Five stars for this little device, but first the team at Media Server Reviews hope everyone out there is having a great new year for 2013!

This is the time for new year’s resolutions, so here at Media Server Reviews we have decided to come up with one for you:
2013 is going to be the year that we finally get a media server for that technologically challenged person in your life.

Whether it is grandma or your auntie, it is time we finally got something set up for them that is going to be able to play all their movies and music for them on all their devices at home.

And what better to serve this purpose that the Budget-Friendly Synology DiskStation 1-Bay NAS Server for Home Users

In fact, I think we might nust need to keep this for a while before we give it to grandma. I might buy a couple just in case one accidentally ends up becoming my mobile take-anywhere media center or ends up set up in the back shed.

This is perfect as an entry level device to play all your movies, music and other media, and runs the same Synology OS as the other High End NAS Media Servers.

The most popular HD on Amazon for this device is the WD Green 2Tb 3.5″ HD, and at $157 it is pretty hard to argue with that.

Set up is easy, just plug it in and away you go. This is the ultimate luddite machine, if someone can connect the power and connect the network cable, they will be fine.
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There are two USB ports and a Gigabit Ethernet port available, if you have a few additional hard drives lying around, you can always connect them up to the USB ports for additional storage, and to see what is on those things anyway?
There is also an Android and iOS app that you can use for photo browsing among other things which is very cool, and makes it apparent that we are actually living in the future.

Once on the network you can stream all your media, movies, photos, music to your appleTV, Playstaytion, XBox, as well as all your mobile devices and pretty much anything else that can show a picture or play a sound.

Have fun, and make sure Grandma has a happy new year!

This brilliant little Microserver from HP has to be one of the best choices available for a Home Media Server.

A micro server has great Media Server abilities, coupled with the ability to upgrade not just RAM, Hard Drives, DVD drives and add PCI cards, you can also choose the Operating System and Software you need to do what you want on your home network.

Now is also a great time to pick one of these up, with the current discounts available for purchase online.

Home servers can be a compelling alternative to buying a NAS or other “Appliance” style device, and this Microserver is no exception (customer reviews here).

HP have been the market leader in the small / micro server market for many years now, and the ProLiant Micro Server N40L is arguably the best home server currently available.

Small in size (12.5 x 15.5 x 15.5in) and quiet (just 22 dBA!) when running, this MicroServer makes a brilliant media server either with Windows Home Server (32 or 64bit) installed, or if you prefer Open Source, one of the many Linux Distributions available.

For those even more adventurous, this box will quite happily run VMware allowing you to have several virtual servers and workstations on your network, which in turn will give you a chance to try all the Media Server Software and Operating Systems available, to find the best match for your other devices at home.

How does it look?

Well.. it looks like it does in the picture.. only better up close

The HP logo faintly glows blue when powered on which is a nice touch, and the minimalist styling makes this a server that can quite happily exist on the desktop if need be.

But don’t just take our word for it, you shoud really read the customer reviews on amazon to get an idea of how people have found this to work for them.

MicroServer or NAS?

Currently the price of one of these servers is about the same as a .
When you consider the extra disk bays (4 upgradable), extra processor (AMD Turion II vs Intel® Atom Dual-core) and ability to upgrade and configure everything, the MicroServer seems to be the best bet.

Having said that, the out-of-the-box functionality of either the Netgear or Synology Network Attached Storage Devices can be quite compelling if you want things to just work

You can read more about the HP Proliant Microservers here..