Modding old amd pc to run whs 2011

Hexen

I currently have a very old Ankermann pc (2006 build) which I'd like to run Windows Home Server 2011 on for at least for a couple of years.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 3800+ but I've bought a second hand 5600+ Windsor chip to replace it.
The motherboard is an AM2NF4G-SATA2 (ASRock AM2 Socket) - it only has two SATA ports (& two IDE ports) so I'd need to get some extra SATA ports through a PCI adapter card and/or through a cheap IDE/SATA port adapter.
It has 2GB of DDR2 Ram which I'm planning to double to 4GB
It's not particularly relevant but the GPU currently occupying the PCI-e x16 slot is a NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS. The current OS is Windows XP Professional SP 3 - 32-bit.

The PSU is 525 watts.

The original hard-drives started to fail recently and have been replaced with 2x 2TB WD Green Caviar HDs (not ideal for OS drives I guess).

I also stuck a new 10/100/1000 Mbps NIC in a PCI Adapter. It's currently connected to the router through ethernet home plugs but I'm hoping to lay some dedicated LAN cable around the house in the near future (Cat6).

The idea is really to familiarise myself with running a home server and then, perhaps, to build something more specific to the task.

My question is whether this hardware set-up will be able to run WHS 2011 successfully?

Monotype

I'd say it would. When you're running a server though, power is a big issue.
Ideally you'd be looking at getting a new system which specialises in low power, but you hinted that you might do that in the future.
The AMDs of that era weren't too bad and with some power management features, they should be underclockable and power consumption won't be too high. First of all, get rid of that graphics card. You don't need it, you have integrated graphics and it's just sucking up power unnecessarily.
For a home server, the drives won't make that much difference. If it's idle, they'll probably shut down and you won't be booting up very often. A new green drive is faster than an old regular drive anyway.

Wasn't Windsor socket early socket AM2 while the X2 3800+ is socket 939?

What about the PSU? If it's an old one, you might want to get something a bit more efficient. For something that's on all day, you'd want to be getting a low watt one but the best efficiency that you can get at that range. If it's a good couple of years old, the one you have could be fairly inefficient.

You could probably find an IDE/PATA DVD drive for cheap at this stage if you need the two SATA ports for hard drives.

Hexen

Yes precisely - the idea is to get a little more life out of a very old system by just making it sufficiently powerful to run WHS 2011 and in the process teach myself a bit about how a home server might work, the best set-up and what kind of hardware I'd need for it. And then, in a year or two, depending on how well this runs, to build a new server.

I hadn't thought about it at all but if WHS 2011 runs ok I think underclocking the chip would be a great idea.

Yes, the graphics card will go of course.

I think both chips are AM2 - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athlon_64_X2#Windsor_.2890_nm_SOI.29

Again, I hadn't thought about the efficiency of the PSU and that's something I wouldn't mind spending money on so long as it would transfer to a new server a little while down the road. Any suggestions re make and model for this?

I was going to go for SATA drives as I thought it would be easier to migrate them eventually to a new server build. I haven't checked the prices of second-hand IDE drives. If they're cheap, it might be a good stop-gap measure.

Thanks for your advice Monotype

Monotype

Yes, clearly you have an AM2 socket already, I overlooked that. You're fine.

For the PSU - there's not too many gold rated PSUs around that are of low wattage. One of the lowest I've seen is the Superflower Golden Green 450W - but the only accessible place to get them is hardwareversand.de, which would be €60 for the PSU and €19 for delivery.

You could go for the V350P Basic:
http://www.dabs.ie/products/antec-350w-basiq-vp350p-atx-psu-7TD5.html

Efficiency of this touches a little over the 81% mark around the middle consumption, dipping a bit below 80% in low consumption but should keep above 75% in general.

I suppose a better bet would be the XFX 450W which would be 85% at mid load and about 82% at around quarter loads, which you would be at (although at idle, you could be well below it.
http://www.dabs.ie/products/xfx-450-watt-core-edition-single-rail-psu-w--full-wired-cables-7NSV.html

Best one could be the 380W earthwatts which is also bronze rated
http://www.dabs.ie/products/antec-earthwatts-380w-atx-12v-80plus-6N3V.html

Efficiency stays above 77% at 10% load.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3902/antec-earthwatts-ea-380d-green-380w/6

sink

I've just ordered parts for a new home server from harwareversand. I was thinking about installing Windows Home Server 2011 on it, but due to it being discontinued by Microsoft I've decided instead to give OpenMediaVault a go instead. It's free and open source with a large community behind it, it's based on Debian linux but replicates all the functions of WHS 2011 and more. This will be the first time I'm using linux for any practical purpose so I'm on a learning curve.

Hexen

Openmediavault looks great. Let us know how you get on.