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I finally settled on MS SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.

I gave up on SQL 2012 because

1. I had trouble getting .NET v4 Framework (a prerequisite) to install offline.
2. I read somewhere that performance is better with SQL 2008.
3. SQL 2008 is content with .NET 3.5, which is included OOTB in Windows 7.

It took me more hours than I care to count to come up with a working automated configuration file.

I documented my installation process on this wiki page in case anyone else is interested.