Digital Home Thoughts: QNAP Offers 2.5' Based 8-Bay NAS

"QNAP has thoughtfully equipped its new SS-839 with an Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz processor, 2GB DDR2 memory, 8 hot-swap bays, 2 eSATA ports, 5 USB ports, and 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports. In fact, QNAP claims the SS-839 only sips 34W of power when fully loaded with 8 drives. Mind you, the QNAP SS-839 is also a full-fledge DLNA / UPnP / iTunes music server and is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux PC systems."

Some of us are serious when it comes to storing our files Being digital pack rats, we're always on the lookout for Network Attached Storage devices that can both hold an unrealistic amount of data and provide rock solid reliability. If you've ever done some research on NAS devices, QNAP should be familiar to you. Not content with an 8 bay 3.5" NAS device, they've released one that uses 2.5" (notebook sized) hard drives which saves power, energy and heat. Fully maxed out, this baby can offer up to 5TB of storage, but most would probably opt to use RAID 5 with a hot spare, or RAID 6 meaning that total comes down to 4TB. Sure, that is a far cry from the potential 16TB that its big brother can handle, but it is big enough to last at least a few months. Of course, most of us can't afford these kind of storage bays. What storage solutions have you found to be most effective?