I think the early units had a noisy fan, but the newer FW800 boxes are much better.

They are closer to $600+ here, but it seems a great solution.

How about a DIY NAS Box ??? I use FreeNAS, and it has worked a treat for over a year now. I suppose the only problem there will be speed, even with Gbit Ethernet you won't be anywhere near FW800. But you would be able to select your fans etc... but I guess you may as well go with your own suggestion and build a new PC

I have never had much luck with anything with an external brick PSU, I just had the 2 I have fail on my mini ITX servers, I think they are flawed by design.

Cheers

Cris.