Not everyone wants to build a car from parts, but if you are on a car enthusiasts forum you are likely to bump into a few people who would build their car from parts. I have a couple of Seagate Black Armor NAS 110 devices that are pretty crappy performance wise but get enough of the job done without a lot of hassle. I bought a second one to hack on it and to try an add a couple features that are missing. I'd like Subversion, rsync, and maybe a small mail relay server. Building a full sized server is just overkill for what I'm doing. These little guys have plenty of oomph in them. You can get one for under $200. Understanding your audience is important. Glad you had another point of view.

XKCD http://xkcd.com/435/ covered this awhile ago...