Thoughts on storage devices??

["noel_pilot" <HA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

So...the moneys finally getting close to what I need for next stage of
HA server/storage and I need to confirm what I'm thinking is the right
way to go ahead.

I'm very much in favour of using macs wherever possible and with xbmc
on osx coming on in leaps and bounds thats pushing me further in this
thought.

My plan (inspired by this list) was for a mac mini and a 4 bay
firewire drive enclosure.  This would suit my needs certainly for the
moment and when I need to expand I could add another firewire
enclosure or upgrade to bigger drives.

There's a few tasks i'd like to have carried out by the mini including
radio recording on schedules, and possibly some x10 interface by Indigo.

My only other option considered recently is to move away from the
mini, just use a NAS of some sort and get myself an Imac for bedroom
use that could cover the scheduled tasks side of things and probably
the x10 interface.

At the moment I have a number of hard drives in a large pc case that
runs hot as heck and is a little power hungry, I only turn it on when
I need it, what I want to get to is having the movies and music
available 24/7 but with out killing me in electricity costs.

So....mac mini with a firewire enclosure still a reasonable approach??
if not anything else I should be looking at?

btw looking at the 4 bay firewire enclosures from span.com.

Thanks in advance

Noel


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