Drobo
 

I love the idea of this product Data Robotics, Inc.

4 hard drive capacity, you can change/upgrade hard drives inside of it as you see fit, also, plugs into network for stand alone media server.

The price tag is high, are there any alternatives that are cheaper?

My goal, a standalone hard drive that I can hardwire into my network and access from all computers on network.

Thanks

small ATX case with a full system, log on via VPN or RPC, so no kvm needed.

Thanks for the input, could you please elaborate bit on the abbreviations used, this is uncharted territory for me.

from what I've priced at the Drobo, the unit is $499 (roughly) without any drives, so you buy 2 1TB @ $99, you're in teh $699 territory.

you can get away with a very cheap bare bones system with a decent CPU and SATA for the drives. the ATX is a small form factor, you can look at Shuttle cases. You can build a system within the $499 price range and get about 1-2TB of storage.

I'm not sure what you mean by media server, since it means different things to different people, but in order to get things to play on your TV if you want to watch movies, I spent $99 for a Neuros OSD connected wirelessly for another $45

This works for me in getting to watch media files from my PC to my TV with little effort and not have the PC directly connect or sit next to my TV.

VPN or RPC refers to the fact that one can connect the the shuttle PC remotely from another computer, removing the need for another monitor, keyboard, mouse setup.