Simple network storage question

[Pyoroi]

Currently I have an HTPC setup with 1TB of storage. The case that I have does not have anymore room for hard drives, so I'm looking into making a simple storage PC that is accessible by my HTPC over a wired network.
These are my current ideas for my system:

Rosewill R6426-P BK ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Link to Newegg

GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Link to Newegg

Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply
Link to Newegg

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor Model ADH5050DOBOX
Link to Newegg

OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Link to Newegg

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Link to Newegg
2 of these in Raid 1

My biggest concern is the hard drives, Ive read before that you need a specific type of hard drive for a raid. I don't know much about raid, and have never set one up, so any tips are welcome.

Is this system good enough so that my HTPC can access the movies and play them (some TV shows are HD as I have a Tivo like setup)? The files are all ISO or AVI, and will be played through XBMC. Keep in mind this isn't meant to be a top of the line system, most of the parts are in this list because they are cheap. Also its going to be in a standby state when not in use.

 

[4745454b]

Lets do this step by step.

Ive read before that you need a specific type of hard drive for a raid.

Not true. You can raid any drives together. Its best if they are the same speed and size, although you don't HAVE to. You'll get some wierd results if you do, but its possible. Like with server chips, server drives are simply better built (or better tested) drives so they are less likely to fail.

I don't know much about raid, and have never set one up, so any tips are welcome.

In which case I suggest doing a lot of reading. I wouldn't bother with RAID, not for what you want.

Is this system good enough so that my HTPC can access the movies and play them (some TV shows are HD as I have a Tivo like setup)?

You might want to upgrade your LAN to gigabit speeds if you haven't already. If you try to stream HD over 100Mb you can get hickups every now and then.

I personally would try to get a NAS solution. Plug it into your LAN, and all computers can get to it. Probably cheaper to buy and run as well.

 

[arson94]

I agree with 4745454b. I have a linux box at home setup as a simple fileshare that just has several SATA I drives not in raid on a gigabit connection to my home network and it works great. I don't see a use for RAID in this situation unless you really just want a mirror copy of everything. If RAID is a necessity, then any two drives of same size and speed should do just fine just like 4745454b said.

Your hardware should be more than enough to run a NAS as mine is only a single core piece of *** that i couldn't run Windows XP on right now if I wanted too lol...

 

[Pyoroi]

Im doing a raid in order to mirror my information as not to lose it, just incase. Ive had several drives fail on me in the past year, and the reason im building this box is that the NAS solutions that you can purchase seem over priced for what they do, and very little storage, unless your willing to fork out a thousand bucks for one.

 

[arson94]

Yea NAS's are expensive to me too. Just get multiple drives of the same drive and you'll be good to go.