[kennend3]

There has been a number of solid responses but my two cents.

It isnt about the "form factor" - but the cost. Businesses buy rackmount servers because it is space-efficient.

Eventually they sell these off very cheap and unlike your desktop grade equipment business servers are built to last. while that 5 year old business server may be out of date for them, they still have plenty of life left and can be had for dirt cheap.

i have a multimedia server in my basement with 72GB ram and dual Xeon's which i picked up for around the cost of a decent desktop motherboard.

So in short. Rackmount equipment purchased brand new is very expensive, but buying old "end-of-life" gear is very cheap. The depreciation on computer equipment would put a car to shame.

[silicon2401]

Very cool points. do you have any advice for how one can get retired enterprise equipment?