I can see the M processors being a good choice now, so I am wondering, is it sensible to use my 5,1 as a NAS, or just go out and by one? I figure too that with a slow and cool CPU, the tower will continue to do the job and last a long time. Maybe faster clock speed would improve the software RAID.

For a NAS, there’s no point in having SSDs … the biggest problem might be, only 4 standard drive bays. I’m not sure if it would work, but could the DVD disk bays and their connections, be used for two further drives, making a low cost 6 Drive RAID box?

I guess add a faster USB or thunderbolt card, and a faster ethernet … which closes the gap on buying a NAS which is setup. And which would use less power.

What do you guys think?