[X4U] External HD Reliability?

[Zane H. Healy]

> I have been running FreeNAS for quite a while now. My machine is built  
> on an old PIII 500MHz Dell "something or another". It has 4 disks in  
> it totalling ~600 GB. It has been rock solid. Just before I powered it  
> down to clean the dust out, it had been up for 283 days (it is on a  
> large UPS with a few other Macs). Before that it had been up for ~120  
> days when I shut it down to install another disk and update the  
> firmware. It is currently reporting 49 days uptime.
> 
> I have to boot it from a disk (and old 8GB I had on the shelf) because  
> it is too old to boot from USB.I have my iTunes and iPhoto libraries  
> on one disk; videos and ripped DVD's on another; and Apps, documents,  
> etc on the last. Configuration is easy from the web interface.  
> Accessibility and throughput is great. I plan on building another box  
> that will have a RAID. It will be located in my workshop (separate  
> building) and be used for backups.
> 
> If NAS is something you desire, this is probably one of the cheapest  
> and most flexible options available.
> 
> Dave

If I do a dedicated NAS, I want something that can handle 2-4TB of disk
space.  I've been considering something along the lines of the following:

Low-Power Motherboard/CPU
SATA RAID
Seagate HD's (probably 750GB drives)
Case with good drive cooling capabilities
Good quality powersupply that is very quiet.
Gigabit Ethernet

In the mean time I can limp along powering up my "Game PC", and booting off
the USB flash drive.  I finally found the screws to mount more HD's, and
have one or two more drives I can add to the box.  The main thing I need is
a way to backup my photo's to.  I've been limping along this way, as it's
cheaper than a dedicated firewire or NAS box, and actually puts the PC to
use.

I'm to the point though where I need more local disk space.

Zane