That's quite weird. I wonder what smb stack they're using in those devices, considering the regular linux samba is just fine.
I've got 1TB HDD on a cel d 360 box for storage needs. It's relatively low power (for a x86) and sure is quiet (well perhaps due to the CPU cooler with a 120mm fan ;-)) This box triples as a gateway, firewall and web/ftp/mail server, too, so it'd just take even more power to have separate NAS...
I can watch movies from any computer in my LAN (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, MorphOS). smbfs has no issues. Gigabit ethernet ensures the bandwidth isn't eaten up by some ftp transfers for example.
