it is better to build a
NAS , it will give you scope for future upgrades, i have 3 of them ,all build and serving different purposes. you can easily build it on a basic
intel p3 or p4, i have one running on a p4 with debian install , any server edition of any OS will do, you can install
windows server edition too, the whole idea of a NAS is to back up and be able to control it remotely, you can vnc to it or if you are on windows server edition then you can just rdp to it from the inbuilt windows rdp client. then you can install any torrent client even UT and control it via UT web gui or even from your cell.
build one , it is better and cheaper then buying one. you always upgrade storage and raid configs later on depending on budget .
Building by oneself is cheaper at first but they consume more power compared to dedicated ones as you are essentially building a full fledged desktop and it cannot be as power optimized as dedicated NAS. Not to mention the cost of Windows Home Server (If you are going to pirate then it's irrelevant) and the associated headache of assembling and testing R&D that goes in doing it yourself.
Personally, I thought it was not worth the hassle and space for accommodating a full PC cabinet hence I went dedicated NAS route.
Ya I also dont want to go through the hassle of building it and one of the main reasons for buying is to download torrents throughout the day without paying too high power consumption charges (80W for a
laptop compared to a 12W NAS).
dovahkiin,
You mentioned VNCing into a NAS which sounds just what my requirement is. Since my connection is a dynamic IP, how would RDP work ? Dont have any prior experience with NAS so sorry if my question sounds dumb