Received two servers but unsure on what to do with them

As the title says, I just got two servers to play with. Ones a DDR2 based Xeon(dual socket, one currently in use) 2u with 12 HS drive bays, the other is a 2u with 4 5.25 bays.

The 12 bay box is running a super micro Super x7dbu(link) while the other is running a P4, however I do have a Super micro Super x7sba(link) to swap in as well as an E8500 that can run it. My question comes in the form of what server should do what. I really like the idea of having the 12 bay to act as a file server to my HTPC/laptops, but overall I feel that it's too powerful(dual xeon w/32gb DDR2 @Max specs) and could be better used as a VM test bed. I'm not planning on using it for some funky small business network in a home with AD and whatnot. Just want to have some fun and tinker. If I do keep a fileserver on the more powerful server, maybe a VM based NAS?

As for the rest of the environment, there's an HP procurve 400M and a Spectra T50 for backups. No gig backbone yet, but it's in the works. i5 based HTPC, iPad/phones, 2 laptops. Again the main use is going to be for media streaming/file sharing within the network. The T50 handles 80TB worth of tapes so overall integrity shouldn't be an issue with regular fulls/snapshots.

This is purely for the benefit of the folding team buuuuttt

Fold on them? Apparently Team 32 could use some dedicated folders!

EpicMango said:

This is purely for the benefit of the folding team buuuuttt

Fold on them? Apparently Team 32 could use some dedicated folders!

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I used to fold. Lost the motivation since I'm constantly tweaking settings and breaking stuff.

Cerberus, if you want to play with the systems, throw a Linux distro on them (personally, I use CentOS 6.x) and install Virtualbox/phpVirtualbox. This gives you a playground to install whatever you want. My main file server is a testbed where I install different operating systems or try to get things working (LDAP servers, Windows domains, web servers, etc).

thideras said:

Cerberus, if you want to play with the systems, throw a Linux distro on them (personally, I use CentOS 6.x) and install Virtualbox/phpVirtualbox. This gives you a playground to install whatever you want. My main file server is a testbed where I install different operating systems or try to get things working (LDAP servers, Windows domains, web servers, etc).

Click to expand...

Oh yes, I plan on running CentOS(Been running Cent/Ubuntu/Fedora on my HTPC). Along with Windows Server and SQL for injection/pentesting. I'm also used to ESXi so I'm going to use that as the host.