In your case with two comps....an External is the best choice. My point is that, it starts small, a few pics here and there, a movie or two etc....over time it gets ridiculous.
In your case I would probably wait a while then get like a 2 TB or 4TB external and partition it for the various things you save there.
Maybe this will make more sense...this is just what my Media stuff has grown to over the past 4-5 years or so...
http://i.imgur.com/aIGUHno.png/e To show you how easy it is to end up with zillions of files...pick one of the picture folders, and I'll post a pic from it. It doesn't matter which one. ;)
/ee Btw, the Created Date as you can see is: June 19th 2014....which is when I realized I had to switch from 1TB storage disks to 2TB storage disks. ;)
Go ahead, pick a picture folder...anyone you like... :D
eh not everyone stores movies on their computer, as the type of person who doesn't watch movies twice, i have no reason to really.