Recycling Intel SS4200-E

I have an Intel SS4200-E (headless NAS):
CPU: Core 2 Duo E4700, 2.6GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Hard Drives: 2x 2TB WD Green drives, 2x 1TB Hitachi drives

I used to have Windows Home Server v.1 (WHS) installed on this machine, but the OS crapped out last week and so now I am looking into alternatives. I'm thinking about giving OMV a try. I use this system to backup my primary PC & 2 laptops, store family photos & movies, stream music and videos & occasional torrent downloads.

I have a few questions:

1) The system is headless (no video card), so installation may be challenging. I found a guide in the forums about using the serial port & putty to do the install: Howto-Install-Boot-OMV-on-Intel-SS4200/. I could probably make this happen, but it would be easier to install OMV using a different machine & then just transfer the drive over. Any reason why this is a bad idea?

2) There are only 4 internal drive slots in the case, and I'd rather not sacrifice a slot for the OS. The system originally came with a turn-key NAS package installed on an IDE DOM, which I removed years ago. But the IDE port is still there, so I could buy a new DOM off ebay for like $15 and install OMV on it. Alternatively, I have an old laptop drive I could put in an external USB case and use as the OS drive. I suspect that the DOM will be faster & more reliable, but more difficult to setup. Is this correct?

3) One of the great things about WHS was the drive pooling and folder duplication. Recovering my data was trivial; I just moved the drives to another windows machine, mounted them and copied my data to an external hard drive (which took awhile but I just let it run overnight). What volume management setup is recommended for the 2x2TB plus 2x1TB drives? Ext4 or XFS? RAID 1 or RAID 5? LVM? I have maybe 250GB of family videos & photos that are irreplaceable and must have robust backup. I also have over 1TB of movies and music that are less critical, but it would be a hassle to replace. PC backups will be maybe another 500GB

4) Should I use the 32-bit or 64-bit version of OMV?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm a relative linux noob, but am patient and can follow directions well

LOL, thanks very much. I ordered a usb external case off Amazon & will update after I do the install.

update:

I bought an external usb case for my old laptop HD, but it didn't work (in any PC). I'm not sure if it's the case or drive, I honestly didn't spend much time troubleshooting. Instead I bought a 16GB DOM online and managed to install OMV there. I modified instructions from the another thread: [Howto] Install / Boot OMV on Intel SS4200 In my method, I installed OMV using another PC first. It's much easier this way (don't have to touch bios for the SS4200)

For anyone interested, the method was as follows:
1) Download OMV iso onto windows machine. Install onto USB stick using http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/</a>
2) Install DOM in desktop. I pulled all HDs just in case but this probably wasn't required.
3) Boot from USB stick, installed on DOM following prompts.
4) Booted OMV from DOM (still on desktop).
5) login to root. Typed: echo ata_piix >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules (press enter)
6) typed: echo ide_generic >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules (press enter)
7) typed: update-initramfs -u (press enter)
typed: rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules (press enter)
9) exit then shutdown desktop. Remove DOM & install into SS4200
10) Assign static IP to the NAS from router.
11) Start up NAS. Login from any other PC using web interface & assigned IP. Done!

All disks detected and I'm currently building a RAID5.

Thanks very much for the help!