Tom,

I'd like to thank both you and all who have contributed to this thread as ihmo this thread must be a contender for "thread of the year" contest. The questions you have raised and the quality of the answers offered have gone a long way towards helping me get my thoughts into in some sort order and given me some idea as to what needs to be considered when thinking of taking the leap into the world of HDD libraries.

I see that you have looked at Shuttle kit, did you consider a  Zen? It is small, cool and quite quiet with an external power supply, a load of ports and takes a wide range of procressors plus it should not look too out of place in a family room.