Before I was hired, and we started using FreeBSD and Linux on the servers, the school district bought Dells and HPs. Uber-expensive servers with semi-high-end parts (at the time -- think 8+ years ago). They all came with high-priced support contracts (that have only been used two or three times in their lifetime). Each server was about $15,000 CDN.
Since then, I've done the research online and in print, and have hand-picked the parts for our servers. The original rackmounts were dual-P3s with SCSI drives and redundant PSUs for ~$10,000 IIRC. Clunky 4U boxes, but they did the job for about 4 years.
Then we replaced them with 2U dual-Opterons with more memory and SATA harddrives with 3Ware RAID controllers and Tyan motherboards. Used the same hardware in different cases (rackmount and mid-towers). Every server we have is now one of these. Cost less than $8000 each, have 4x the storage space, several times the CPU/RAM performance, and remote management cards.
This year, we started purchasing 5U servers to use for storage (24x drive bays) and virtualisation. Just changed motherboards, CPUs, and RAM. The RAID controller and drives are the same. For 5 TB of disk space and 4x redundant PSU (instead of 2x), we pay less than $9,000 CDN.
The beauty of going with custom built systems is that we get hardware that we know will work with our OSes (Debian Linux mainly, FreeBSD, and a couple Windows Server 2003). We get generic hardware we can service ourselves, and local support if we need it (mainly just replacement parts on warranty). No proprietary crap. No missing drivers. No hassles.
Our desktop diskless systems are under $150 CDN now, and have basically become applicances. Since we do our own hardware vetting, testing, and recommending, we get exactly what we need.
This summer, we're tossing the last of the old Dells and HPs, and we honestly won't miss them. (Especially the Toronto business hours for support.)
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