The cost of Mini as a server is quite reasonable - you extend capacity with fanless Firewire drives and you still have a server/media player that is quieter and more elegant than any PC box you will find. It's very good value from that standpoint. I have been running an Atom based server and even that was just to noisy and too ugly to be seen.
That's a very good point, and I agree...it'd be nearly impossible to find a quieter, more elegant server/media player.
That said, I'm not sure I'd use the phrase "very good value", from any standpoint...especially when you're adding the cost of fanless firewire drives (along with a decent media remote or wireless keyboard/mouse setup). Remember, you're starting at
$700.
My description of the cost of a Mini server as "outlandish" could be revised..."excessive", maybe? "Slightly unreasonable"...whatever. It's still absolutely bonkers to use'em as media extenders
Try 2 slim PS3's, each with a logitech bluetooth transmitter for Harmony remotes...or, I dunno...7 jail broken Apple TV2's, running XBMC? Why not...put'em in the bathrooms, maybe one in the litter box. The cat would love you for it.
I'm not sayin' "A Mac Mini Underneath Every Display" doesn't give me a warm, tingly feeling...I just wouldn't suggest it to anyone not pulling in a mid-to-high 6-figure salary
p.s. if you want ugly, you should see the 3yr old full-sized tower I've got stuffed into a closet, pretending to be a big-boy server...running like 3 old caviar drives, a sub-$100 GPU, and a very, very slow dual-core processor. Loud, ugly,
and a power hog. But, it gets the job done =)