Karl> * >= 5TB disk space Karl> * iSCSI, ATA over Ethernet, or NFS mountable to linux >= 2.6.15 Karl> *RAID (must survive single disk failure) and must know when a failure Karl> happened. Let me recommend RAID6 to you as well. Karl> * $$/TB is important. The most important? Karl> * Must be able to sustain minimum 10MB/s disk read on Gbit Karl> network. normally these will be big multimedia files. That's *slow*, are you sure you didn't drop an order of magnitude here? Karl> Yes, i know i can buy a linux PC, and slap in 11 or more 500 GB Karl> disks and do this RAID5. Something off the shelf, and easy to Karl> service would be nice. It's all a question of budget. Getting a box with a bunch of 3ware controllers talking to SATA drives in hot-swap bays might be the ticket. You'll get decent performance too, though not stellar. Software RAID can be faster, but the 3ware can/should insulate you from the hardware hot-swap issues. Should. Take a look at JetStor, or the ATAbeast boxes. They were around $14k/2Tb three years ago, so they must be cheaper/better now. What about backups? John