Overall "feel" for the stability of FreeBSD 5

I'm considering setting up a FreeBSD 5 machine as a dedicated
backup/archive computer on a network I administer.

I'm curious to hear some opinions on how wise this is.  I know
that 5 is still in a -CURRENT status and I've seen (and repeated)
the warnings that it's not really production quality yet.

So I'm curious as to a number of facets of its capibilities:
1) With the current developmet effort ... does it seem like 5.1
   will be -STABLE ... or do folks feel that a -STABLE brand
   is further off (5.2?)
2) For a dedicated backup server, that can tolerate the
   performance problems that folks have been reporting, and
   won't upset the entire office if it panics on occasion, is 5
   good enough at this point?

I know this is inviting a lot of opinion and conjecture ... but I need
some idea of where I can go with this.  These folks need a solution
soon, and I don't want to pass on something that's not ready yet.
On the flip side, the nature of the beast means that it doesn't NEED
to be a reliable as I normally expect a FreeBSD server to be, so
there's a little more tolerance than usual.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

-Bill