I just built a server today , based on Intel R2308GZ4GS9。
It's a barebone server kit , including redundant power supply , motherboard , and server case.

The motherboard model # is intel s2600gz , which is a 2 cpu slot board.
The case is made with 8 HD hot-swap slots , and the size is 2u.
I won't say this $1600 kit is a good choice for money , since if you buy them separately , the MB is about $400 , and a similar case is about $600.

Is it better?
I can't tell , but the building quality of this kit is pretty good , even better than some other real server by HP/Dell I touched before.

This is the front panel

Let's see what's inside

There are 2 sas ports on the MB , supporting 4 drives for each I supposed
Since the northbridge chip of this MB is intel C600 , it could be set to use LSI soft raid bios.(looks like the real one though).But if you choose to use the LSI RAID bios , many linux OS can't recognize it ( such as centos 6.5) , you have to load the driver by yourself.
Stay away from troubles , you have better go with some real raid card instead.
Yes , the intel fake raid is usable in linux , but I suggest not to , in production environment.

CPU parts , all GOOD capacitors

This is the additional raid card I used
The model # is RMAS25KB080 , $160 , 2 SAS ports , supporting raid 0/1/1E , not bad.
But it is only Compatible with intel stock MB like it says.I tried on dell R710 , doesn't work of course 🙁 .
To me , it feels like LSI 9211-8i , which is more than $300.

PCI-E expansion slot
It's really a good design.
You could remove the slot , install your card , and put it back.
I think it is a big plus for this server kit.
You could find 2 expansion slots on this kit , each expansion slot with 2 PCI-E 16X slots and 1 8X slot.

Installing CentOS 6.5 , not as fast as I imagined

And this is the corner of my office LOL , I am building several servers recently.