[Discuss] Small Linux server recommendation?

[bencarr at bu.edu (Benjamin Carr)]

Robert,
> I am looking for a hardware recommendation for a Linux server.  Price under $500 ($300 ideal).
> What should I be looking at?  Shuttle?  Dell?

I am personally enamored of the HP Proliant Microserver if you don't
need "heavy lifting" on this server and power is a consideration. It has
a 64bit AMD Athlon II Neo processor, two DIMM slots (supports ECC), one
gigabit NIC, a four drive cage (not hot-swap), internal USB port, and
two open half-height-half-length PCIe slots. If you look around you will
find lots of reports on it working with BSD and Linux, many people are
throwing in a new SAS card, it's even VMWare certified!

HP's Website:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/15351-15351-4237916-4237918-4237917-4248009.html

A review discussing power draw:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/HP_Proliant_MicroServer

Review with all the schematics:
http://www.techhead.co.uk/new-hp-proliant-microserver-a-decent-vsphere-lab-server-candidate

It is $330 from NewEgg with a "throw away" 250GB drive and 1GB of Ram. I
wish they would sell it "bare" for $50 less but the don't.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859105954

As for a "heavy lifting" server I am limping til Bulldozer comes out in
~October. Whether I end up going AMD or Intel, added competition in the
low-mid range server market will hopefully lower prices on both sides of
the fence.

If anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them!
-Ben