Building a RAID file/media server

[fiskebent]

I'm pondering building a file/media server. Mainly because I've been looking at a Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) and also because I'd like my data to be able to survive a disk crash. If it works as it should I'll probably later add something that can stream video from the server and put it on my TV. Something like a Kiss DP-1600 or Netgear EVA8000.

I don't think I want to place it in my living room since it'll probably be too noisy. So I was thinking about sticking a wireless network card in it and placing it out of the way somewhere.

I want to be as flexible in the future as possible. That means being able to serve and receive all kinds of data - music, photos, video and so on.

And I want it to be cheap(ish).

I'm leaning towards building a PC with the following components:
Gigabyte GA-965GM-S2 motherboard. Chosen because it has on-board RAID-5 and on-board video. It also has an Intel chipset which I've read causes the fewest problems with open source OSes.
4 500MB SATA-300 harddisks configured in a RAID-5 array.
1 60 GB ATA drive for the OS.
Netgear WG311T wireless network adapter. Chosen because I saw it on a list of NICs that work with FreeBSD. Also because it supports 802.11 super G (108 Mbps).
I'll skimp on the CPU and get a Celeron D 331 since basically any CPU should be powerful enough.
And 1 GB RAM.

I'll probably install FreeBSD 6.2 on it because I'm somewhat familiar with it and going with FreeBSD saves me from choosing between a gazillion Linux distributions [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Is that an OK configuration? Will it do what I want it to? Should I consider running RAID in software instead and get a cheaper motherboard? Will I go insane ripping 400+ CDs to flac? And is there anything I've overlooked?

Also, are there devices out there that can record video from a TV signal in a way that'll let me put it on the server?

[Bremen]

I recently setup something similar (haven't got around to hooking up the cable/tv yet). Anyway RAID5 arrays are all nice except its hard to grow them. Also replacing disks can be a pain if they don't make that size anymore (you wind up with multiple paritions on larger disks and it gets to be a real pain).

I would advice using multiple raid 1 arrays and connecting them via LVM, or better yet use LVM to assign multiple mount points to each array (ie Billy Joel and Tchaikovsky are on the first array while Queen and Green Day on the second etc). Anyway the advantage is that while setup may be a bit more involved when something fails you have a much easier time replacing it. Just buy two new disks pop them in and take out the mirror of the one that failed. It follows that its much easier to add more drives to your system.

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Also, are there devices out there that can record video from a TV signal in a way that'll let me put it on the server?

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Look into MythTV.

[Freakin]

I also would personally advise building a media PC running MythTV. Get a mediaPC case and put it right at your TV instead of running everything through a wireless streamer to the TV.