Okay, so here is my basic problem. I have several computers in my apartment with data scattered on networked shares everywhere. I want to centralize my data and still be able to access it anywhere from within my network, or even through ftp (not too worried about that though). I also need to be able to use whatever I get as a device for apple time machine backups.
What I have right now are 3 pc's; one as my desktop, one as a media center, and then I have a full-fledged MAME cabinet running off of another pc. On top of that I have a MacBook that I need to set up with time machine. I will also be getting another mac to replace my desktop soon, but if I get the MacBook setup then the new mac desktop mac will have no problem getting the same accomplished.

The data I want stored is a collection of media, and of course a time machine file.

My current proposed solution is to get a Drobo and hook it into the USB slot on my WRT610N. The only problem is that the WRT610N won’t read HFS+ partitions (which isnt a big deal since it will be a NAS), nor will it share via AFP.
An alternative solution that I can think of is to use my old desktop PC as a dedicated server and just load it full of drives. I would load a linux distribution on it and just VNC to it for maintenance. I just don't know if linux can do AFP file sharing.
I am trying to figure out how to do this on a slightly limited budget (aiming for below a grand).

So throw any ideas or suggestions you have on how I could accomplish this centralization process.

that would definitely be the cheaper of the options. all I would have to do is buy drives and an extra SATA card. but I don't know if there is a way to share over AFP via appletalk in linux.
I have heard alot about how the drobo "just works" and then it "just fails". So I am a little worried about the security of my data with that option.
I am still baffled on the best way to set this up. Maybe even an external raid solution?