I apologize for skipping over Roger and Bert and Kevin, but your earlier comments really have me interested. My brother in law (IT guy in Tx) and you are, I think, essentially recommending similar set ups, and often time when I have found two relatively unrelated entities saying the same thing often time will get my attention. Your post #44170 where you are talking about not spending big bucks and keeping it simple sounds very similar for recs he is suggesting--Server Vs. desk top---he says buy a good desk top made for business (functioning as your server), with either windows 7 professional or windows 7 ultimate--as both can encrypt the file system and run the remote desktop server. He suggested looking at factory refurbished workstations such as the Dell outlet such as the T3500 with the Intel Xeon X550 or HP z210 models with the i7 processors.--a system with 2 drives to mirror and 8 GB Ram minimum and 1 quad core CPU mimimum. I think if I am reading your post correctly this is very similar recommendations. I, like your wife, have to be frugal, my wife demands it! And I think one can still be frugal and maintain functionality. And as you can see by my logo, I like old hardware as well--1981 air cooled vanagon, 0-60 mph in two weeks.
