Currently I have an old workstation (intel x9650 o.c. to 3.63, 8gb ram) that i'm using to host plex as well as backing up other family computers and keeping redundant backups of photos.

As far as storage goes i have a 240gb ssd for the os and then a 160gb internal storage disk for local libraries. I then have three external drives currently, a 1tb and a 2tb connected through esata (3gbs) and a 500gb connected through usb 2.0.

I recently started a trial of drive pool to make life a little easier by better utilizing available space and making only certain files redundant rather than everything on a particular disk. I currently have the 1tb, 2tb, 500gb, and the 160gb internal pooled together but i'm quickly running out of space as i'm in the process of ripping all our dvds/blu-rays.

I'm looking to expand my storage and my transfer speeds. As of right now i'm looking at getting a mediasonic 4 bay probox and 3 or 4 2tb or 3tb WD red drives. To connect it i was looking at one of these figured use one esata for the enclosure and switch one of my internal drives over to it (most likely the ssd since correct me if i'm wrong but i should get the best performance boost out of it). I would then add those drives to the existing pool.

So finally my question. Is this a decent setup for what i'm trying to do and should i take it a step further and make the drives in the new enclosure into some form of a raid to increase redundancy and/or improve performance? Any and all suggestions are welcome but i'm trying to keep this as a very budget build hence not filling the enclosure with 4 x 8tb drives to start.

Also since i know it will come up i plan on getting setup on either crashplan or backblaze once i have things up and running for a true backup of everything.

Thanks in advance for the advice.