Hey Matt. I just wanted to check back and touch base about the server thing I mentioned earlier.
I put together a build sheet for a working server box on PC Part Picker, here. The Xeon CPU is going to shine with its application and we'll have plenty of room to add more memory if need be, though I started it out with 8GiB. The SSD is going to keep read and writes to the server itself nice and smooth, and if need be we can up it to a 250GB SSD on down the road (I can clone it over).
The keyboard is the one I'm using right now with my netbook externally, by the way. When I get around to buying the thing I'll have already bought my personal setup with its own keyboard and mouse and retired this little thing, and why waste money. The server will be running on CentOS 6.4 64-bit.
Now, the hardware's all sound, but we could possibly have an issue with bandwidth. Even though our main ISP, Time Warner Cable, provides inbound speeds of up to 50 Mbps, their outbound speeds even for business class cap out at 5 Mbps, which may be a bit slow for the server. I don't think their Dedicated Internet Access is available on residential lines, though tomorrow I could call and check to be sure. I'm waiting on fibre service just as much as the next guy.
While we don't have fibre, here is a press release from my town about the potential for Google Fiber to lay groundwork for our metro. Living here for a long time, I'll of course give you my two cents on it.
I have a really strong feeling Google will in fact bring their fibre service to Raleigh and its satellites. Why? We're right where the Medical Research Triangle is situated. The insane amount of really high-wealth customers that would clamour for fibre internet access for their businesses is too much for any fibre business to resist. I dare say Google may be on a time crunch with other vendors like Verizon to lay the wires. And, there's a lot of businesses outside the metro for Google to want to lay for greater Raleigh too – not to mention the sheer number of residential folks who work in these high-wealth money pits who would like fibre in the home. Forbes even named Raleigh and its satellites the second fastest-growing metro in the United States, and for good reason too. I'm sure it'll make it's debut around here.