Looking for a prebuilt rackmount server

[teddymines]

One role I have yet to fill is having a media server. It doesn't have to be a very powerful machine, but I would like to find a rackmount server that has a lot of disk capacity. It would likely run Windows 7 and serve up files from its Library to an Xbox and other machines on a gigabit home network.

I am considering a rackmount because some on ebay are fairly inexpensive, and I have a data center rack in my basement. The only catch is that I'd like to put a bunch of SATA drives either inside it, or connected as external.

Can someone consider a brand and model that will do what I'm looking to achieve?

 

[tsnor]

For whatever rack mount server you choose make sure you can live with the sound of the fans. Rack mount is generally not in the same room as people. When used as an HTPC fan noise can be a huge bummer.

Look also at 'windows home server' as an alternative to win7 for your file server. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx There are also solid Linux distributions for use as stand alone NAS servers.

 

[teddymines]

For whatever rack mount server you choose make sure you can live with the sound of the fans. Rack mount is generally not in the same room as people. When used as an HTPC fan noise can be a huge bummer.

Look also at 'windows home server' as an alternative to win7 for your file server. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx There are also solid Linux distributions for use as stand alone NAS servers.

Right. It will be in an area away from people.

Still looking for a decent brand and model...anyone?