Seeking advice

[Lancing]

I actually posted this on the QNAP forums as well as I did not know Asustor had Celeron boxes until this morning.
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Figured this would be the place to ask.

Before I get into anything below I wanted to say I've never owned a NAS and have never really even researched the topic until recently.

So I'm looking at creating a box for media and file sharing. Apps I'm currently looking at are XBMC and a Plex server and possibly running a gaming server occasionally.

This is where things get interesting, I'm looking to do this on the cheap (around $500 or less), I understand I'd need to buy an initial drive with an Asustor box which is fine. Options I've looked into are an Alienware Alpha, a cheap i3 or i5 box and this is when I came across NAS's. Now the majority I've found are seriously under powered but the AS5104T seems like it might be an option with a RAM update.

Any thoughts to the pro's and con's for different approaches and is there any other benefit to going with the Asustor AS5104T over a custom build i3/i5 box?

One additional question specific to Asustor is there any future plans to add a virtual machine type functionality to the box similar to what QNAP has available? I can see this as an easy bonus for running certain server software already available on Microsoft OS's.

Would appreciate any insight those of you with experience can provide.

[crazynas]

Hi
Ya!! Maybe good idea!!! But I don't think so do the same level is good choice.
Thanks!!!