HP ProLiant queries

Over the past week or so I have been pricing up how much it'd cost us to build a reasonable machine for video storage from a cctv system. The price (although generous on the motherboard) came to around £350 (with just the standard RTB warranty on the components). I've noticed the HP Proliant ML110 G5 comes with an xeon processor and a reasonable hard drive for just £180!

For anyone that may have had experience with these, i'd like to know whether adding any additional components (HDD for example), would void or compromise the warrnty in any way? Most places I have seen this server at quote it comes with HP's 3year on site warranty (which seems too good to be true for the price), but Misco quote 1yr? Which one is more likely to be correct?

I've also noticed these servers don't come with any audio capability, so an audio card would be a must. Some reviews on cards state difficulty in physically getting the card in - is this the case, and is there any particular model or shape of card which should be avoided?

Lastly, are these servers reliable and do they have decent parts in (for the cheap price at least)!?

Cheers!

What about the warranty? Will it be affected by installation of 3rd party components?

I'd say yes, as I believe the warranty is only valid if proper HP components are used.

Even if just 1 extra hard drive is added and a pci card? I wouldn't be removing/replacing any existing components..

Reliability wise we have a ML110 and it has been rock solid. I would talk directly to your supplier about the warranty but I suspect that you would need to get hp hardware. We can chuck in whatever we want to our so long as its hp supplied stuff. We had to chuck some non hp stuff in one of our workstations and when I talked to the supplier they said it would be fine for the warranty but that may have been to do with our suppliers.

I would concur with the others... HP probably would be a bit funny about the warranty if you used 3rd party hard disks and memory (basically stuff that they sell). I suspect they would be fine about a soundcard though since it is less of a standard component.

To avoid HP getting annoyed in the event of a hardware failure, remove the 3rd party components before the engineer arrives. You'd have to do this anyway a lot of the time anyway during your diagnostic process, to check if it's a HP bit or a non-HP bit that's broken.

Just use what ever you want, thats how HP are making money on them servers, by selling you the 2nd hard drive at like £30 over the normal cost of it etc. If it breaks and its the HP part thats duff, just take out your extras and then say no extras etc. You will be fine.

As for expansion, I have actually discussed using the ML110 G5s in admin offices where they dont need top graphics or sound really as at £140 a PC, plus £60 for OEM XP Pro there a bargin really for the spec :)

How many CCTV cameras? IP based?