Hewlett Packard's latest upgrade to its line of MediaSmart servers, the ex485 and ex487, now supports Time Machine for Mac backups. These aren't simple network attached storage devices, slapping an Ethernet port onto a hard drive or two, but full-featured servers powered by 2.0GHz Celeron chips with 2GB of memory. The server supports four internal hard drives as well as external devices connected over both USB and eSATA interfaces. All its processing power lets the MediaSmart run its own software plugins, including support for functions like a BitTorrent client, local iTunes server, and the aforementioned Time Machine compatibility. Of course, there's also UPnP support to let you stream your media files to connected set-top devices.

Time Machine support makes us want to compare the MediaSmart models against LaCie's recently-announced EthernetDisk, which also supports the Apple backup software. While HP's server sports a more attractive case than the rack-mountable EthernetDisk, LaCie's server has a few benefits over the MediaSmart. The ex485 includes 750GB storage and the ex487, 1.5TB. For the latter, you'll pay about $750. The same price with LaCie will get you a full 2.0TB of disk space. And while HP supports Time Machine, the server admin software is Windows-only, so it only makes sense to pick up if you're running a mixed-mode network of both PCs and Macs. If HP can bring the price down, and work on its administrative tools, the MediaSmart could be worth looking into. Pre-orders start January 5th.

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