How do we feel about Cana kits? There are some pretty sweet cyber Monday deals out there on them ($104 for the pi 4b kit with fan, pwr cord, etc), but it looks like I could get roughly the same price buying components piece by piece. Any advice? This would be my first foray into raspberry pi-land.
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Are you set on the SBC (Single Board Computer) version, or would the Raspberry Pi 400 be in the running?
Raspberry Pi 400 for $100 Not sure if that is USD or Canadian.
It all depends on what you want to do with it.
Experiment with robotics, IoT, servos, cameras, etc. then the RPi4b SBC would probably be better.
If you want to play around with an OS + DE for routine daily stuff like E-mail, surfing, office tasks, etc. on a low powered device. Then maybe the RPi 400.
As for the RPi4 SBC, most people who have purchased Cana kits have been less than impressed with the cooling solution and have bought other case/heatsink combinations. Meaning the case also acts as a heat sink.
I bought this case
Here is a review of Argon 1 and Argon Neo Rpi 4 Case Thermals - #13 by anon9173994 by @linesma
The thing I like about the argon-1 is the included power switch.
Food for thought.
Pudge
EDIT:
fixed spelling
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Sorry, I was being unclear. I meant the Raspberry Pi 400. I’d like to set up a personal server.
Is the server going to be headless, or dual purpose of server and desk top?
If the only intended use is a personal server, I would suggest looking at a RPi4b SBC and the Argon 1 case. The Argon 1 case has the option of a replacement “bottom” that integrates a M.2 SSD into the case. See this post for further details. I personally do not have the Argon 1 case, but it sure looks interesting.
This post in the same topic for a discussion of server hardware.
Pudge
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That’s where I got my kit originally right as the 4gb was released.
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The only problem I have with the Cana kits are the power supplies they provide. The power supplies are third party, and one can not be sure of their quality. I have been using Raspberry Pi’s since the Pi2, and have had nothing but trouble with third party power supplies. It is worth the extra money to buy an official Raspberry Pi power supply.
Why? Two reasons:
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If you use a third party power supply, the warranty on the Raspberry Pi could be voided.
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Many third party supplies are not regulated properly. So they do not provide a “clean” 5 volt 3 amps of power. This can cause problems with the Raspberry Pi once you attach USB hardware. You may find that the Pi is being “starved” of power, and the attached USB devices will not work properly. The last third party power supply I used, I received in a kit with my Raspberry Pi 4. It ended up putting too much power into the Pi, and as result, it shorted out the microSD card slot. Thankfully, the company I bought the kit from warrantied the Pi.
I hope you find this information useful.
Mark
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Yes, thanks, that’s very useful.
Edit: And now I’ve cancelled the off-brand power supply I’d ordered and paid the extra 3 bucks for an official one instead.
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Ahh too late for me, got the pi 400 kit ordered for xmas. Lets see how it goes. 
I finally got my Raspberry Pi 400 Today. Not a good experience at all so far.
Pudge
That sucks! Can you send it back at least for the keyboard spacebar getting stuck, could be defect? I read that the keyboard felt ok, not the best.
I did not follow your problem with server connection. Did you install another distro on the sd card using another desktop computer then stuck the sd back into the raspberry and got the error? Thanks for clarifying.
The first couple of attempts to install an Archlinux Arm base install were 64 bit , I finally tried a 32 bit install and it worked great.
See the link in post #9 above for more info.
Pudge