Microsoft's much anticipated Home Server went on sale worldwide on Monday. Home Server is available through several Microsoft partner retailers, including Hewlett-Packard and Velocity Micro. Home Server hardware retailers will also develop offerings with Media Center pre-installed. HP's MediaSmart server comes in two versions - a 500 GB system which retails for about $600 and a 1 TB version, which will set you back by about $750. The boxes will be available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Bestbuy.com, Buy.com, Circuitcity.com and compusa.com. Servers will be delivered later in November.

Additional Home Server retailers are expected to enter the market in the next six months, including Lifeware, which plans to offer the Lifeware Entertainment and Automation Storage server. Maxdata is planning a European version called the Belinea o.center.

Microsoft introduced the Home Server product at the 2007 CES in January and released a SDK for it this past spring.