Final Thoughts
My initial thoughts when I took the CP30 out of the box was that it was slim, sleek and looked very cool. It is very heavy, but then you would expect that given the material it is made out of!
The CP30 was silent, I couldn’t even hear the two internal SSD’s running. As I mentioned earlier in the review, the only reason I knew it was switched on was because of the blue light around the power button.
Even having the CP30 on all day, and running through test after test, it didn’t feel hot.
As I mentioned above, it is very heavy, so make sure wherever you put it that it is secure, because believe me if it drops on your foot you are going to feel it!
Tranquil also have a 36 month return to base warranty if anything goes wrong.
Windows Home Server 2011 performed as you would expect and I had no problems at all with backing up PC’s, streaming media, etc. Tranquil haven’t included any additional add-ins this time, so maybe this is something they might look at doing, just to give it that little bit extra.
Price wise, the basic version of the CP30 (without any internal drives) costs £489.00 plus 20% VAT. As usual with all Tranquil PC hardware there are a number of options you can specify with the build (and each Riley is built to order, so it can take up to 10 working days).
In the case of our review, we also had 2 x Intel 80GB SSD’s, which added an additional £196.00 plus VAT, plus 4GB of ram which added another £18.00 plus VAT. So all in all, the total for our review unit was £843.60 including VAT.
This is certainly not cheap for a Windows Home Server, but then you cannot describe the Riley CP30 as a cheap Windows Home Server. It doesn’t look or feel cheap and it is extremely well made.
If you are looking for a very cool looking, and very cool running silent Windows Home Server then you should definitely check out the Riley!
There is also a CP50 model as well if you want something with a little more horsepower.
And if you want to add more storage, then Tranquil offer a number of Storage Unit (SU) options, which we will cover separately.
You can also use the many available USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports as well.
A very sleek and inovative design for a Windows Home Server. I could see professional custom installers using Tranquil’s Riley servers for serious installations.
A very sleek and inovative design for a Windows Home Server. I could see professional custom installers using Tranquil’s Riley servers for serious installations.
Why on earth would you want a SSD in a WHS box?