Get a multi-drive unit and put Ubuntu server on it.
Windows Home Server based products let you expand storage as needed.
NETGEAR's ReadyNASes with XRAID and XRAID2 have always provided easy capacity expansion and data redundancy.
A word of caution, before relying on ZFS for your important data, sign up in the ZFS forums on Sun's website and do some reading. In particular, search for "data loss". Read some of the real-world experiences that people are having when their ZFS systems die. And carefully read the Sun engineers' responses.
Then you can make an informed decision whether ZFS is truly ready to trust with your stuff yet.
... just a suggestion....
Where can I get Drobo-like features without using Drobo?
In other words, where can I get something that I can used mismatched drives an the auto expandability without purchasing a drobo( $200 for a NIC option is absurd)
Thanks.
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