[SlugBug] Maybe OT... colo and 1U server recommendations?

[Minase]

Hello,

Forgot to check this list for a while... oops.
While considering various colo options, it occured to me to ask for
advice on this list as i know at least one or two people on here are
somewhat experienced with this.

First, Linux related issue: what server to get? Anyone have any
favourite branded 1Us for Linux usage? Or maybe it'd be better to
build one myself? I've really no idea a about 1U's... the cooling
issues scare me off build-your-own though :)
I've heard pretty much anything HP is reliable. I was also thinking
one of the IBM X series servers (i've heard bad things about their
SATA controllers + linux, but i'd be getting a SCSI model anyway)
Requirements: SCSI, (obviously) decent serial support, stable under
Linux and requires no binary drivers or wacky kernel patches. No RAID
required as will be using Linux software RAID.
I'd like price to be roughly ~1000 GBP.

Second issue, the colo itself - wanting to just rent 1 or 2 U, with
bandwidth. I've settled on one of two pretty nice looking companies,
just wondering if anyone knows anything about them - horror stories
for example. They are:

 - BlackCat. Seem nice and clued up, though
 their website would be hard to sell to my PHB :)
 [http://www.blackcat.net.uk/prices-colo.shtml]. Can't tell from the
 site whether they offer serial console access for servers they don't
 rent you themselves... i guess i'll email sales@ for that though.
 - Mythic-Beasts. Pretty much the same, but a nicer
 website. [http://www.mythic-beasts.com/colo.html]

Both in London. Somewhere closer might be nice i guess, but i'm
really looking for reliability and i can't see myself having to go
down there much...
Every other site i found was in sales-speak, so i found it kind of
hard to extract any meaning out of it.

Anyway, thanks for any advice.

 - Daniel (who may be showing up at the wrt54g thing to break his
 AP :))