In case (no pun intended) anyone's interested, I have recently 
conducted an audit of all computer chassis and enclosures I 
could possibly find on the web. I read reviews, looked at all 
the web sites, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the case I have is 
allready kick-ass. You've probably seen it before, it's that 
mini-server cube that is almost perfectly square, with a smooth 
face and hinged drive cover. It's very nice, but I'm going to 
make it the server. It didn't have enough externaly-accessible 
bays (4) for my taste (more like 8).

And the winner is (drumroll please) the Addtronics 7896A, a AT/ATX 
server tower. It has 8 fan mount places, including 2 in the front, 
2 in the back, and 2 on either side at the top (in the unlikely 
event of a water landing...). 6 external 5.25" bays, 1/1 3.5" 
bays, replaceable air filter for front fans, flip-out side panels, 
removable motherboard tray (pull your motherboard out the back 
like a drawer) and a bunch more stuff (I don't remember how many 
cupholders). It's about $300 with a 300W power supply. SuperMicro 
makes a relabel of this, but it is with slightly cheaper parts.

If you don't need as much space and/or want to save money, you can 
get it's little brother, the 6896A. They also have the 7890 and 
6890, which have different front bezels but I don't like them as much.

Anyway, I don't think a better case for under $500 that will fit 
in my trunk exists. If you find one, let me know...

One last thing, send your case to ComputersDivine.com, and have 
them give it the cool-case color treatment. They'll install 8 fans 
in optimal configuration, and paint it with a special glossy paint 
of any color or effect you like. They'll even put logos on it for 
you. This costs less than $200. I'd call them first, tell them 
the case you want, and they'll order it, fan it, paint it, ship 
it. For no extra charge, they'll paint your external drives to 
match the face for the lifetime of the system, so you can send 
new drives in and have them matched. They'll also do keyboards 
and monitors.

So what you have is a $500 case with 8 fans, 300W beefy PS, air 
filtration, glossy-smooth deep-blue (my color of choice), and a 
custom logo you sent them under the gloss coat. Pretty awesome! 
The only thing cooler looking would be a workstation from Integraph 
or SGI, but I can't bring myself to buy one of their systems in 
order to have an awesome case.