[BBLISA] Dell/other Linux-raid-NFS-server, ready for primetime?

[Doug Mildram]

doug>   sigh, it has been years since I tried-and-failed....
putting a linux-based NFS server into a high-traffic engineering farm.
(pesky HW engineers and their simulation or design data).
I ended up putting freeBSD on the $10k IDE-raid box I bought in 2001.
Can't do the freeBSD thing for a "new requirement" on a LOWER!? budget, so:

THE QUESTION: Now+again, I wonder who has tried and failed/succeeded 
with cheap (linux) NFS server... ?

ok, to do what?
oh, just read a few and write a lot of GB in parallel (multi-NFS-clients).
e.g. lots of files (100k here, 100k there per hour...stay the course...) 

Is any linux distro better than another for this? 
RHEL ? (or whiteboxEL which works the same, right?) 
other?

Don't need to reminded of obvious BETTER solutions ...
I'm trolling for "what works great new-and-under-$5k".

The recommendation I'm trying to fight for= NetApp. Cmon, $20k is nothing!)

Sorry this is long.  thanks for listening/replies.  Gory detail below.

How did it fail me on (redhat-before-FC; tried 2.5 kernel, no better...)?
Despite giga-memory and excess I/O avail for enet+disk, what puked was
NFS service. I bumped up nfsd #processes, tried various wsize,rsize,
and sure it'd WORK, but add a few more busy NFS clients, and the server
seemed to self-destruct. Symptoms: 20+ load, crawling NFS response.

Sorry, my "requirements" and "symptoms" are imprecise,
but it only seemed to take a few hours and a few McWhoppers, i mean
a couple gb mostly-written by a couple users IN a few hours, 
to CHOKE/gag/pretty-much-hang Linux.  Havent bought RHEL...too wary I am?
RH/RedHat (nfs client!) systems do "play nicely" otherwise here, though.
Network thruput can be 20gb-30gb/hour on 100mb enet, IF you don't use NFS.

What DOES work (NFS server) without choking, in my budget+history, has been:
      --NetApp  (which I still recommend. Boss says $18k==toomuch).
                    (I say: a steal! Price has halved every 3? yrs!)
      --freeBSD  (not the perfect fit either for a remote-site-main-"filer")

Here's a possible HW platform, if the OS loaded onto it was appropriate:
Dell PE1900 poweredge w/optional integrated SAS/SATA raid5,
       5x500gb SATA 7.2krpm, probably close to 2tb usable,
       Broadcom NetXtreme gb-nic (something I havent GOTTEN/had yet),
       (2) 2.0ghz dual core xeon 5130 4mb-cache, 1333mhz FSB,
   $2900+tax+ship=$3200 or $3300.   No OS.    (OS is my question/problem,
       or you could say lack of budget for an $18k 1+TB NetApp is my problem.)

Perhaps this troll will perk up my energy/luck.  
If given a good tip, I WILL try free ideas/OS/tweaks first :)
Impossibly, I must figure out if it will work WELL before buying anything.