Home LAN server: old PC hardware vs. refurb. server

[M. Milanuk]

Hello all,

Recently my little home server (Asus bare-bones kit PC that I bought
used a year + back, Sempron 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 13.7GB HD + two 500GB SATA
drives, CD/DVD-ROM) took a dump.  It's in the local PC shop, but I fear
the MB may be done for.  As such... I'm considering options.  One may be
if the shop has or can get for a reasonable price replacement parts.  If
not, I may be shopping CraigsList for another old mid-tower PC again.

In the past (6-8yrs ago) I had pretty good luck with some Dell
refurbished workstations... so I started wondering if maybe their
refurbished low-end servers might be a better idea than a
run-of-the-mill desktop PC pressed into server duty.  Given that the
load is extremely *low* (primarily backup file storage server for 2-4
people) in this situation, I'm more just interested in the hardware
lasting a good long while without having replace parts and/or the
computer for the forseeable future.

Any experience or comments on the matter?

TIA,

Monte