Tranquil T7-HSA review

Ross Burridge Read more October 7, 2009

£339

Price when reviewed

For a product with such ambitious scope, we’ve been impressed by Windows Home Server so far. Based on the Windows Server 2003 R2 codebase, it’s Microsoft’s attempt to capitalise on the alleged 40+ million households globally with more than one PC. By centralising backup, storage and media hosting, as well as providing a web interface for remote file and PC access, Redmond is optimistic about its prospects – as are many of the manufacturers that plan to incorporate it into their products.

We’ve been following the software closely since its announcement at CES in January 2007 (web ID: 110679, 115852), and it must be said that it’s shockingly easy to use and contains some interesting and innovative behind-the-scenes features, as well as being very stable. In particular, the dynamic storage system (christened Drive Extender) that eliminates individual volumes and drive letters, as well as ensuring specified folders are duplicated over several drives where present – something we’d love to see in Windows client versions, as it happens.

Now, just over a month after RC1 (the first release candidate), Windows Home Server has been released to manufacturing, with OEMs looking to get products out in the autumn. Big names such as HP, Fujitsu Siemens and Sony have been bandied about, but the very first Home Server device has come from UK-based Tranquil – a company well known at PC Pro for its commitment to low-power, low-noise PCs, which are often engineered from the ground up to ensure they’re both silent and cool-running.

With its size and looks, there’s nothing “standard PC” about the T7-HSA. Its pleasingly monolithic bulk is interrupted by nothing but a piercing (perhaps too much so) blue LED power light, with a discreet power button and disk activity indicator sitting next to it. The only other break in the steel and aluminium chassis is at the rear, with the mini-ITX motherboard revealing its ports through holes cut into the casing. Given its intended use as a headless device (no monitor, keyboard or mouse), many of these ports – the S-Video, composite and audio outs – are surplus to requirements, as is the serial port: we suspect future versions will use tidier, more specialised boards.

In the event of the system failing, you’d need a USB optical drive to reinstall the OS (although Tranquil is still considering how to implement support for this in the BIOS). The four USB ports are otherwise there to increase the available storage via external hard disks. As it stands, you get a decent 500GB (resulting in 354GB of usable space) via the internal hard disk, but since there’s only a single drive there’s no provision for folder duplication, so one of Home Server’s best features is left unused. Given how easy (and cheap) it is to add a USB disk – around £80 inc VAT for 500GB – it’s the first upgrade we’d make.

Although it’s running tantamount to a full-blown version of Windows, the T7-HSA actually has a very modest specification, based around a VIA C7processor running at 1.3GHz. That’s not comparable with the likes of a Core 2 Duo at this frequency, but with the OS minimum requirements reaching all the way down to a lowly Pentium III, neither is it a problem. And while we’d like to have seen 1GB of RAM rather than 512MB (32MB of which is used unnecessarily by the integrated graphics chip), we didn’t experience any performance issues when the T7-HSA was in use. The only other bottleneck – the use of 10/100 rather than Gigabit Ethernet – isn’t a real-world issue, either. We ran three simultaneous 720p HD video streams to different clients (plus a stream of music for good measure), and were pleased that everything continued running without any issues.
What’s so clever about the T7-HSA, though, is what you don’t see – or hear, come to that. There isn’t a single fan in the whole system, with the chipset, hard disk and CPU all cooled by the case itself via heatpipes. With the hard disk the only source of noise (and suspended in a vibration reducing cradle), that makes it all but completely silent – particularly if you can find a cabinet to put it away in. A word of caution there, though – we did just that, and left files transferring overnight, to find it almost too hot to touch in the morning: you’ll definitely need to give some serious consideration to the T7-HSA’s airflow.

But once it’s installed, you can practically forget about the unit itself, particularly given the fantastically low power consumption: we measured a peak draw of just 20W, which isn’t all that much more than a standard NAS device. Tranquil PC also claims the product has a “zero carbon footprint”, with “offsets managed by working with responsible organisations that undertake tree-planting campaigns”. And while we take that with a fistful of salt (it only includes a rather conservative forecast of running costs over five years, and doesn’t include manufacturing at all), it’s a gesture more than most manufacturers make. Tranquil claims that more than 70% of the aluminium and steel casework is recycled, too.

It’s a good outing for the first Home Server device, and we can only hope that its competition, when it arrives, is as power-conscious and well engineered. Tranquil predicts that the final units will be available in early September at around £339 – which looks pretty competitive. If it holds, it looks like the company will be giving the big boys a serious run for their money. We’ll bring you an update once production units arrive.