ENTRY
This was the post that got me into the community. I had been eyeing a NAS for a while, but didn’t want to drop $500 before even thinking about drives.
Seeing everything laid out and proof of others having success, it made me way less nervous to buy used enterprise gear on ebay. So between that and another deal found via the forums, I ended up with all of the hardware I needed, plus 30TB of storage for less than the cost of an empty pre-built. I just need to get around to putting together my post for the completed builds section.
Preference for #1