You've got hyper-threading, so 16 cores total, I believe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#.22Nocona.22_.2890_nm.29
but you want to fold regular SMP projects, using maybe 4, or 6 cores, so after V7 client sets it up for you, change that slot from -smp to -smp 4 or -smp 6.
For the upcoming race in May, if your server needs to be stress tested, you can bump it up to smp 8 or 12, and we won't complain, I promise!
The 4GB of RAM seems low to me, but I'm not sure what the needs are for your hosting work. That would be the first thing I'd look into. On the server I just built, Supermicro (the mobo maker) warns against using 4GB on each socket, because the server board requires a lot of it for it's own internals - and show why it leaves you with a mere 500 MB of usable RAM, per socket. (It is an AMD based server, so it might be completely different than yours).
I thought Windows server was beginner friendly. Linux (Ubuntu server versions, 64 bit), is a popular server OS, and it's FREE!, but is it more beginner friendly? (I like 10.04 LTS)
I'd avoid the latest releases from Ubuntu. They're too buggy, imo.
My experience with servers is quite limited, but we have some folders that work with servers, so they should be able to help you more.
Getting a good start folding with the new V7 folding client, is easy:
1). Our download site with step by step instructions for the new V7 folding client:
https://fah-web.stanford.edu/projects/FAHClient/
And click on the "download" logo. Then choose the client for your operating system.
For Windows users, V7 uses a set up wizard.
2). Get a passkey from Stanford, and a name that is unique on our team. Having two folders using the same handle, on the same team, is confusing.
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py
If you don't get a passkey, you WILL be missing out on a lot of points.
3). Our team number is 32, and our team stats are here:
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.c...ry.php?s=&t=32
Search for your folding name, using the search tool, on the left hand side of that page. Your results will show only AFTER you have begun returning results. Bookmark your page!
The stats site is updated every three hours. Stanford F@Home needs about 1 hour to process your returned work unit (wu). More up-to-date data, is here:
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/...type=userstats
4) Keep an eye on your temps. Use a monitoring program that your motherboard recommends (many supply a monitoring program with your mobo), or one of the monitoring freeware programs: Coretemp, Realtemp, etc., available from any of several download depots.
A clean and cool folding rig, is a happy folding rig.
5) Our sticky thread has a LOT of info:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...d.php?t=664162