Hi all, I have WHS11, bought some 3 years ago, sitting collecting dust in my Geek-dom (computer room).
When purchased I was enthused, but time and expense, babies and house build during the initial 'New' build left the project dead before it started.
I now sit with the following computers all hooked up via cat5/switches/wans/routers and now NBN wireless 
No server, just a shared mess of drives and digital debris.
I wish to repurpose older machines, but also see there are some limitations in well 32bit processing vs 64, speed, memory, expansion, but the thing is I don't have much time for all this anymore...Im 43, been fiddling with computers for 30+ years...(yes, anyone remember VIC20?), and with children etc...well all I need do now is have something work and me never...well...(mostly) not fiddle with it
TOO Point:
Box 0: iinet Budii NBN Modem/router - 23Mb/s every day, dual USB, 4x gig ethernet ac1100 wirelss, VOIP, 1x gig WAN
WIRED GIGABIT LAN TO:
Box 1: PIIII3Ghz8003Gb PCI/IDE only - mummies computer....she refuses to let go!
Box 2 64" Samsung 3DHD Plasma Smart TV - it rocks!...gloating
Box 3 XBox 360
WIRELESS B,G,N,AC1100 TO:
Box 4: Toshiba Laptop, Core2duo2.8,4Gb1066 - Win 7 portable everything machine, C:500gseagate
Box 5: Android phone
Box 6: Windows phone
Box 7: ipad Air
WIRED GIGABIT WAN TO: man cave/shed/workshop/hideaway:
Box 8: Thompson TG587 modem/router, used as WAN router - 1xgigWAN, 1xgigLAN, 3x10/100LAN, wireless BGN:
Box 9: PIII733512 PCI/IDE MTP28W - SmoothWallExpress - Hardware firewall - turned off, it hates everything, and everything hates it....to be reconfigured?
Box 10: PIII1Ghz800FSB1Gb PCI/IDE MTP32W - has ubuntu installed - turned off, was a play-thing...to be reconfigured?
Box 11: AMD52004GbDDR2667 M3n72-D MTP65W - 6sataII no OS, sits wantingly
Box 12: AMD40006GbDDR2800 M3N78-EM MTP65W - 5SataII, 1esata Win7, dunno what this box is, i use it to do menial tasks like ripping, downloading, third monitor, or 3rd internet window, whilst I use
Box 13: LGA1155 2700K, GZ-Z68MZ-D2H-B3, 8GBDDR3 MTP???Can't remember, ZOTEC Dual DVI, HDMI, fanless graphics, 2xsataIII, 4xsataII
Stuff Avail - excluding laptop stuff - it want's one of the SSD's below, with it's C drive going to a data drive
SSD: Intel X25-M SII 80GB, Intel 510 SIII 120GB, Intel 520 SIII 180GB (new)
SATAIII: Seagate 500g 7200 x 1, Seagate 2TB x 4
SATAII: Seagate 500g 7200 x 2, Seagate 160gb x 1
+multiples of IDE, flopy, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD burner, blueray burner, external backup IDE, external backup seagate sata, external backup HOTWAY raid twin drive.
sataII raid card, USB3.0 PCIe card, 3xGigNic's, 4x10/100Nics, 3 spare Pentium IDE powersupplies, 2 x spare ATX sata powersupplies-E80450w, gig350w......it just goes on.
SERVICES REQD:
FTP/Cloud based/internet available storage - don't care how, want access to everything I have from anywhere on anything...but I want control, not on anyone elses server.
Mail server - don't care again, must have all types - MAPI, IMAP/smtp, pop etc
Basic in-house file serving, backups - I don't like backups per say...storage of clean install ISO's for system drive backups, mirroring and syncing of data for storage and redundancy are my friend!
NO RAID - it's a f'up everytime i've had it running...mirroring and syncing are my friend!
Media serving/streaming - well the server doesn't have too, I reakon between the TV and the xbox and the routers having their own media....it'd be nice to have one that would talk to everything!
Data requirements are low....our CD's in WAV take only 250GB, I haven't as yet started moving the DVD collection to digital...this is where I'll start, with the above components.
I do not wish to spend any more money....you see if I can't do what I want with what I got above, then forget it, I'll go back to the external backup drives with the lappy, and sell everything else.
I sound crappy, and am....I'm SICK OF IT....HELP...DROWNING IN DIGITAL GARBAGE.....Anything unused will be sold off.
I'd prefer to repurpose the old stuff which I couldn't sell anyway, but am building a CNC router and the old pentiums if not repurposed, will be fine for controllers.
I want a box i can leave running as cheap as pos, simple, clean, headless, let it burn/rip copy whatever whilst the lappy serves as the 'head' for the server (terminal/web/whatever based control of server) and as a play/work/everything....and I'm into it too much to just go and buy something.
Linux based...is prob the wong forum for that but would it suit me better....is WHS too much OS for simple home serving?
I am serious....I've got all this stuff, and WHS11 10 client sitting waiting, and am now so confused by it all, I need help...thoughts? Thanks for making it this far