After a long searched and countless time of frustration to get this Windows Home Server, I finally have it! From LHS (Karamunsing), at RM1299 (around USD382). The shop owner was quite surprise to see there is actually someone who’s interested in this product. According to him, Acer asked him if he would like to sell such product, so he tried it out by ordered 1 unit…and it’s quite a coincidence that I dropped by his shop after he had it on the shelves for few days.
Anyway, if you’d like to know the spec:
- Intel Atom 230 processor (1.6GHz / 512K Cache / 533MHz HSB)
- Intel 945GC Express Chipset
- Gigabit Ethernet
- 2GB DDR2 Memory
- 256MB flash ROM
- 1TB 7200RPM HDD
- Genuine Windows Home Server OS
So, does it worth the money? What if you DIY (estimated 
cost):
- RM200 – Intel Atom & the mobo
- RM130 – 2GB RAM
- RM300 – 1TB HDD
- RM340 – WHS OS
- RM100 – for the small and pretty casing
- RM240 – for the 4 hot swap HDD bays
That will add up to RM1310. Won’t differ much if you DIY one unit. Unless you are planning to run FreeNas, then you can save that OS cost for another 1TB of HDD. Anyway, the unit comes without keyboard/mouse and video out port. So just plug in the power cord, connect the RJ45 to your Switch or Router, everything else is setup through the neat GUI web interface from network client PC.
Things suppose to work out flawlessly (at least it was when I was setting up the 120-day trial last time), but sometimes we just have to expect the unexpected. I am not sure if the retailer’s staffs have been messing with the machine (although the shop owner did tell me it’s not yet configured), or is it Acer people who tried it out before they pushed it to their dealer. The unit is pre-configured, with a password…when the password is only suppose to be created by the user when he runs it for the 1st time after he bought it (it’s like when you take home a branded PC fresh out from the box, everything suppose to be fresh, no password, no user name and stuff).
Luckily, whoever that fellow was, he set the password at the “Password Hint” to
o. So that makes things went smooth for a short moment, before I encountered another problem – unable to detect Windows Home Server. Reset server and software reinstallation didn’t help either. Crap!
After few times try and error, noticed that it’s due to this Acer H340 messed up with my D-Link NAS. It’s using my NAS IP. So, reconfigured both units IP and things finally worked out good. Reset password, download and run those updates, and now it’s backing up my home office PCs...
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