23TB of storage?! WOW! How big a SSD do you need for the OS and such? Some day I'd like to swap the raptors in mine for a SSD and add another 2TB or so media drive. My little case only has room for 3 3.5" hard drives so I have to prioritize a bit more.
During my research I found that the core i3 was the best platform at the moment if you wanted to build one from scratch. However, the i5 seemed to be a better compromise if you needed to transcode video as well.
I've got an intel 40GB for my OS, seen 32/40s for $69/$79 last couple weeks. I do commercial Skip processing and well for the extra couple dollars and they had just come out, and wanted studder free Bluray ray for sure, there were not reviews to read at that time. I went with the "5" 650.
Also to not take a drive space, I used double sided tape and mounted my SSD OS drive on top of my PS.
With all my storage in the rack, I got Norco hot swap cases so I wouldn't have to pull a case out of the rack to add or change a hard drive. At $110 / 2TB, I just add as needed. Actually I think I have about 3.5 TB free right now on the movie server and 3 TB on the WHS. I just buy them when they are on sale.
Waiting for 3 TB drives cheap, should be soon!
For everyone that has Windows: 2005, Vista, W7, Media Center is built in. Buy a $25 tuner for a test and check out the TV interface as a DVR ! I know we are all different with different likes and wants, but I would never go back to the Cable DVR and with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, DVD, Bluray, Music, Photos ...well (I know, I'm sortof a fanboy)
