I built my last computer (the one in my signature) for about $600. Looks like I should be getting one of those refurb dual xeon things to speed up my slow assed renders (some taking as long as 3 or 4 hours) Anything elese we should know about these "server" machines? Will they be ok running the rest of my software (Photoshop, Reason, and some games?)

Brian

Hi Brian Personally I would built again PC if you know how to and really is worth it 

From personal experience I would go with X5670 or X5675  which are awesome CPU and with right Motherboard(X58 Motherbaord) and you can easily overclock to 4.2GHz,i've personally X5670 which is clocked to 4.2GHz and this OC has been probably my easiest which I've done,rendering is much faster than has been on i7-920 which has been similarly  clocked to 4.2GHz

Depends on yours scene,but my renders usually are in minutes not hours in Poser Pro and my scenes are pretty complex and have several persons and lots of props etc.In 3DS MAX with V-RAY this really depends as I said on scene,but render are faster than with older i7-920,tried last night to render with Reality and speed has improved as I'm getting around 200-260 kS/p which is good 

I cannot comment on the server boards or server as I don't have space where to put "blades" I would love to have few of them,but right now I don't have space where to put,but really depends on you

I'm using my PC mostly for rendering and Photoshop and I see you are using too Reason which is my favorite SW with Ableton Live,although Reason is best for me as I've learned my first steps in music production in Reason

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura