The Harmony Home Server T7-HAS from Tranquil is the first retail PC we’ve seen running Microsoft’s new Windows Home Server (WHS) operating system - you can read our preview of WHS here.

Other manufacturers appear to be stalling the launch of their WHS products as Microsoft is set to deploy a big update in November, which will change the installation routine among other things.

WHS is based on Windows Server 2003, but with an easy-to-use interface and some enterprise features stripped away. Out of the box it can back up 10 PCs, share files and folders, and stream media from a central point on your home network.

Nas drives can already do this, but where WHS gets interesting is when you start installing plug-ins that give it greater functionality. Installing a plug-in isn’t perfect, since you have to locate individual MSI files from the developers’ websites and transfer them to the box manually. But from there the possibilities are pretty much endless, since all developers need to do is recompile and tweak their programs for WHS - a Bit Torrent client has already cropped up, for example.

Tranquil has packed everything into a small, unassuming black aluminium chassis. It’s grated to increase the surface area. which, as a result, cools it down very effectively. Even after a couple of day’s usage, it remained only warm to the touch. There are no fans, but in a quiet room you can hear the 500GB hard disk whirring away.

It's a shame there is only one internal hard disk, as this means you can't take advantage of WHS's extensive redundancy features for added backup.

This passive design is achieved by Tranquil’s use of a low-powered 1.5GHz Via C7 processor. Along with 512MB of Ram (448MB after the integrated graphics has taken its share), it only just meets the minimum specification Microsoft stipulates for WHS. Performance was fine though and on a par with standard Nas drives, with the Gigabit Lan able to make full use of a Gigabit router, should you have one.

When adding an external hard disk via the four USB ports, WHS requires each drive to be formatted before it becomes usable. This is extremely frustrating if you want to copy across your files before formatting, but this is a flaw with WHS, rather than the T7-HAS.

There are no monitor connections on the T7-HAS; instead, you manage everything remotely via a standard web browser or Windows Home Server Connector.

The latter must be installed before the T7-HAS will accept an IP address; after installation, you can use a web browser to access WHS. Surprisingly, Windows Home Server Connector doesn’t support 64-bit Windows, which really is unacceptable for a Microsoft product.

A built-in web server also allows you to access files and settings from outside the home. Although UPnP is designed to automate port forwarding, one of our routers left it up to us to make the changes.

At present, none of the WHS help files or Tranquil’s documentation helps with this, so it was down to our own experience with web servers (and pointers from Microsoft’s forums) to get the remote access working.

We think Windows Home Servers should be small, unobtrusive, quiet and low-powered devices if they’re going to be left on all day and night. Tranquil has achieved all of this (we measured a 30W power draw when idling), but WHS needs much better documentation and an easier way to install plug-ins if it’s to live up to its promise of being an easy-to-use home server, rather than just an extravagant and expensive Nas.