Spec Check - Windows Server 2003 Box (Home Use)

[Valo]

The Brief
I'm wanting to build myself a Windows 2003 Server Box to store all my Music, Video and Photos aswell as using it as a download box. The new box will act as a central file server to stream files to my MCE box in the livingroom and my new C2D rig in the study via my existing Gb network. I'm also thinking of setting up a VPN so I could dial in from work etc.

I'm already use a old Windows XP Box for this but it's seen better days (1GHz P3, 512MB RAM, Gb NIC) not to mention I'm running out of drive space drasticly.

The Plan
Buy a cheap Motherboard,CPU & Memory. I'm looking at getting a Promise RAID Card and 3x500GB Samsung Spinpoint Hard disks (cheap and quiet) and creating a 1TB RAID 5 array once funds allow I already have a suitable case and new PSU 400Watt and Windows Server 2003 software.

The Basic Spec

Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB)
Asus P5VD2-MX Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel Celeron D 356 3.33GHz (LGA775) - Retail

Sub Total : £135.97
Shipping : £8.25
Vat : £25.24
Total : £169.46

My question is will a celeron manage to run W2k3 server or should I go down the slightly more expensive P4 route?

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[stoofa]

As Windows Server 2003 is going to set you back around £500 - why not go for something Linux based (good opportunity to learn the basics of Linux if you don't already know them).
This has the added advantage of lower system requirements too.

 

[afraser2k]

If you're running out of space would your current system accept a RAID card and a couple more hard disks? The system you've specified seems to me to be a bit overkill for a home server, which would probably also be a more suitable job for Linux (I use Debian at home).

The spec you've listed will run Windows 2003 Server fine though I think it would be better to use your current server and add a raid card with a couple of large hard disks. There shouldn't be much harm in trying as you're already planning on buying the card/disks.

 

[Valo]

I might give adding the RAID Card and disks ago first. As for the software side of things my work is a Microsoft Gold Partner so we have MSDN etc so the software is sitting right next to me now