I don't think he meant to setup an HTPC, I think he actually want's a 'home server' - as in a server at his home for storing content to be accessed by various devices, an actual NAS! Correct me if I'm wrong Jamerican.
I would assume that you may have a set top box(es) of some sort (applet tv, roku or xbox to be used as a media player), other PCs and/or mobile devices that you would like to access all your data, music, videos etc from a single repository. The reason for several disks for redundancy (which I can understand since I've lost many photos, music etc that were dear to me and felt like I was going to die). My only question is why so much space? But that's a question only you alone could answer... some ehm... porn collection
JK
So yeah, if you we are to assume that you truly need 24 - 32GB (or 12 - 16GB in raid) of storage then working backwards to fit the build would look like what we initially recommended:
- Processor(s) - Xeon processor(s) to handle the load of managing all that data; and board to support it (i'd go with a server m/board with 2 cpu slots)
- RAM - 16 Gbs or more ram (you can do further research for the recommended ratio of RAM to TB storage) and remember to purchase unbuffered (server) memory
- Large Server case with that many 2.5" bays
- A decent PSU
- Your six to eight 4TB hard drives!
- Linux or Windows OS - At this point Freenas would need more than Freenas to maintain your files, I mean with this much **** to manage you would need a full OS.
- and finally link with an electrician to turn down yu light
P.S. 4TB hard drives cost ~$180 a pop, multiplied by six we've blown sir's $1,000 max budget on HDDs only!
So realistically speaking, I mean we could be of better help knowing how much storage you really need and what you'll be using the server to do... No hard feelings btw, just trying to help since I've been here before (multiple times).