What the OP discusses is a common trait of the Millennial generation (basically anybody born around 1982 or later). There's plenty of research out there to show that this generation, while more civically minded, is also has a much greater sense of entitlement than ever seen before. A quick rise to the top, frequent feedback, and always looking for something better are all traits of this generation. You may want to read "The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace" by Ron Alsop, or "Millennials Incorporated" by Lisa Orrell for more information about how this generation is going to change the way business is done (or not done).

The Sun 1U servers are great products for clusters. Last year our research group purchased around 72 v60x's (dual Xeons) and they've never given us a problem. Sun doesn't sell this model anymore as they've pretty much dropped Intel for AMD, but they run Linux with ClusterMatic just fine. Not only that, but Sun has the best techincal support I've ever encountered, I don't mind when we do need to call them up to fix something.
Besides that, we also have several clusters of midsized towers from a local company, which have the benefit of being able to be used as desktop machines when the cluster gets replaced.