[TriLUG] Music Files

[Mark Freeze]

I am trying to get all of the music I downloaded from Napster a couple
of years ago and all of my CD's that I am ripping to my hard drive
onto one computer that I can use as a media server for my home.  After
all is said and done I'll have approximately 500GB of music files. 
I'd like to hear everyones opinion on the best hardware configuration
to use to prevent losing everything. (Keeping in mind that I'm not
rolling in cash.)  I know that a good backup system for this is either
too expensive for me or too time consuming. (switching tapes, etc...) 
I'd also like to know what mp3 app would be the best to handle this
kind of volume that I could also use for playing, cataloging, ripping,
etc...

Thanks,
Mark.