custom build computer for pictures and media?

[Bean Counter]

just found out I don't have unlimited internet and hit a soft cap throttle 

NETFLIX!

That's going to be a big issue if you chose an online backup and are transferring at on of files for last computer. If you want your backup encrypted, you could be looking at WEEKS to do your initial upload. Many backup services will mail you an external drive for your first backup, and you do your subsequent backups online. Personally, I don't want all my files out there in a 'cloud' somewhere. Neither is having a separate drive plugged in at the same time your computer is at the same time. A good lightning strike could take out both simultaneously. Then there's fire/theft. My backup method is an external hard drive that I mostly keep at work, locked up.

Your most important photo backup is a hard copy. PERIOD. "If its not a printed product, its not a photo" -Jerry Gihonis. I think Costco is the best consumer level printing service as the colors and contrast  tend to match my computer well AND they print on archival quality paper that won't yellow over time. There are other great services out there for pros such as White House but Costco is about as good IMHO.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11410506/Print-out-digital-photos-or-risk-losing-them-Google-boss-warns.html

Vint Cerf, the internet pioneer, said it was time to start preserving the vast quantities of digital data which are produced before they are lost forever.

Warning that the 21st century could become a second "Dark Ages" because so much data is now kept in digital format, he said that future generations would struggle to understand our society because technology is advancing so quickly that old files will be inaccessible.
Speaking at a conference in San Jose, California, Mr Cerf likened the problem to the Dark Ages, the period in Britain between the 5th and 8th centuries where little is known, following the collapse of the Roman Empire

[KFhunter]

Use use Costco a lot,  got some nice canvas printed hanging on the wall 

We like the canvas so much it's one reason I got a bigger camera, my old one ran out of pixels pretty fast printing large pictures.  Now I can print a huge one.

[Bean Counter]

Consider a hybrid hard drive system: say a 512GB solid state drive and a 2TB cheaper, spinning disk drive. The hybrid drive would store all your applications and operating system, but namely the photo editing application. In my case that's Lightroom. Since LR doesn't actually made destructive, pixel level edits on your photos, it doesn't need to actually write to them as you're spending hours and hours editing and cataloging.

Other things:

• Shoot in RAW. If you don't know what that means, shoot JPG + RAW, play with your JPGs, and thank me later
• If you're building it all custom yourself, make a few smaller test batches of prints before you make your first huge order. If somethings off, your monitor needs to be calibrated. Even if everything is brand spankin' new. You can't just put a $1,000 scope on a $1,000 rifle and expect to go out and shoot something at 1,000 yards. Need to zero and boresight.
• A 2-4GB graphics card would be nice.
• 8-16GB RAM should be plenty. You get to a certain point where it isn't helping you much anymore, but its so cheap its nice to not have to think about it.
• After you upload and put your card back into your camera, FORMAT it. Don't just go to "delete all." Take it from me, and Hillary, you files can still be recovered but formatting every time will help keep your card from developing bad sectors.

[KFhunter]

I called my ISP and did a little whining, they lifted the soft cap throttle and now I'm seeing the best speeds I've ever seen 

[dmv9]

+1 on the NAS. I've got a synology NAS with 2 - 2tb swipped drives. I've had power outgages and just plain old pulling the plug. Haven't lost a single file yet. Even when you delete files on the NAS, they are not really gone. It keeps them around. You really have to work hard to actually remove them.

Moving files to and from the cloud is going to take time. -1 on the cloud solution.

Max out your ram and make sure it's a 64 bit cpu. Otherwise the ram is wasted. Most systems max out at 16gb.

Good luck.

[david0]

USB 3.0 is nice to have for getting pictures off of memory cards.

[Bean Counter]

USB 3.0 is nice to have for getting pictures off of memory cards.

Man you ain't lying about that. I have a USB 3.0 and with a UDMA 7-enabled (ultra direct mode access) card its a firehose of dataflow!

[toothfangclaw]

Have you looked into making your old computer into a nas?

This should get you started. 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zcvU6EoKbaM