Mac Mini and External Firewire Drives

["rb_ziggy" <rb.lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think this may be a question for Phil Harris but input from others
very welcome.

I use a Mac Mini as a HTPC - mainly for (ripped) DVD playback.  Thus
far it's been a bit experimental but I'm happy with the set up now so
am ripping DVDs.

To date I've been using a NAS unit with 512Mb (after raid 1).  This
has been fine for MP3s, storage of photos and general personal network
storage for the family.  But not enough for DVDs at 7Gb per disc (I
dont want to compress the Video_TS format).

So I'm thinking of firewire (800) attaching more storage direct to the
Mini (in this case it doesn't need to be directly NAS as most duty
will be direct to the Mac and if I need further network access,the Mac
can act as a server). So looking for suggestions on SMALL and QUIET
external drives of 1Tb that I can attach to the mini.  These will sit
in a small Hi-Fi cabinet in the lounge so quiet (certainly no louder
than sky HD box) really is important (it's why I've a Mini doing the
work of the HTPC).

In my case 1Tb will do fine for now and 2Tb will see me for a good
long time in future I think.

In this case I'm prepared to sacrifice Raid 1 capability for shear
space.  If the drive(s) quit, I'll re-rip.

If I can't get a quiet local firewire HD then I'll have to go full NAS
again and bung them in node 0.  So any thoughts on the cheaper end of
the NAS boxes would also be welcome (i.e. I looked at the Western
Digital MyBook World II drives but they get mixed reviews on ethernet
speed, reliability and the bundled access software with its DRM).

Thanks

Richard