I have a Media Center, Home Server, Xbox, Xbox 360, SBS and other machines in my house.  The under TV box hides the Xbox and Media Center, the 360 is in the bedroom and the home server (& SBS box) are in the study.  I learnt a long time ago that IF I wanted something like Home Server in the living space I needed it to look good.  This is one example of what looking cool might be.  There is obviously much more to Home Server, so visit the blog if this is a new area for you. 

More Hockey Puck Photos

Heh. Joel just sent me a couple more pics of the "hockey puck".  This thing is so amazingly cool that I just have to rant some more about it.

First, we commissioned Carbon Design, a local design firm, to dream up some really cool home server form factors about 2 years ago. After a couple of iterations we narrowed it down to 3 ideas: the cube, the slate, and the hockey puck. Carbon built us a few foam models of each of these as well as a bunch of cool looking renderings. These served us well for while as tools for illustrating the concept to executives and partners.

As CES 2007 approached, late last year, we decided we needed a working prototype. The goals were to build something that was inanely cool looking, stretched the envelope on size, and expressed the idea that Windows Home Server provides a whole house solution.  We re-engaged with Carbon to build a working version of the hockey puck. In a very short timeframe they created 3 working models. Each is based on a nano-ITX mainboard from VIA and 2.5" HDDs. Other cool features:

Windows Home Server Blog : More Hockey Puck Photos

ttfn

David