Connecting lots of hard drives to a mac?!?!

["noel_pilot" <HA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey guys,
I'm thinking more about my media server requirements and im back to
the mac/pc question!

Im fed up with my Windows XP deciding pretty much monthly that its
going to screw itself up and require a system restore.  (this pc
doesn't get used at all apart from maybe 10 hours per week just turned
on with xxbmc streaming files from it!)

So I need to find an effective, robust way to connect lots (4-8) sata
hard drives to a mac?!

i've heard about it being done with firewire but that doesn't seem to
be particularly elegant although if it works and is reccomended then hey!

any other ways of doing it?!

no specific mac hardware in mind, i'll consider anything even second
hand, for this number of drives i'd assume i'd need somehting like a
second hand powermac g4 the ones with the proper cases to fit the
drives and some kind of expansion card that a mac would accept?!?

Any ideas greatly received!

Thanks

noel