PixelHat

A RAID 1 is great, but to create it you'll have to copy all your data from your SSD onto an external drive, make the RAID on the system (will wipe your data), then copy the data from the external drive back onto the created RAID.

1. I'd recommend downloading Ubuntu for a personal computer and setting up a tiny NAS at your house. It'll allow you to become familiar with the installation, setup, and maintenance of a server (which is all lower-skill-required than most people think). One thing to note - if while setting up a NAS for your work, and you do royally screw up, then you can just wipe the installation and restart! Linux is easy to "get a fresh start" with if something goes horribly wrong (during setup mind you. VERY little will go wrong once everything is up!) 2. RAID expansion is difficult no matter the platform - commercial, private, server, or personal desktop. RAID setups don't like it when you try to change their drive setup. 3. WOA. That CPU will do it for ya. On-board gigabit will do fine, but if you're packing that CPU... I would probably look into 10-gigabit (cat6 cables, fancy network switch, the whole 9 yards). You'll have a realistic bandwidth of a gigabyte for anyone doing simultaneous reads/writes. Edit: That's great. That'll hold you for a while. Upgrading drives simply consists of copying your data to somewhere else, expanding the setup, and putting the data on the expanded setup. At least... That's been my experience with it. Plan ahead

I recommend the Plantronics BBP (my current headphones). They sound amazing and are packed with features. P.S The bass won't disappoint ;3

Make a minimal Ubuntu machine (SSD boot drive, a couple of WD Red's, and a gigabit card) and setup samba on a software RAID 1 setup. Easy-peasy and it'll get the job done with enough customization for ages. COST: Can be under $400 (GPU (you don't need one), CPU, and MOBO can all be scaled down a bit to reduce cost. Doesn't need to be a gaming PC). USAGE: Everything under the sun.

I would recommend setting up a bare-bones Ubuntu server with samba (or some other file-sharing protocol) and a software RAID 10 setup. You can cram in as many drives as your hardware can take, and it will be lightning fast. Security can be implemented in tons of different ways (it is Linux after all) A few things to note: SETUP: Getting this setup will require lots of elbow grease and a bit of Linux know-how. It will be worth it. The customization and support that comes from doing something like this is invaluable. DRIVES: I say software RAID 10 because that can be setup independently from the actual Ubuntu installation - you can boot from a single SSD and mount the entire RAID 10 from inside Ubuntu. The RAID also can be changed without having to reinstall Ubuntu or worry about the installation itself mingling with the data. Basically the OS and the DATA are kept separate. EXPANTION: Expanding the storage will be a pain (not impossible, but time-consuming) - go big or go home from the beginning with your RAID drive sizes. TWEAKS: Any tweaks you want to do to increase speed, reliability, etc. can be done by simply SSHing into the server and popping up an internet tutorial (with permission from le boss of course) BACKUPS: RAID 10 effectively backs itself up, however, there are tons (and I mean TONS) of ways to have your server automatically back itself up to an external source (a SECOND very large server with another RAID 10 setup for example). There is tons of software support (some are even natively implemented with Ubuntu (desktop)) for this kind of thing. If you want to use the native Ubuntu backup program, I suggest fully installing Ubuntu (desktop, not server. The difference is in the extra-nes). That way you get a ton of super fun tools, and you can easily strip it down to what you need by uninstalling things like LibreOffice. Its a matter of personal preference. HARDWARE: Hardware matters. A LOT. That means you need power where it counts (for a NAS): CPU: If you want more than 3 people *sarcasm* pushing files at a time, more cores will be important (look into intel's Xeon linup) NETWORK: Gigabit isn't even a question. You need it. A capable router (might be overkill), network card (just google "gigabit card". 10 gigabit for super future proofing and bandwidth if you really want it), and cables are necessary. DRIVES: The drives don't need to be insane. They do need to be good however, and a SATA3 connection to them is needed. I would recommend these for a NAS that operates all day. They're made to be on all the time. If you don't want to do anything of that sort, then I'd just buy a couple of identical NASs and tell them to back themselves up. Yeah.

You won't find one at that size + price point with all the fancy features that make gaming smooth. I'd just save up until you can buy a $1000 monitor with G-SYNC and other goodies. It will take A LOT longer to get, but you will FEEL the difference lol

Is it just me, or am I itching to see a review of The New Razer Blade (2016) and possibly the Razer Core? I'd also LOVE to see a comparison of the aforementioned Razer Blade and the Dell XPS 15 9550.