Hard Time deciding on route for new ESXi server

I'm really having a hard time properly deciding the path to take on my new ESXi build I will doing in a few months.
Looking at building a solution that will last 4-5 years. However, I'm not sure which route to take.

Option 1:
Intel Core i7-2600
CORSAIR CWCH60
ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB
Fractal Design Define XL
Antec BP550 Plus 550W
Intel EXPI9402PTBLK Two Gigabit
LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS 9260-8i??
LSI LSI00161 MegaRAID LSIiBBU07 Battery Backup??
Possibly also an SSD and a mix of hard drives(some I have, others I don't).

Option 2:
An ESxi server with same processor, less expensive MB, smaller case, etc.
A second NAS box running OpenFiler or FreeNAS for shared storage and software RAID.

My concern with Option 1 is that Hardware RAID is really expensive and I have yet to deal with a dedicated RAID card. (I'm not even sure that one RAID card can handle multiple arrays.
Currently I run an ESXi server with 2 separate datastores and no raid. WHS 11 is one datastore (and has 2 Data drives that WHS has in software Raid1) and backs up VM's on the other Datastore in case of a failure, but obviously this isn't ideal.

With Option 2 I would need to build 2 systems, though I might be able to save some money on the MB since I wouldn't need one with 8 Sata ports. However I'm new to using shared storage for ESXi. I did play around with OpenFiler on a VM and was able to present a Raid1 iSCSI to the ESXi succesfully, but not sure how comfortable I feel with it as of yet. It would seem though that you open yourself up to more points of failure running 2 boxes for one server, so I don't know.

What are your thoughts on either build and experiences? I would really like to hear what people have done and what may be considered a better option to go with. I am looking at getting something that will last for the long haul.

A lot of the cheaper RAID controllers are "fake" RAIDS unfortunately so I'm not so sure that they will work with ESXi. I plan on running at least 6 hard drives, though it may be a few more (depending if I want to add an SSD or two). I'm aware that you can only RAID drives plugged into the controller, but wasn't sure if can handle multiple arrays, ie. 1 Raid 1 and 1 Raid 5.

Thanks, I'll check that link out and see what they have available. I don't have a rack, but that's obviously not a big deal.

I'm also debating on using my old ESXi box as a second ESXi server in which case I would require shared storage. Or I can use that for the OpenFiler, though it would be overkill (see my systems for current specs) and consume a lot of power likely.

Something like this rack server looks very interesting.
Though it has no hardware RAID and I am afraid what the power consumption on it would be. I don't need a sky high power bill from it

On that I could run one processor/board for Open Filer and wouldn't need hardware RAID and present the shared storage to up to 3 different ESXi servers on one box.
It's cheaper then what I can build form my list above. Any ideas what the power draw on one these rack servers would be?

Watched a video on the Dell PowerEdge XS23-SB and that thing is really loud. Think I'll have to pass. Power usage may be close to what it might be if I went with a 2 system setup.
The Dell Poweredge r610 looks nice, but is quite expensive.

I'll look at the P400 and a board capable of holding more RAM as that is a good point.

Also you say no to software RAID, but I see a lot of people recommend using OpenFiler to provide a SAN RAID for ESXi.