Daniel,

> I know hard-drives are cheap and 16GB is not
> much nowadays for todays hard-drives, but imagine if the
> regional databases
> are 20GB each(for the same scenario the server would have to
> be able to handle 160GB of file storage).

Let me give you any idea of how cheap.

I just purchased a dual P3-1.4Ghz cpu unit with 1Gb of RAM, Mylex dual
channel controller with 32Mb of cache, a 36Gb boot drive and 4x73Gb (all
HDs are Ultra 160/SCSI III) -- providing 220Gb of usage disk storage.

All for the low price of $9,810 CDN (About $6,500 USD)!!


Sean