I don't run anything close to a datacenter, so this probably is not applicable to anyone with more than 20 servers, but I run my ntp service on parts attached to a wooden 2x4 (just because I can). It's an arm 800 MHz cpu and keeps very accurate time. Most of our DNS and DHCP is on sheevaplug style 'boxes'. They don't keep accurate enough time for me...

Really? They do? Crap. Why am I still paying for it then? They don't give their software away. It's cheap, but certainly not free. Even as a student, it still costs something ($60) for MS Office.

Yes, but you were also paying for that space.