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..