Build your own NAS or purchase one?

[SonicPet07]

So this is my first post... YEAH!!!

Ok now that that is out of the way onto the question. I'm looking at doing one of 2 things. Either I'm going to get a NAS, or I'm going to build my own. The question is I'm not sure what would be the best use of my money.

There's is about half a dozen machines on my network that I'd like to be able to back up and stream 720p video around potentially at the same time. I'd like something capable of handling Multiple users at the same time (2 maybe 3 at once), and ultimately full Blu-ray rips. Because of the large amount of photos, music, video, etc I'm looking at a 4 drive system.

I've considered picking up a Drobo FS or building my own. I'd like something easy to use, with support for 1 maybe 2 drive redundancy, and the ability to take differing drives. I have some 2TB Seagate and Western Digital drives that I'd like to take out of my Primary Gaming PC and use there. It's a power hog that puts out more heat then a good space heater. Ideas?

As a side note, if I were to build my own, would it be worth also making it a HTPC attached to my HDTV and let it handle the task of the Data storage? I've been considering building a super low power machine strictly for the task of replacing my Cable DVR and leaving online 24/7. Would It be worth killing 2 birds with one stone? Or should I keep these 2 ideas separate?

Thanks in advance and if you have any questions just ask. I my not have gotten all my thoughts across very clearly.

 

[stevech]

For me, I look at the features in the NASes like Synology and QNAP. Look at their on-line demos.

If you don't want those features, and just want a file server, may as well just use folder shares on Windows or SMB on Linux.

I think those features are the value-add in the diskless NAS boxes.