I sort of look at this like RDP/C vs LMI. Remote Desktop is the easiest, fastest and most secure way to remote in. But, there are a few steps to set up that for a well versed computer person is nothing. LogMeIn, however, is simple and you can't go wrong.
There is little doubt that a fax board can be a simple solution to faxing within an office, but even though the following seems simple, you have to purchase the correct one, insure that your server's motherboard has the correct slot (likely), install it, install the drivers, etc. If it doesn't work out, I am not sure how easily it can be returned.
I guess I am just giving another option. If one were in the market for a MFC, then it certainly would allow one to use it as a fax server. They would also want to know what specs to look for to make sure it does have a fax server and that it does fax to PC in PDF format.
As an example, we have a Xerox which scans, copies, prints and faxes. It has the option of fax server software, but we didn't get it, because we do have a Brooktrout fax board. (Confused yet). Even more confusing, the Xerox will allow you to use it's print driver as a "fax server" but you can fax to PC.
Now, to answer Boondoc's question, yes, the Muratec does have a fax server and does fax to PDF. The only fax server I have heard of that doesn't is the Brother. (And, I know I have gone round and round on that with users on here, and I want to be on the record that the Brother is a very good machine).
The Muratec is a step up in price but reasonable and is a work horse. My best advice on the Muratec would be to email or PM Adam or goes by LauerDO on here. He has only used the Muratec for years and can give you tons of info from experience.
Having a hard drive on the MFC is really not that helpful. We don't use ours mainly because the PDFs are all sent to the server. For some, it would be helpful.
It used to be that printers would come with 32MB of memory and you could upgrade to 256 or more. Now, they are starting to come with a GB. I don't think anything more than 256 is necessary and even that is overkill unless you are spooling multiple print jobs at once.
