What would you do for a small system with these features

I would get a nice Atom powered system for about $350, add a 4 port card or gateway for about $250, install CE and be done with it.

If you're on a budget, for the same price as the Atom powered system Kerry is talking about, you can get a Dell T100 server (on sale right now for $329 with 2-250GB Sata HDD). They are pretty nice, inexpensive, and I have had no issues installing with OpenVox T1 and analog cards.

I would also get an Airlink 8 port switch w/ 4 POE ports for about $65. Not really for a hardcore environment, but I have a few of these running with "test" systems and one at home and one I take with me for demos. It's just so much nicer to not have even more power cords then are already coming from a comptuer/monitor and everything else you might have close to your phone.

I have dealt with Dan at 888Voipstore and he has bent over backwards for me when I needed it, so go ahead and go with the phones from Kerry and support those guys.

Also, if you need a need a 4 port card for your CO lines, PM me, I have plenty of OpenVox products and they are nicely priced...especially for my friends on the trixbox forum. I'll definitely beat Kerry's ballpark figure for you.

Also, if you are going to have a connection to the internet either for remote access (VPN), or VoIP trunks, I really like the Secure Computing Snapgear firewall appliances. They are affordable and really slick. For one internet connection go with the 300 model and for 2 internet connections with policy routing/failover go with the 560 model. I have found the best pricing on these from l4networks.com and the sales guy I have spoken with is very knowledgeable and really nice.

One last thing that some newbies overlook...UPS. I would not even think about putting any of this equipment on commercial power with a Wal-mart power strip. Costcentral.com has almost every manufacturer of UPS imaginable at good pricing. Power conditioning to avoid spikes and sags is important for the longevity of your servers power supply, and having some battery time during a momentary power out is always nice.

If you don't want any of the hassle you could always go with a Atom based bailout with an R4FXO-EC which is tested and ready to go

http://shop.rhinoequipment.com/product_info.php/cPath/25/products...

Just sayin :)

But it might be better off just to buy a built box. Several on ebay but I am not sure what to get. This is for a friend, if it was me I would do an enterprise Trixbox again. Seems nice, looks cute and snazy but when you pop open the box it's nothing more that a basic computer, running raid with redundant power supplies. Sagnoma card with echo for the pri and backup copper lines. My friend has a budget so all of this is just moot. Like I said previously he was thinking Talkswitch..... I have an old 48xs I was going to give him but I think he is better off with a real system. Thanks for the comments. If someone here has a used box with it up and running we may want o consider that also. He is cheaper than I am.

wrc1045, if all you want is a cheap box, I have about 6 Optiplex GX280's that I use for different testing environments and I actually have my home setup running on one of these. I got them off Ebay for about $80 each. They have SATA hard drives which are very cheap now, so you could have two hard drives and run software raid. I got a gig if ram in these boxes also...plenty to run 2 or 3 phones with 4 POTS lines. Throw in an OpenVox A400P 4 port FXO card and install trixbox and your running smoothly. Add the POE switch that I talked about earlier in this string and you definitely have a "budget box" that should do what you are asking for. Are you going to setup and support this box for your thrifty friend?

I guess I'm confused...can the phone guy that is local to you not get some sort of server and throw trix CE on it and set it up like you guys want? Will your thrifty friend work with your "Cisco and Asterisk" phone guy? This would probably be the best solution for a thrifty friend. I have seven kids to feed, so I'll certainly sell you something...heck, I might even throw in a kid or two to sweeten the pot...but I don't understand why your friend on a budget isn't using your existing "phone guy" for the entire purchase.

I might be able to help.

Sent you a PM.