Putting together a file server

Decided to put together a file server for my media storage and thought I'd ask for any opinions/suggestions/whatnot before purchasing any hardware.

I love the looks of rackmount type case, so I decided to go with X-Case RM 400/10 CS v3. I don't need hotswap or I would've gone for the hotswap capable chassis (it's too expensive anyway).

It will just serve as a file and media server (has to be capable of on-the-fly transcoding). I don't have enough cash to buy all the drives right now, so I'm gonna start with 2 or 3 and add more as and when I can. Haven't decided on the drive yet though.

My options are:
Seagate Barracuda 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 7200RPM (ST3000DM001) - £39.99/TB
Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 7200RPM (ST2000DM001) - £44.99/TB
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB (WD20EARX) - £46.49/TB

Not interested in the Samsung Spinpoint F4s; I use one now and it's too noisy. So which one should I go for? Are there any other suggestions?

Obviously, the 3TB drive gives more TB/£ but I'm seeing conflicting information about the reliability of these 1TB/platter drives. Anyone got any insight on that? I'm not doing any sort of RAID setup by the way (I don't need it; it's just media), but gonna plug 'em all in and create a storage pool.

Next up is the motherboard. This is my pick: ASUS E35-M1. It's got 5 SATA connectors built-in, as well as 2 PCI slots, so I can add SATA cards later on, should I need them. Would it be able to cop with on-the-fly transcoding of HD clips?

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PROGRESS:

Final parts list:

• AMD A6 3500 2.1GHz 3MB L2 Cache CPU AMD A8 3850 2.9GHz Quad Core
• MSI A75MA-P35 Socket FM1 motherboard
• Corsair System Builder's Series CX430 v2 PSU
• Kingston ValueRAM 4GB 8GB DDR3 1333MHz 1.5v
• 1x Seagate Baraccuda 7200.11 500GB (OS), 3x Seagate HD204UI, 1x Samsung HD204UI
• Xcase RM400/10 CS V3 rackmount case

16/05/2012 - Ordered all parts
17/05/2012 - Case arrived, but waiting for a component swap from Xcase
18/05/2012 - CPU, motherboard, RAM and PSU arrived from eBuyer | Hard drives arrived from Dabs
19/05/2012 - Done with the initial setup, testing drive configurations
20/05/2012 - Almost done with the initial data transfer. With large files, I got an average write speed of ~30MB/s and average read speed of ~85MB/s.
21/05/2012 - Xcase shipped the 3x 120mm mid plate
23/05/2012 - Mid plate arrived, with no fans. So bought 3 of them, as well as another Seagate HD204UI
01/06/2012 - Swapped A6 3500 for A8 3850, swapped stock cooler with Arctic Freezer 13, added another 4GB RAM module
Edited by JCG - 6/1/12 at 12:42pm

I'll look in to it. The reason I'm not so keen right now is that it's purely huge video files. No one wants to pay extortionate amounts for 4TB and only be able to use 2TB, or whatever the RAID allows. As to pooling, Drive Extender was recommended, but I'd like to use Storage Spaces feature of Windows 8. From what I've been told, if a drive in the pool fails, only the data in that drive is lost, the rest of the pool is unaffected.

And thanks for telling me about the hard drive head parking. I knew the WD drive did it if idle for 8secs but the wdidle tool can change it to 5mins or something. D'you have an drive recommendations?

I've dropped the E35-M1 plan, because 1080p is what I have. Gonna go with A4 3400/A6 3500 + A75 FM1 socket motherboard. Thanks for the info on PCI vs PCI e too. +rep.

This would act as a media server to my PS3, phones, IPad and other computers in the house. For example, I watch films on my iPad when I'm in bed and the Air Video Server software can convert 1080p mkvs to iPad compatible format live, as I'm watching it. Same with PS3, I use Tversity to be able to convert these files live for PS3 compatibility.

Each to their own.

UPDATE: Decided on the drive - Samsung HD240UI it is. Which makes the final list:

AMD Llano A6 A3500 2.1GHz 3MB L2 Cache Processor - £55.28
MSI A75MA-P35 A75 Socket FM1 mATX - £40.66
Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory - £15.93
3x Samsung 2TB SpinPoint EcoGreen F4EG - £281.98
X-Case RM 400/10 4u - £82.80
Corsair 430W V2 CX Series PSU - £36.14

Total - £512.79.