Wanted to share my story - I've been a WHS user from the early days, from a home-build to Acer - v1 to 2011 ... then to HP MicroServer N40L ... and now a TS140.
My HP Microserver N40L was getting too taxed - WHS, Plex, and 5 security cams feeding Blue Iris were just too much for the poor little thing. I truly loved that server - not just because I'm an HPer - it really was a solid little box. But the non-upgradeable processor meant I was stuck. The newer gen8 MicroServers with socketed processors looked good ... but I couldn't get a decent price ($509 for the G2020T version w/2Gb) and even at that, the performance probably wouldn't have met what I need- an estimated passmark of 4000.
The TS140 came with 4Gb, the Xeon E3-1225 ... so I'm getting somewhere north of 2.5x the performance of a gen8 at around $150 less. And nearly 10x performance from where I was at with the N40L.
NOW FOR THE BEST PART ...
I decided to be completely optimistic and a little reckless and move the existing 4-drives from the N40L over to the TS140. I totally expected this to be a bust and have to do a clean install ... but lo and behold, it booted up. I just needed to update drivers from the TS setup disk and I was off to the races.
My external 4-drive eSATA box was a little trickier - had to play around with adding an eSATA card (I have 3, the RocketRaid 2314 with July 2013 drivers did the trick- couldn't get my Sonnet or SIIG to work). Next step will be to possibly upgrade that card to a SATA III, but I'm equally tempted to leave well enough alone now that it all works.
I had to do a license transfer for StableBit DrivePool (one click and it was done) and do the same kind of license re-activation with Blue Iris... also one click and done. Clicked on Windows Activation, activated online, and done. I'm watching DrivePool do some maintenance now, but other that that ... it was about as seamless and easy as it could possibly have been.
I'm kind of flabbergasted that it all worked - and kicking myself that I didn't do this sooner. Watching BlueIris now clocking in at 22% CPU usage vs. 95%, and all other functions are working much more quickly. RDC login is practically instantaneous. Dashboard is also snappy and quick. All of the painful "lag" that I felt with the N40L is gone.
Hopefully this gives other out there some hope that you may be able to do a little more with your WHS2011 boxes.