NASLite Network Attached Storage

I need a setup that will be scalable to 12 HDDs. I don't mind using a RAID card, if that's the best option, but it's not absolutely necessary. What I do need is to be able to configure the array to share as one drive. Does NL require a RAID setup to share all the drives as one share? If so, is there a RAID card that will support 12 drives?
I would also prefer to use SATA drives for cost reasons. I need to use 500GB drives and from what I've found so far, SATA is about $100/drive cheaper than ATA100.
The plan is to start with 4 500GB drives and add more as necessary. The purpose for this box will be to eventually store up to 750+ ripped DVDs. I can get all the hardware minus any RAID cards for about $2000, which is acceptable.
Is this kind of setup possible with NL?

what you are trying to achieve is tricky.

to have one virtual mounted drive you will need a RAID card. if you are saving that amount of data you would be smart to use RAID 5 + 1 hot spare which will give you about 4.5TB of real space from your 12 500GB drives.

However to expand a RAID volume i.e. start with 4 drives and add more to the same volume you need a 3ware 9xxx RAID card and Naslite does not support that yet (and there are no time scales for when it will)

What if I start with all 12 drives?

if you start with 12 drives then you can use a 3ware 8500 or 8506 on NASLite.

However these are older models that command a large price tag purchasing retail (i.e. new about $1000 US) and second hand no matter what anyone says they are rare and heavily bidded on.

I am having almost the same dilema this now and will probably have to move from NASLite to windows for hardware compatibilty/price point.

I dont want to but a 95xx works well with windows and allows me lots of of flexibilty + you can actually get them on ebay (ive been outbid on 3 of 8 series cards so far and i wasnt underbidding in any way)

I would still run a NASLite box and perhaps using it with the remote storage option which could be the best compromise solution for me this now.