So I’m still looking into replacing my giant server with a budget of $200.  Currently what I have so far is:

• Intel D510 Motherboard/CPU combination
• 2x1GB OCZ DDR2-800 RAM
• Apex MI-100 Mini-ITX case with 250W PSU

This brings me to about $160, well under budget.  I’ll cannibalize the 500 gig hard drive from the existing server, and borrow the DVD drive to install (dun dun DUNNNN) Windows Server 2008 R2.  I got a free copy through Microsoft’s Dreamspark, and I’m gonna try it out.  I’ll back up all the data on the 500 gig drive, and I wont touch the Ubuntu machine’s 60 gig OS drive, but I’m hoping to give it an honest try and see what Microsoft has to offer when it comes to a home server. Expected power usage is about 20 watts, which is about a tenth of the current power usage of the Dell server.

I dunno what to expect from using MS Server, but I want to at least try.  If I hate it, I can always just go back to Ubuntu Server 9.10.