Logan, you should do some more NAS builds, maybe a lower end option. I want to build one but I'm not sure where to start. As well as what OS you would use and other OS options. The usual tek syndicate way.
Thanks! "colon right parentheses"
My NAS experience can tell you the following.
You need enough cpu power to transfer at the full 1Gb speeds, i bought a cheap NAS once that i sent back because the cpu was so slow it only allowed around 2-300Mb.
You could probably also buy a cheap low power pc and use a high end network card that can offload the workload from the CPU. But a faster cpu is probably cheaper.
For OS you have a number of choices, but it all really comes down to what you know and are willing to learn.
Windows, Linux, Custom Linux Nas OS, FreeBSD, MacOSX, Android.