Aside from power consumption, there is also the issue of physical
volume.  Putting another machine in a rack just to do crypto--even if
you found it on the street--could very well end up costing a lot more
in colocation fees than a crpyto card would.  This is especially true
in parts of the world with government-owned PTTs, etc.  All things
considered, if you have a few crypto cards, the price differential
could scale geometrically.

This is saying nothing about a PC having many more points of failure
than a PCI card.  I doubt that any x86-based machine which is reliable
as a crypto card would save anyone much money.

--Blair

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"The frivolity and boredom which unsettle the established order, the
vague foreboding of something unknown, these are the heralds of
approaching change.  The gradual crumbling that left unaltered the the
face of the whole is cut short by a sunburst which, in one flash,
illuminates the features of the new world."  --G.W.F. Hegel,
_Phenomenology of Spirit_ 5:11