We have needed reliable centralized storage for our network for years. I've toyed with configuring a file server or a NAS or a Drobo or ... many times over the years. I've finally bitten the bullet and ordered the parts.
A Synology DS214 2-bay NAS - http://www.amazon.co...oduct/B00FY6DV3S/
3 each WD 4 TB Enterprise drives - http://www.amazon.co...oduct/B00CYSYYU8/ (one for an on-the-shelf spare).
It'll be set up as a RAID-1 mirror.
It's a lot of money, but it should provide a great deal of peace-of-mind.
Why the Enterprise drives? I've heard too many stories about RAID arrays dying and at least part of the cause seems to have been them using consumer-grade drives. What's the difference? As this 12 page Intel pdf says - http://download.inte..._hard_drives_.pdf - desktop drives will try for a long time to overcome a seek error because that's the only copy on the system. If they take too long trying to overcome the error, the RAID software will assume the drive has failed and take it off-line, breaking the mirror. Enterprise drives have a shorter time-out period and work in different ways to return the data and mark the bad spot to keep the mirror functional. And Enterprise drives are built to tighter tolerances, etc., which make seek errors less likely.
I really wanted a 4-5 bay box to have room for growth, but I couldn't justify the cost. Synology has lots of models. The DS214 seemed to be a decent compromise among features, speed, and cost.
Why Synology rather than a NewerTech or OWC box - http://eshop.macsale...e/usb/raid_1/Gmax ? The reviews were too uneven for my taste. And the complaints about noise raised red flags. Also Synology has great software and lots of experience with getting the best performance possible out of NAS boxes.
Here's hoping it's not a black hole time sink the way the Buffalo WiFi box was!
Cheers,
Scott.