I show $12,100 for a bare-bones 4TB Xserve raid system at the Apple store. At AVADirect (random integrator), I spec’d out an equivalent system, same processor, memory, and RAID capacity, but in a humble tower case:

$2600.00

You’ll run CentOS (no charge or upgrade fees), with netatalk (no charge or upgrade fees), and you’ll have your mountable HFS volumes. Am I missing something here? I doubt whatever additional “stuff” you get with Apple is worth that $9500 spread. Unless of course, you’re actually concerned about fashion design for a back-room device.

Since you’re probably some small business owner/sole-proprietor in the entertainment business (not a tech guru or you wouldn’t be considering Apple servers in the first place), it’s unlikely you’re going to skip AppleCare support (add $1000), or X-Serve support ($6000 annually). Somewhere between that $1000 and $6000 you can probably manage to find a competent administrator to set up your whitebox system (maybe even do it yourself and save a bundle). Just don’t forget the APC Battery backup and apcupsd.