Reddit mentions of Lenovo IX2 2-Bay Diskless Network Storage (70A69003NA)

This Lenovo/IOMEGA NAS plus two 2 TB WD Reds set me back about $300 USD

Here's the NAS on Amazon

Here's the 2TB WD Reds

The Buffalo ones are nice; not too expensive but good features and interface, I use one at work.

At home I got started with this one: Lenovo IX2 2-Bay Diskless Network Storage (70A69003NA)

It's been great so far, it was cheap at the time and is solid. My only regret is that with only two days I don't have much upgrade room.

The best option for having network storage be backed up is to use a NAS device which is capable of mirrored RAID; with this solution, all data is stored on the device is written to two drives rather than one (unlike Time Machine in which your computers actively compute copies of each file to transfer).

Some examples of NAS enclosures capable of mirrored RAID are the Lenovo IX2, Synology Disk Station, and Buffalo LinkStation Pro. In all cases, you can choose two of any drive which conforms to your sizing needs.

Any further questions, don't hesitate!

I definitely considered this HTPC build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type|Item|Price

----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor | $140.14 @ Amazon
Motherboard | ECS H81H3-I/HDMI (V1.0) Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard | $56.99 @ Mwave
Memory | *Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory | $47.73 @ NCIX US
Storage | Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive | $82.11 @ Amazon
Case | Antec ISK 300-150 Mini ITX Desktop Case w/150W Power Supply | $78.24 @ Mwave
Other| Windows 8.1| Purchased
| | Total
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $405.21
| *Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria |

And this NAS unit with one 3TB WD Green to start with. I'm still not sure if that would be better or worse, and it would come in at around the same price.

My home layout has the router necessarily located in my entertainment center, so the only options for "hiding the server" would be to go wireless or running a long wire, neither of which are great. I'd also like to be able to serve multiple 1080p transcodes simultaneously, so I'm very wary of dropping the server CPU.