Tom, I just leave my PC on 24x7. I didn't bother getting a dedicated network data storage device. The PC goes into sleep mode to save some power $ but when I hit the power on my Squeezebox the 'Wake-on'Lan' feature wakes up my PC. It only adds a few seconds to the experience to get the music started. Adding a second hard drive (when it got to the point I needed it) to make room for media was a lot cheaper than a dedicated device.

I forget though, maybe you only have a laptop or another reason this might be inconvenient.

With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.