We Got Served

Back in September, when we reviewed Tranquil PC’s first Windows Home Server unit, the T7-HSA we loved its small, compact size which came with one big headache - a single internal drive and the lack of expansion options other than the use of external USB hard drives - which defeated the purpose of having such a small and neat solution on the first place.

Up in Manchester, Tranquil’s designers have been working on a solution for the past few months, and in March, the company will release the T7-HDX Home Server Extender, which is a storage expansion module designed specifically for the T7-HSA, but can be used with a wide range of home servers with eSATA ports.

The T7-HDX slides on to the T7-HSA’s chassis to form one integral unit, and can be configured at purchase with a range of storage options, which are managed via an internal port multiplier.

The T7-HDX will be shortly available in two configurations, 2 x 500Gb drives or 2 x 1Tb drives - both configurations utilise Western Digital Green Power drives for silent running and low power consumption, which is further aided by the drives being cooled to the aluminium chassis via Tranquil’s heat pipe cooling system. The Port Multiplier provides options to configure the drives as 2 x individual disks (default), one large disk or a RAID 1 array (our advice would be to leave it in its default setting and let WHS do the mirroring work for you via Folder Duplication).

Up to 4 T7-HDX units can be attached to a single T7-HSA Home Server, providing up to 9Tb of storage, should you need it. An eSATA port is also provided for use with other home server models.

As usual with Tranquil PC’s hardware, power consumption is low, with each unit running at 11 watts (idle but spinning drives). Maximum power consumption is 18 watts, and acoustics run at 21 dBA which doubles the (very low) noise output of the standard T7-HSA Home Server.

The T7-HDX can also be used as standard external storage, so should you be seeking an external/offsite server backup solution in time for the launch of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, this could fit the bill.

Availability and Pricing

The T7-HDX will be pre-ordering soon from the Tranquil PC website, with a full launch set for March 2008. Pricing is as follows:

The T7-HDx 2X5 (1TB): £249.00 (+VAT)
The T7-HDx 2X1 (2TB): £449.00 (+VAT)

Discounts will be made available to existing T7-HSA owners upon release.

Stay tuned to We Got Served for a review in the next few weeks as soon as we get hold of the hardware. This is a very neat design solution to the T7-HSA’s achilles heel, so we’re looking forward to seeing it in the metal. 

More Info: Tranquil PC | Discuss