What kind of system works best?

[Benjamin Suto]

If any of you recall, I sent a message before regarding issues with a
100 client-based Samba server.  After speaking with the company I'm
working with and showing them some of the replies, they are enthusiastic
about the system, and we're all looking forward to seeing it working.

Thank you for all your replies and for your help.  There were quite a
few replies, and I can't get a chance to reply to all of them.  All this
help I'm getting really makes me want to try and contribute back however
I can.  The support on this mailing list is remarkable.

One last question, I promise. :-)  They're willing to spend around
$10000 USD for the system, as they want the best system, since this will
be a mission-critical part of their corporation.  I figure that the
amount is probably overkill, but I'd like to spend the money in getting
the most fault-tolerant and reliable system they can get.  We're also
looking for a good disk subsystem with a lot of storage.

They use Dell as a vendor for most of their systems.  Is a Dell
Poweredge server shipped with no OS installed and RAID a good buy?  Will
the hardware work with Linux?  They're looking to have a RAID 5 based
array.  There are too many options with those systems, and I'm not sure
what all of it means.

Dell is their preferred vendor.  If there is another vendor that would
make a system that works better, and it's a compelling difference, I'm
sure they would go along with it.

If you have any experiences with hardware for a powerful fault-tolerant
redundant RAID system on the budget of $10000 or less, I'd be interested
in finding out what kind of hardware you got and whether you have any
problems with it.  

Thanks for your help,

Ben