If you have ever bought a server, you may know what its like to have paid $120 for a used Dell, with no RAM, only to learn the cost of putting 256mb ram into it would run you at $280 at the cheapest place you can find it. Many of the less expensive servers being sold are being sold at low prices for a reason. The ram they require is so expensive that it is more profitable to sell the server, that it would be to use it. I have had experienced in Dell PowerEgde servers, but I know people who share similar horror stories in HP, Compaq, IBM, Sun, and other servers with Intel Based chipsets.

This the same for hard drives as well. The dell I bought had a special SCSI connection special to the 2550 series and about 3 others. Needless to say, a single 36 gig hard drive would have ran me up about $130-$180.

By Now I'm faced with a dilemma; keep my server and pay the money, close to $700 for a used server (with minimal ram (256mb) and 2 36gig hard drives, NOTHING in modern computing). I sold that server for $90, and let someone else deal with it, it was going to make me NO money anytime soon.

When buying a server, remember the following:
-Check crucial.com for server memory, they are normally the cheapest.
-Even if it comes with ram, check the max amount, and check the prices of ram anyway, you may never know if you will need/want to upgrade.
-Check what kind of hard drive interface the server has. If it is IDE only, don't get it, you want SCSI, or even better, SATA.

If you have a server where the ram and/or hard drive is ridiculously out of a reasonable price range:
-Try to find the ram or a hard drive cheap off of eBay
-Sell your server and find another

It really is debilitating havening spent money on a server and not being able to use it unless you invested more than 3 times what you paid for it, and for what, a used server?

If your getting a used server, be sure just to make sure you can afford to make it operational.