I came across a rackmount server chassis and like the newb I am wanted to play with it. It was very loud, so that ended the fun rather quickly. That also answered the question of why so many of these things are given away for free.

However, I liked it's accessibility to parts, which was a big improvement over the conventional box. Plus it was cool how skinny it was, though it is fugly. I was wondering if I could just mount a low power Mobo, smaller PSU and some quiet fan(s), then reuse the chassis along with the SATA backplane and drive mounts?

I have just been doing some media serving with a regular PC tower, but it is too powerful for that and I am looking for a quiet low power solution. Cooling a chassis such as this doesn't seem like it would be difficult, though maybe I am misunderstanding the aerodynamics of this thing?

Anythings possible if you put your mind to it. Depending on the mounting holes and your fabrication ability I don't see why not. Just have to do your research and probably get a Corsair 100H CPU cooler or something low profile as to not go further than the top of the chassis allows, unless you wanna make a cool hood-scoop to accommodate the CPU cooler of your choice.

What's the model #?