Need a safe place to store and share files on a network in your small business, home office, or multi-PC home? Check out the Synology Disk Station DS209+, a two-bay network attached storage (NAS) box with a long list of features. Buy this unit for a about $450-$500 street, then slap in two SATA drives of up to 1.5TB each, and configure it for maxium storage or more likely for RAID 1 disk mirroring, where your data remains safe even if one drive goes south since there's the same data on both drives. The unit has multiple energy-saving features such as a multi-speed fan, suspend modes, and it draws no more than 32 watts, Synology says.

To justify the price, since you can buy two-bay and even four-bay NAS devices for less, including from Synology, you'll want to make use of the features: the ability to host up to 30 websites, automated data backup, support for up to 256 concurrent connections (more suitable for large orphange than large home uses, perhaps). USB jacks allow for adding external drives or a printer than can be accessed by all. The Disk Station Manager 2.0 software is easier to use than version 1 but still demands a bit more user expertise than, say, the consumer-focused HP MediaSmart server's software.