A few thoughts...
the above link still is not free shipping...it is 19.99 for shipping. 220.00 shipped
That may be their "handling" charge, not actual shipping - this box is too big/heavy for shipping to be $20 (IMHO).
This is a small server - only two drive bays - for Windows Home Server you'd probably want a system with more drive bays (though eSATA ports could be added to use external, high-speed storage).
This machine has no Operating System (at the $199 price-point), adding a Microsoft O/S will add between $75 and $200, depending on the desktop O/S you choose (WinXP/Home would be about $75 - Vista Ultimate is about $200, IIRC).
The graphics on this machine are "server grade" - to use this as a desktop, you'll want to add a PCI-Express video card that can work with one of the included PCI-Express slots (1x, 4x, or 8x) - a 16x card may work, but with reduced bandwith and likely degraded performance.
The memory these machines take is ECC server memory, which is about twice as expensive as desktop memory - <a href="http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=PowerEdge%20SC440">Crucial.com has the RAM for this at about $70 for a 2 Gig Kit</a> (this system takes 4 Gig total), and 512 Meg is not much RAM for a desktop O/S like Windows.
If you really want a simple desktop, the Dell Vostros are good deals and start at about $299 with O/S, keyboard/mouse, and better graphics.
This machine is *perfect* for someone that plans on working with, say, a trial version of an MS server O/S to learn about the software (Win Server 2003 or Win Server 2008, 32 or 64-bit) OR an Open Source O/S like Ubuntu, Fedora, or other... Once you start adding to this machine you really need to look at what you are hoping for.
If you want more RAM/CPU, before adding $100 for a CPU upgrade and another $100 for a RAM upgrade, consider the <a href="http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/pedge_t105?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd">Dell PowerEdge T105</a>, currently on sale for $350 with 1 Gig RAM, dual 160 Gig SATA drives and a dual-core (single socket) Opteron CPU. (Don't forget to add the $0 option of a SATA DVD reader, the default config has no optical drive included).
I wish I had a need for such a box, but I actually need to get rid of systems, not get more ;^)
