ext hd for backup/music/photos - shared storage or fw/usb?

I'd like to offload my photos and music to a common location for all the computers on my home network. I'd also like to have a convenient backup location for all the computers.

Any comments on a shared storage drive versus a usb/firewire drive connected to a desktop pc?

My desktop pc is always on, so I could attach a standard external firewire/usb drive and share it through the pc...very simple. On the other hand, I could use a NAS device or a simple ethernet drive (e.g. Maxtor shared storage drive) connected to the router. I like the idea of the maxtor solution better than the netgear sc101...no extra drivers or wacky filesystems to deal with.

One thing that scares me about the maxtor shared storage drive is that it doesn not have a usb or firewire interface in case I want to connect it directly to a pc (not through a router). Will the ethernet port on the drive connect directly into my pc's (or laptop's) ethernet port? How is the drive accessed in that type of connection (by ip, drive letter)?

If I go with a standard drive, it can go from machine to machine as necessary. However, do I sacrifice network throughput or cpu usage on the host desktop pc, while a laptop backup is writing to the drive?

Shared ethernet storage sounds good in theory, but in my case, due to the fact that my desktop pc is always on, maybe the standard drive makes more sense?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Gary