> 	While I appreciate the advice given so far, NONE of it has addressed my
> original question. Let me clarify a couple of things.
> ...
> 	Here are my current thoughts on this.
> ...

i have vaxes and even a symbolics 3640 which i play with from time to time.
but my production systems have users, including employees, guests, and family,
and i'm having trouble imagining why i would subject these people to older
slower equipment which "only paul can fix" rather than buying modern 1U boxes
whose operation and maintainance can be done by anybody on the technical staff.

that said, i applaud your choices and i think the box assignments you've made
won't steer you wrong.  for netnews you'll want a modern scsi drive since if
you don't have at least 50GB you can't store enough news to be worth reading.
but that'll attach to any of the machines you've got, and cost about $400.