True, they aren't designed to protect your "national secrets" from the CIA, but then the CIA would probably just water-board you until you give up the password. Our computers are designed for protecting personal and business data, such as medical, legal, and financial records, diaries, browsing history and online banking passwords, etc. It is security simple enough for your grandparents to use, but so secure you can still sleep at night even if your computer with social security or credit card numbers is stolen.

Our company, CodeLock Computers, provides high quality encrypted Linux computers/workstations. We would be willing to provide welded-shut computer cases. We can also do security screws, USB ports filled with epoxy, and hardware encryption to protect boot partitions from tampering. Best of all, they run Linux.

I have experience building workstations and servers that last. Nearly all of the ones I've built for customers are still functional more than 10 years after first install.

Experience counts so I suggest you use a system builder with a similar track-record.

The more powerful the system, the more challenges in building it to last. Many of the items on the check-list below need to be balanced against the needs of the customer, including noise, environmental conditions, performance aspects, and frequently budget.

Check-list for Building a Computer that Lasts

• Minimize expansion hardware. Expansion slot connectors sometimes oxidize so the less plug-in hardware the better. This includes on-board video, serial-ports if needed, etc.
• Use a high-end board from a quality manufacture. High-end boards tend to have powerful CPU voltage regulators and are designed to support lots of memory, which reduces memory controller issues as the board ages. They also tend to be the boards preferred by early-adopters, which manufacturers are probably more thorough in validating. My current preference is for Asus as they have the highest end consumer boards which support ECC for AMD CPUs. Make sure not to overtighten the mounting screws.
• One or two identical memory modules. when memory modules are mismatched, or with more than two unbuffered modules, when the memory controller ages you're more likely to run into trouble. Use memory approved by the motherboard manufacture. ECC is recommended.
• A great power supply. An oversized PC Power & Cooling power-supply is the best choice for environments that can handle a fan and noise isn't an issue. That said, quiet is very important in many situations, and PC Power & Cooling's Silencer models certainly aren't silent under load. For those situations I use an oversized Zalman heat-pipe cooled power supply I install a Noctua fan into. With that setup you don't hear a sound from the cooling fan and the power supply runs extremely cool.
• Hard drive redundancy. RAID-1 or RAID-10 is the only way to go for normal systems. A quality true hardware RAID controller for Windows, and software RAID for Linux. A hot spare is recommended. When using a software RAID, if you need to be sure the machine will boot with a HD failure, use a hardware RAID for the boot volume. A rather neat low-cost way I'm doing that for the next Linux server I'm building is using an Addonics duel CF interface that has hardware RAID in it.
• Plenty of cooling with quality fans. No sleeve bearing fans, and if the speed of any fans is reduced to control noice, make sure they can start from every rotational position.
• Use quality HDs and install them correctly. For the past several years Western Digital's high-end hard drives have had a perfect track-record for me. The most important thing to remember when installing a HD is absolutely, positively, don't over-tighten the mounting screws. Plenty of clean power, good cooling, and eliminating any vibration being transfered to them is important. Mount them as low in the case as possible to help keep them cool, and leave space between drives. If you use Seagate drives, server class is a must. In the last server I build, I did a RAID-1 between an Intel X25-E SSD and mechanical HDs so all the eggs aren't in one brand/type of basket.
• Good power protection. I've never had a computer damaged by lightening plugged into a metal-case Tripp Lite surge protector. Also protect the cable, DSL, and modem connections, and any non-fiber runs that go outside the building. Make sure you protect all network equipment too. Plug an APC Smart-UPS into the Tripp Lite and you have total protection. No other brand or model UPS has help up as well in the long-term. Dedicated circuits are the icing on the cake, but with the Tripp Lite + APC SmartUPS combination, as long as the outlet is wired correctly, no matter how bad the power is the computer has always worked fine for me.
• Put the computer where it won't get kicked or anything spilled into it.
• Keep the equipment as cool as feasible. If the A/C is turned off on nights/weekends in the summer, or it simply occasionally fails, correct the issue and design the equipment to handle the adverse temperatures. Getting a cold-start kit installed on the A/C tends to correct problems when it won't kick on on the hottest days. Additional temperature controlled back-up cooling fans mounted in the server room and equipment closets tend to prove extremely valuable too.

Before I get modded down I should explain.

It's not a traditional single flat-file, it's multiple ones.

A file system is a database.