I've seen quite a bit about using Windows Server 2012 Essentials, but I don't have $500 to put down (or is it $400 now?) on a new OS.
How does Server 2012 Standard (I get a free copy through school) stack up to Windows 8 for a server? My needs:
Running Plex & PlayOn to server video to my Roku and other devices.
File storage: Photos, music, documents
Probably use a share for Windows 7/8 backups if possible.
I had 2x2TB drives mirrored originally as my main storage, but was running out of space, so I moved everything to a 4TB Western Digital USB drive and tried striping the drives, only to find out my BIOS didn't support more than 2TB. I assume WHS wouldn't have allowed me to stripe it anyways, so now I have 2 separate volumes for my media.
Fortunately, the stuff on the second volume isn't all that critical.
I was hoping to use the 4TB drive for backing up WHS, but forgot about the limits, so now I'm kinda stuck.
Hardware is a bit old, but should work. I beleive I am using my DG33TL with Intel Core2 Quad Q6700 (2.66) and 8GB RAM
TYIA