norco and Chenbro quietly released new powerful and energy-efficient home servers that sought to steal the headlines throughout the second half of the year. But which would be your favourite? In reverse order, then:

3rd Place: Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A2/A3 Home Server

Tranquil PC’s second Windows Home Server Chassis of 2007 comes in two flavours (the A2 and A3 spec) and was recently reviewed here at We Got Served. A great looking system, the T2 offered good storage expansion opportunities along with a quick processor and Tranquil’s trademark silent running and energy-efficiencies. That for us made it a better system than Tranquil’s debut, the T7-HSA, but you had a different opinion.

Lars from www.home-server-blog.de voted for the T2 – “Come on, there is no better available!”Frederic Bottin agreed, pointing out a suite of the T2′s features,“Green PC + fanless (nearly silent), 64Bits processor, Gigabits (in option), best price.”Robert Oliveira liked the look of the HP MediaSmart Server, but went for the T2 – “The HP MediaSmart was the first one I saw and I thought it was very cool looking and had tremendous functionality; I must admit however that I find the Tranquil series (most notably the T2-WHS-A3) to be a very attractive unit.”

So lots of support for Tranquil PC’s T2, but two systems came out ahead in the race and kudos to Tranquil PC for  getting two systems in your Top 3 of the year….

Highly Commended: Tranquil PC T7-HSA Harmony Home Server

The world’s first available Windows Home Server system made it to second place in the year-end awards. We received the T7 back in September and were amazed at how small and compact the system was in the metal. Despite it’s small size and low power specification, it ran Windows Home Server effortlessly and we were pleased to see a clean build installed on the hardware by Tranquil PC. We pointed out a lack of internal storage expansion as one watch-out but for a fanless system, we were surprised to see how cool it ran.

Trent Kaiser from Canada summed up the beauty of the T7 with his vote: “Quiet, small, easy to set up” – few could disagree.

WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Hardware: HP MediaSmart Server EX470/EX475

The HP MediaSmart Server was always going to be difficult to beat in this category – debuting on stage with Bill Gates in Las Vegas in January, the HP MediaSmart Server arrived late and in smallish quantities, but sold out quickly. It’s a great piece of indistrial design, offering great aesthetics, wonderful hot swappable storage expansion and fantastic manuals and installation instructions. We reviewed the system last month and found it to be the perfect system to showcase Windows Home Server.

Dan Huber gave his vote to HP, “They bundle the right hardware with aesthetics to please and easy documentation for those new to Windows Home Server”. Don Carlson agreed, “I feel that HP put this on the drawing board, saw the potential and developed it on time. There are plenty of extras and things that you can do with it and it is a perfect home companion for storing all of your documents across the board.”Meanwhile, Colin Walker praised HP’s close collaboration with Microsoft on the system, “Well, it just has to be the HP MediaSmart Server EX475. What a good looking AND functional bit of kit. I just think you can’t argue with the results of such a close collaboration.”

So, it won the headlines, plaudits and the hearts of many WGS readers – congratulations to HP for winning the Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Hardware.

Best Windows Home Server Software 2007

This award is for the best commercial (i.e. paid for) software developed specifically for Windows Home Server this year. We’ve seen a number of leading software developers release software in the second half of the year, including online backup utilities, disk optimisation software and anti-virus protection. Voting was brisk in this category and it was a very close run competition. Let’s check out your Top 3 of the Year.

3rd Place: Sage TV for Windows Home Server

 Lots of you are seeking media serving capabilities for Windows Home Server, and Sage TV for Windows Home Server is your application of choice to fulfill them. The software allows you to serve TV, Video, Music and Photos to any PC over your broadband connection directly from Windows Home Server.

Here in Europe, Lars gave his vote to Sage TV, with one small caveat ,”Sage TV best fits my needs, even if the EPG does not work well here in Germany”.  Michael Charlton called it “Without doubt the most useful of the paid-for applications available.” Ian Grant has played with Sage TV a lot, “The potential for having your WHS as a PVR device is a killer feature for me.”

Highly Commended: Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer

With Windows Home Server utilising multiple hard disks to back up your home computers each night, keeping your disks defragmented is important to ensure your home server runs effectively. Diskeeper released Diskeeper 2008 HomeServer at the end of the year which plugs into the WHS Console and runs in the background continually optimising your hard disks, to reduce file fragmentation.

Many if you have been delighted with its performance, like Don Carlson, “By far my vote will be for “Diskeeper 2008 Home Server”. It tied into my network great and has been working perfectly.”

WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Software: Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition

Congratulations to ALWIL software, whose Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition has only been very recently released after being in beta for the last few months. Avast is the first (and currently only) anti-virus software built specifically for Windows Home Server, and enables you to manage the protection not only of your home server from within the WHS Console, but also of all of your home computers running Avast’s Professional edition of their software.

Clearly, WHS users are keen to protect their home servers from malware, and as Dan Huber commented, Avast have made protection simple to achieve, “I live by their free consumer desktop software and am glad to see early adoption on their part to support WHS and integrate the two products to allow remote management – an awesome idea!”

So, it arrived late to the party and stole all the champagne – ALWIL takes the WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Softwarewith Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition.

Best Windows Home Server Community Add-In 2007

And so, we come to our final award – and some would say, we’ve left the biggest fight until last. With well over 30 free Windows Home Server add-ins developed by members of the community, competition for your votes was fair, but fierce. Certainly we’ve been impressed this year with the sheer volume and indeed variety of add-ins that have been released this year – in many ways it’s the lifeblood of the community and we’re looking forward to seeing many more developed and released in 2008, as well as continued development of those published this year. Time to reveal the winners…

3rd Place: Marcel Nouwens for uTorrent

Whilst Windows Home Server is a fabulous system for distributing photos, music and videos around your home, many of you are using Marcel Nouwens’ uTorrent add-in to, erm, “acquire” that content in the first place. The uTorrent add-in allows you view and manage all bittorrent downloads within the Windows Home Server Console, leaving your home computers freed up to, I don’t know, search for more torrents or something .

As user MStiger comments on the Windows Home Server forums, “This is pure own”. Enough said.

Highly Commended: ASoft for AutoExit 2008 for Windows Home Server

AutoExit 2008 was a very popular choice in this category, providing Windows Home Server users with a suite of features including remote Wake on LAN functionality, shut down and reboot of home computers on the network as well as enabling the sending of messages to home computers. Given this year’s Code2Fame competition only included US entries, add-ins like AutoExit did not get a look in, but may have given Whiist a run for its money, as it certainly generated a lot of votes from the community.

Dan Huber finds it makes life easier, “I like AutoExit 2008′s capabilities the most which would prove the handiest for the sake of forcing changes remotely such as a reboot after a critical update, waking a computer to do a backup if it’s been powered off for some time and hasn’t been available to do a backup and you’re not there to power it on.”

WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Windows Home Server Community Add-In: Andrew Grant for Whiist

Well, Andrew picked up a nice cheque for winning Microsoft’s Code2Fame competition earlier in the year and taken the WGS Readers Award for Best Community Add-In too! Whiist allows you to create and manage web content on your Windows Home Server, giving you the potential to add websites, photo albums to your remote website, add links to favourite websites and most recently, customise the WHS homepage itself.

Whiist delivers well on an unmet need in WHS v1, and deserves its plaudits. WGS reader Michael Charlton commented, “I’ve got to go with the judges on this one, it’s been just too useful for me and can’t be ignored when considering a winner for this category.”Greig Holder was of the same opinion, “Although there is an impressive and growing list in this category, WHIIST has been the most useful to me so far.”

Whilst Andrew was gracious enough not to vote for his own add-in, he clearly sees great future for Windows Home Server, “Overall I think this year we’ve seen the birth of what will soon become one of Microsoft’s cornerstone products. WHS is such a great concept and has been executed almost flawlessly so I’m sure it has a bright future. It’s very exciting to have been involved from day one ”

Congratulations to Andrew Grant for Whiist, winning the WGS Readers Award 2007 for Best Community Add-In.

So there you have it, our first ever WGS Readers Awards won by HP for the HP MediaSmart Server, ALWIL for Avast! AntiVirus WHS Edition and Andrew Grant for Whiist. Congratulations to all of our winners and nominees and commiserations to those who didn’t win – but for the victors, remember, there are hardware manufacturers, software developers and add-in programmers out there right now working hard to steal next year’s crown from you. Make sure you’re ready to take them on in 2008!

Thanks too to everyone who took time out to vote on their favourites – I’ll be drawing the three winners of our awards giveaway soon, so stay tuned to see if you got lucky.

With that, 2007 officially draws to a close and what a fun-filled, action-packed, rip-roaring year it’s been. From the little I know, 2008 will promise to be even better, starting with CES 2008 in Las Vegas next week. Thanks to everyone who has checked out the blog this year, whether you’re a regular reader, commenter or in some other way have read/spoken/typed the words “We” “Got” and “Served” this year. I’ve had a blast and am really looking forward to continuing our adventures together in 2008.

Happy New Year!

Terry

When they come to write the history of Windows Home Server, Tranquil PC will be named as the first manufacturer to release a WHS system into the market, beating a number of much larger OEMs to the punch. We reviewed the T7-HSA Harmony Home Server back in September and found it to be a wonderfully small and silent home server, with one major issue – its small footprint meant that it lacked internal storage expansion, and with OEMs small and large launching multi-drive home servers in the last few months, Tranquil PC have followed up with two new home server specifications based on their popular T2 chassis. Whilst the T7-HSA is in a niche of its own when it comes to low power, small and silent home servers, the T2 systems are set to compete head to head with other multi-drive servers such as HP’s Mediasmart Server and the forthcoming Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo Home Server.

We took a look at the T2-WHS-A3 this week, which is the baby brother of the higher spec A2 model.

What’s In the Box?

As seen with the T7-HSA, the T2 comes sturdily packaged in an unbranded box – indeed, the only way you’ll know that the box contains your new home server is two small, green stickers at the top right hand side of the box, one reinforcing the fact that you’ve just purchased a Zero Carbon PC (Tranquil PC offset the carbon footprint of the unit for 5 years from purchase – check out www.zerocarbonfootprint.co.uk for more information) and the second sticker stating that the PC conforms with the EC RoHS directive (Restriction of the use of Hazardous Substances) – this is one earth-friendly home server you’ve just bought.

Open up the box, and you’ll find the following:

• T2-WHS-A3 Home Server
• 80W AC/DC Power Adaptor
• Mains cord (specific to your country)
• Tranquil PC Media Kit
• Tranquil T2-WHS-A3 Manual

By and large, it’s a pretty complete package – marks have to be knocked off for not including an Ethernet cable, which is either an oversight, or penny pinching – if you don’t have a cable knocking around, you’ve got to go straight over to PC World/Best Buy for an Ethernet cable which is, quite frankly, a pain in the backside. The T7-HSA also didn’t include an Ethernet cable, which at the time of the review, I missed – bundling a cable would be a useful addition in the future.

Rather than include a standard copy of the Windows Home Server System Builder software, Tranquil now include their own Media Kit, with a branded edition of the Windows Home Server Installation DVD, Connector CD and Recovery CD – the software itself is unchanged, it’s just been repackaged, which enhances Tranquil’s brand.

Tranquil also include a short 12 page black and white installation guide which covers the absolute basics of installation and set-up. HP have set a very high standard when it comes to in-box product documentation with the MediaSmart Server, and in comparison, Tranquil’s looks a little thin. It’s fine to get you up and running, particularly if you know what you’re doing, but going forward, whilst they don’t have the huge marketing resources of a giant like HP, it would be great to see Tranquil investing a little more polish in documentation support for those families new to Windows Home Server.

Recently, Tranquil PC announced support for German, French and Spanish language versions of Windows Home Server. The T7 unit has been wildly popular in a number of countries, with many units making their way across to the USA – supporting continental Europe with native language editions of WHS is a natural extension and it’s great to see that Tranquil go the extra mile in ensuring the appropriate power cable is enclosed for those territories.

Another change from the T7-HSA review unit we received is that Tranquil PC no longer bundle their innovative USB-based Server Recovery kit for free – this was a promotional deal with early purchases of the T7, and is now a paid-for option (£29 ex VAT). This is a must have upgrade, and whilst it’s a shame to see it not included in the pack, it’s understandable given competitive price pressures and the marketplace heating up. The HP MediaSmart Server includes a Server Recovery solution, but is more expensive than the T2 – you pays your money, you takes your choice.

First Looks

The T2 chassis resembles a pretty cool looking DVD player, or one of the newer Media Center PC designs. It resembles the T7 in many ways, from it’s black aluminum casing through to the metallic fins on its right hand side for heat dissipation.

It’s larger than the T7 (for very good reasons which I’ll explain later), but is still a compact, great looking chassis. A thick acrylic plate finishes the front of the unit nicely, and when powered on, becomes edge-lit thanks to a blue power LED. A large power button completes the front panel – whilst the T7 is a tiny machine, I prefer the look of the T2 – it would look great under the TV as a media server.

As with most of Tranquil’s machines, the T2 is fanless, leading to a near silent operation, with cooling handled by the chassis itself.

Overall, Tranquil once again have done a great job with the design of the hardware – it’s not one to be hidden away from sight in a cupboard!

Around the Back

The rear of the unit provides plenty of space for a wide array of connections. Tranquil use the versatile T2 chassis for a range of PCs, from servers and home computers through to bespoke units used in industry. For that reason, the standard unit comes with connections that you shouldn’t really find on a home server (Parallel, Audio, VGA, RS232, PS2 and Keyboard) as well as some that you should! These former connections are marked in the manual as not in use.

4 USB sockets are positioned at the rear for external hard drive use, as well as a 10/100 LAN connection and 12v DC power input. That’s it for the base specification, but if you plump for the upgraded spec with 4x eSATA ports and Gigabit LAN you’ll find these positioned at the rear on the right hand side.

In all, the T2-WHS-A3 is a very well designed and solidly build piece of kit, which we now come to expect from the company.

Under the Hood

Whilst the T7 is a great little server for today (and maybe tomorrow) its small chassis suffers from a lack of upgrade potential – the T2 however, offers many more opportunities to grow with you in the future. Let’s take a look inside.

Tranquil have based the T2-WHS-A3 on the Intel D201GLY (mini-ITX) motherboard, which comes with an integrated Celeron 220 processor, running at 1.2GHz. Tranquil have carefully selected a new, modern processor which provides lots of grunt without being a huge power drain, which keeps the unit’s power consumption low, at just 29W idle up to 45W at full tilt (Tranquil’s figures). Bear in mind, when I say that the processor is integrated into the motherboard, I mean it’s soldered on to the board, which makes a future processor upgrade impossible without replacing the motherboard.

Reducing power consumption also means that fan cooling isn’t required, which ensures silent running (like the T7-HSA, the T2 is silent, apart from a very slight murmuring from the hard drive when accessed) and the theory goes, will lead to a more reliable unit (no failing fans equals no fried home server). The Celeron 220 is also x64 compatible, which gives great peace of mind for any future WHS platform shift to x64.

Whilst the base specification is relatively modest (512 Mb RAM, 500Gb hard drive), Tranquil have included plenty of scope to upgrade storage and memory both at point of purchase, or in the future. On the storage side, two internal SATA slots provide up to 2Tb (2 x 1Tb) of internal storage, using Western Digital’s Green Power silent, low powered hard drives and memory is upgradable to 1Tb as a paid option.

When it comes to external storage potential, you’re well catered for with 4 USB 2.0 ports at the rear which can be used for external hard drives. If you’re investigating eSATA options, a 4 port eSATA card is also available as a fitted upgrade.

When it comes to networking, the base specification comes with a 10/100 Ethernet card, which actually is fine for all but the most picky WHS user. Once again, a gigabit LAN upgrade is available if required.

Overall, the T2 provides a decent specification for most Windows Home Server users, but compared to the T7-HSA, the larger, more flexible chassis offers plenty of scope for power users to upgrade as required – certainly, if a tiny footprint isn’t essential, the T2-WHS-A3 is a better option for the long term.

If you’d like to take a look at detailed specs and benchmarks, you can download a full report courtesy of SiSoft Sandra.

Tranquil PC T2-WHS-A3 Detailed Report

Running Windows Home Server

Whilst Tranquil provide their own branded media kit (with Server Installation DVD, Connector CD, and Server Recovery CD), it is basically the standard Windows Home Server software kit. There is very minor branding in the Windows Home Server Settings dialog, but other than that, it’s a clean WHS build, which is always nice to see.

As we noted with the T7-HSA, Tranquil do a great job of keeping their builds up to date, so you should find that there’s minimal updating required post configuration.

The Verdict

The T2-WHS-A3 is the second Windows Home Server machine we’ve reviewed from Tranquil PC, and whilst it doesn’t have the wow factor of the T7′s tiny footprint, it’s definitely my favourite of the two. The T7 is limited by its form factor which makes is a great consumer appliance, but one that is difficult to upgrade and unwieldly to expand.

The T2 retains the great looks of the T7, with a slightly larger form factor, but offers much stronger expansion options, which is vital as your digital media collection continues to grow. Adding a second drive is straightforward at purchase, and not too difficult post-purchase (although not as easy as the HP MediaSmart Server or Norco DS-520G which offers hot swappable drives), and the faster processor in the T2 means that it’s going to keep you happy for longer than the T7.

On the flipside, the HP MediaSmart Server offers a friendlier setup and install experience, with great documentation, additional support and a unique set of add-ins to extend your Windows Home Server experience. But it also comes with a price tag to match, and is almost as limited as the T7 when it comes to future hardware upgrades.

Going forward, with a suite of home server hardware available, I’d love to see Tranquil invest in some of the finishing touches to their home server package, with a more comprehensive product guide, and the inclusion of Ethernet cables and their server recovery pack in-box. For now though, if you’re looking for a powerful home server that looks great and has the potential to grow with your digital needs, Tranquil PC’s T2-WHS-A3 has got the lot.

Unfortunately, there’s no glitzy gala dinner, no red carpet, no gold envelopes, and for the winners, no big prizes but they do get the kudos of being voted this year’s best product by the Windows Home Server community, which is surely the best prize of all!

For voters, however, there are prizes. A month or so ago, the Windows Home Server team sent me a few pieces of pretty exclusive Windows Home Server swag, which I will be giving away to three lucky voters who will be picked out at random. It’s pretty cool stuff too, but I won’t give away the secret right now. (No, it’s not a HP MediaSmart Server, sorry!)

The Voting Categories

There are three categories for which I’d like you all to vote. Let’s take a look at them individually.

Best Windows Home Server Hardware of 2007

If you take a look at the site’s Hardware section, you’ll see that we’ve covered an extensive range of hardware that has been developed specifically for Windows Home Server. However, the rule here is that you can only vote for hardware that has been released this year – sorry to Medion, Fujitsu-Siemens, Lacie and others who couldn’t get their act together quickly enough to have units out in the marketplace!

But, you can vote for great units like the HP MediaSmart Server, Tranquil PC’s T7-HSA, T2-WHS-A2 or T2-WHS-A3, Norco’s DS-520G, even the Velocity Micro NetMagix Home Server.

Best Windows Home Server Software of 2007

This category focuses on commercially available (i.e. paid for) software that has either been f.ully released to the public, or is in beta. So here, think of software such as Diskeeper 2008 Home Server, Raxco’s PerfectDisk 8 for Windows Home Server, Proxure’s KeepVault or JungleDisk’s online backup solutions, SageTV’s Media Server, and Avast’s AntiVirus software for Windows Home Server.

Best Windows Home Server Community Add-in of 2007

As far as I’m concerned, this is the daddy of them all. Yes, we had the Microsoft Code2Fame competition, where the WHS product team and a bunch of media darlings awarded prizes for what they considered to be the best add-in for Windows Home Server. But almost a year into the public life of Windows Home Server, it’s time for the community to vote for the best, most essential Windows Home Server add-in of the year. You find a long list of all available add-ins over at our Windows Home Server Add-ins section. Take some time to look through the options – even download a couple you may not have tried out, and then let me know which one you consider to be the best of the year.

Will you share the Code2Fame judges opinion and vote for Whiist? Or will you got for one of the plethora of Wake on LAN add-ins available? Or something entirely left-field? The choice is yours!

Rules: no commercial add-ins can be voted for in this category – it’s been made freely available by the community, for the community. If it’s commercial, it goes into the Software category above.

How To Vote

Update: Voting Is Now Closed  – thanks to all of you that voted. Check back on New Year’s Eve for the Winners!

A specific mailbox has been set-up for you to cast your votes, (which will get spammed to death as I’m about to publish it, but hey, that’s my problem).

1. Best Hardware:
2. Best Software:
3. Best Add-in:

Voting begins NOW (December 11th) for two weeks, and all votes must be cast by 11.59pm GMT on Christmas Day (December 25th). Results will be revealed in a WGS Special on New Year’s Eve.

Spread the word to friends and family as we want as many votes in as possible! Good Luck to all!

So, if you’re on the continent, and have been jealously eyeing up Tranquil’s small form factors, then you can defeat the green-eyed monster (or maybe give in to him) by checking out Tranquil PC’s website. Shipping is £24, and the systems are all shipping with the correct power cables for your region.

In other news, Tranquil’s new multi-drive WHS system, the T2-WHS-A3 will be shipping this week, from Wednesday. Look out for a review of the A3 in the next week or so.

Tranquil PC yesterday announced the December availability of a third Windows Home Server based system – the T2-WHS-A3.

Running in the same chassis, as the previously announced A2, the new A3 runs much faster faster via the help of a 64-bit compatible Intel processor (compared to the A2′s Via processor), and therefore provides better a option for future WHS updates. There is a downside, however, as the A3 runs with a 10/100 Network Card (rather than Gigabit – although Gigabit is available as a paid upgrade), and supports just 1 eSATA card (offering 4 eSATA coonnections rather than the A2′s 8). USB 2.0 ports also drop from 6 to 4. Like the A2, however, the system is fanless, and provides two internal hard drive slots for storage expansion.

Base specification is as follows:

Processor: Intel Celeron 220
RAM: 512Mb (upgrade option to 1Gb available)
USB 2.0: 4 ports (rear)
Storage: 500Gb (available in 1 or 2 drive configurations – up to 2 Tb options available)
Dimensions: 387 (w) x 356 (d) x 66 (h) mm
Weight Base unit (nett) 7Kg
Power consumption 29W – 45W

The A3 starts at £348 (ex VAT) and we hope to get a unit in mid-December for review. Meanwhile, Tranquil have also announced that all of the systems are shipping with a discount on Proxure’s KeepVault online backup software.

More Info: Tranquil PC