These Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz Windows Home Servers can back up to 10 PCs and serve all the files you want. It has two 3.5-inch bays for up to 2 terabytes of storage space, with one Gigabit Ethernet port, and six USB 2.0 ports to add more storage or whatever you want. [Asus via Hot Hardware via Engadget]

It looks like the same unit that the US sells for $US400, complete with 1.6GHz Atom processor and 1TB HDD (and three spare slots), although no firm local pricing or release dates have been announced. But one thing’s for sure, the Home Server market looks like it might actually be going somewhere…

[APC – Thanks Dean!]

What it still does

HP’s Windows Home Servers are exceptional because they take the standard Home Server build and add a bunch of extras on top of it. For example, HP was the first one to introduce support for Apple’s Time Machine, which has been improved here so that you can do a complete restore in the event that you have to start your Mac up from scratch.

They’ve also still got the media streaming (DLNA compliant), web/iPhone streaming and iTunes server built in, as well as a media collector that sucks in media from all your regular machines on the network into one place on the server. All of this stuff is just improved.

What it does even better now

The greatest group of improvements is how the EX495 now works with Macs. Time Machine functionality was there before, but ran into problems when your Mac went down and you tried to do a fresh restore directly off the network. Now you get a separate disc to use so you can treat the Time Machine backup on the server as a standard Time Machine backup for restores.

But the most important feature on a day-to-day basis is the fact that the Home Server console works natively on Macs — even though it’s just a remote desktop connection to the server anyway. You can now do on your Mac all the management actions you could on the PC, like setup new users, update your Home Server, perform diagnostics or configure video conversions.

Then there is the added ability to do media collecting on Macs, basically sucking off any videos or music you’ve accumulated into one network-accessible place so other machines can access it. It beats having to remember to manually place those things on the server yourself.

Of course, Macs can also access the web interface for Home Server management just like PCs can.

More power, more storage and better processing

Shoving a Dual Core 2.5GHz or a 2.2GHz Celeron processor and 2GB of RAM on these machines might seem like overkill for something that’s just used to hold stuff and stream it around the network, but HP puts that to good use.

In our tests, the EX495 was able to convert a DVD movie into a full resolution h.264 and a phone-streamable 300MB movie in about an hour and a half, give or take. Very useful for not sucking up your main machine’s horsepower to convert videos when you can just vomit them onto the network and have it be done by a slave machine.

The improved processor is very noticeable from just using the remote console. Clicking around to set up the photo publisher, or the media server, or adding BitTorrent plugins were much faster than the previous generation EX485 and EX487 machines. It’s not even comparable to the LX195 budget versions.

At $US700 and $US550 respectively ($899 and $599 in Australia), the MediaSmart Servers definitely aren’t cheap. If you’ve got an older version, like the 485/487 series, the improvements probably won’t be enough to warrant you spending so much for another machine that has similar functionality. If you’re new to the Windows Home Server realm, this has pretty much everything a PC or a Mac user would want to hold their data, stream their media and backup their information. [HP EX495 and HP EX490]

In all seriousness, the EX490 looks like a must-own device for any geek, while the LX197 would fit in any home with a PC. Both come with 1TB of storage as standard, while the EX490 also incorporates a heap of extra Mac support, including the ability to completely restore your Mac’s hard drive.

The LX197 runs on an Intel Atom processor, while the EX490 runs on a Celeron, which means both devices are fairly low powered. It also means that they’re extremely affordable, with the LX197 retailing for $599 and the EX490 costing $899. The EX490 also has space for extra hard drives, which will apparently let you increase storage to 7TB internally or 17TB with the use of external USB HDDs as well. While I had a quick hands on with the UI last night, I’ll reserve complete judgement until I’ve tested it a little bit more, but ultimately I think this is going to be a mandatory box (or a box like it, at least) for every home within the next couple of years.

Both hit stores on October 22.

[HP]

And, even if you’d rather buy a pre-made box—built-in Time Machine support for Macs is a good reason to go with HP’s, for instance—they’ve got some essential add-ins and performance tweaks to get the most out of your Home Server. [Maximum PC]

One of the most important additions is the ability to do “bare metal recovery” on a Mac from Time Machine. This means you can completely restore your Mac from the network backup using the disc recovery utility that’s bundled in. Also upgraded is the ability to do administration on a Mac.

There is also an included video conversion feature, which handles unprotected DVDs, as well as increased power (the 490 has a 2.2GHz Celeron and the 495 has a 2.5GHz Dual Core Pentium) and a “better” user interface. The ability to stream media from your iPhone or iPod Touch via a free app is included as well. And, of course, you get the standard Windows Home Server functions that we love using on a daily basis.

Preorders start today, but there’s no solid word on a ship date.

The $US349 IdeaCentre Q110 has 2GB of memory and a 250GB hard disk, versus the $US249 Q100’s 1GB RAM and 160GB hard drive. Both use a lowly single-core Atom 230 processor, but I guess they are tiny systems, and Atom is a requirement for Ion.

Each also has Gigabit Ethernet, an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi dongle, and run either XP Home or Vista Premium. No keyboard or mouse is included.

Meanwhile, the IdeaCentre D400 will start at about $US499, and support up to 8TB of storage over four hard drives. Specs include an Atom 230 single-core CPU, 1GB memory, Gigabit Ethernet, plus 1eSATA and 5 USB ports.

The company has had a bunch of new gear of late, including the IdeaCentre C100 All-in-One and IdeaCentre Q700 HTPC.

The picture above shows the D400 has four hot-swappable drive bays, and what little English there is on its Chinese site mentions 1 eSATA and 5 USB ports. We’ll let you know when Lenovo coughs up pricing in the next week.

Lenovo’s Twitter messages:

We’ll also soon be announcing the IdeaCentre Q100/Q110 nettops— some of the thinnest nettops in the world

More details to come this week but here’s a first look at Lenovo’s first home server, the IdeaCentre D400

[Lenovo via Engadget]