Need to build a NAS

[flyboy86]

I work for a guy who needs to consolidate his external hard drives into one system. He has 4 sata drives and 2 that are unknown. I looked at NAS but decided against it because of limits on hard drive size (example: 4 hard drive NAS limited to 2 TB) and because I could build a computer for the same price. So I wanted to know what kind of system would work best for this problem. Would a cheap single core work, or would it be better to use a multiple core processor?

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Could be tomorrow, or several months.

BUDGET RANGE: The cheaper the better. Would like to be less then $400, but I don't know if that is possible. Before Rebates

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Removing external hard drives from desk Transfer files (videos, pictures, music) to Mac G5 where he does all his editing and the like.

PARTS REQUIRED: CPU, Motherboard, Memory, Case, PSU, (video card, if not built into motherboard), and add-on cards

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: (newegg.com, amazon, tiger direct, or any others with good deals.)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: I would prefer to use a rack mounted case. However a tower would also be acceptable.

OVERCLOCKING: No

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Connection to computer would be through remote desktop. Not larger than 1600 x 1200

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Also there needs to be raid 0 and raid 1 support on either the add-on cards or motherboard. While there are 6 external drives + an OS drive, He would also like to be able to expand later on, so a case that was able to hold 10+ drives would be great. As for the OS, he needs to be able to easily transfer data from media server to his Mac. He has a copy of win xp pro 32 bit, but would something else be better?

 

[flyboy86]

Here are some parts

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103698
AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Processor

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131595
ASUS M4A785-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148163
Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811182062
ARK 4U600PS Black Steel 4U Rackmount Server Case with AcBel 400W Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815283005
BYTECC PCIe SATA II 300 + PATA Raid Card Model BT-PESAPA

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995004
ASUS Model U3S6 USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s Add-on card

The price is about $380

Would it be beneficial to spend $20 more and get a dual core if all this computer does is copy files from itself to another?