[draftzero]

1. Would I be better off just having the files download straight to my NAS or is it faster to download files to SSD/Extract then move to NAS? I'm considering on buying 64 GB m4 Crucial (I think that should be enough?)

2. I'm going to be running Windows 7 as the OS, as I'm more familiar with it, but would I be better off running Linux (performance wise)? I'm not concerned with boot up times... I'm more concerned with reliability.. Basically if it goes down... it comes right back up.

My HTPC Build (thanks eskro):
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor
Motherboard: MSI 880GM-E41
Wireless Card: ASUS PCE-N3
Graphics Card: Asus EN210 Silent
Memory: OCZ 6GB

[WhiteLighter]

I would not advice someone to do a constant write/re-write/delete on their SSD (this might not be the case for new gen SSD but not really sure) IMHO.

If you're more familiar with Windows, I would suggest you go windows path. So that if something went wrong, you have more knowledge to know what went wrong and maybe fix it.

[eskro]

I'm more concerned with reliability.
My HTPC Build (thanks eskro):
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor
Motherboard: MSI 880GM-E41
Wireless Card: ASUS PCE-N3
Graphics Card: Asus EN210 Silent
Memory: OCZ 6GB

then, avoid OCZ

[Kirky99]

I would have the NAS do the downloading, etc.

I'm not a fan of having to have multiple machines on to perform one function. That's why I went full blown server instead of a NAS. I just have one machine on that handles everything I need going on, from getting content to serving content and everything in between.

[draftzero]

I would have the NAS do the downloading, etc.

I'm not a fan of having to have multiple machines on to perform one function. That's why I went full blown server instead of a NAS. I just have one machine on that handles everything I need going on, from getting context to serving content and everything in between.

I'm trying to move towards this... I got the NAS, as I didn't have time/equipment to setup a full blown server... now I do.

[Kirky99]

You'll be happy with it. Like "What About Bob", baby steps!