If I had the time and money (kids & life in general do seem to need both of those more than my computers) my current ideal choice be something like:
upgrading to gigabyte network speed and
0) building a *nix system in a utra-quiet case with two 1 TB drives in a full RAID configuration
or
1) A proper NAS with similar storage and RAID
Either way would give easy network access with proper security, along with less waiting for those large transfers.
I have no complaints with this latest upgrade, especially for the price and storage it provides. Just wondering how long 400 GB will last once I get going with media transfers....
*end rambling*
edit: USB 2.0 drives are damn faaaast, just transfered nearly 4 GB of data in nothing flat
Causes me to wonder what that never used firewire connection on my machine is capable of doing with the right equipment.