Gamingphreek:
I have my reasons, my setup, etc.. This is what I'm using.
I don't want you to break down everything I decided based on a LOT of research, the way I wanted to do it, etc..
Staggered spin up - tekram areca raid controller fixes this problem. It boots up fine.
24 hds and 3 optical drives - the hotswap bays allow me to take 3 5.25" bays and turn them into 5 3.5" bays.. so I have 5 of these in the case, and the rest are used for the optical drives (and I might add a fan control later)
phase change - I decided it was not worth it, considering what I had paid for my CPUs to begin with.
Water cooling - just to squeeze some extra performance out of stuff.. and keep the heat low.
Gigabyte i-RAM: I honestly find that this makes my life a lot easier, and I longer have that "oh no, my drive must be fragmented, thats why my system is laggy" feeling. More of a "I'd like to have it" than a necessity.
The space - although I have said in another post that I required it (maybe 1.5-2 TB would be what would be enough for my work), truth be told I bought 30 drives of this type for about $1,200 CDN from a wholesaler going bankrupt.. I'd just like to have it in my system since I got them anyway.. I don't feel like having a seperate rig just for a fileserver, although it would make my life easier in many ways.
Drives cooling - they are hot, yes.. thankfully they are not too loud though, but they have fans all over them and places to go with the eat, so I'm not too worried. I'll report any problems though.
Ram - I did go somewhat overboard, but I'm sure I'm gaining performance too..
Blade servers - that's actually a REALLY good idea, I wish I had thought of it.. but I still got a nice huge cube to work with.
Actual server use - Only myself at this time, not 5 or 15 users. Just a lot of processor power, ram and video cards to make things work well.