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

[M. Milanuk]

On 3/5/2010 2:30 PM, Wade Smart wrote:

> I have a Shuttle XPC for a workstation and a server. I love them.
> Dell work stations, I too have used refurbished ones in the past without 
> problems. I would do it.

That brings up one of the things I've been debating about... those
Shuttle micro towers tend to be really quiet, which would be a plus for
a home server (this one is tucked away in a study/office nook of the
main floor) vs. the sometimes howling fans of a regular 'server'.  The
models I had been looking at were some of the lower-end Dell PowerEdge
mid-tower units - T100, and similar.  I am planning on setting up
software RAID 1 using the two 500GB SATA drives from the old machine
under /srv, so having some space to work with will probably be a
consideration.

Monte