hi,

i have a dell poweredge 2950 i was planning to use for hosting. not enough money was put into the business side of things and im stuck with it.

i am however a recording engineer and i was very curious what the conversion process would be to make this maching run a non-server windows operating system. i remember reading years ago problems with consumer operating systems not being able to recognize as much disk space as a machine like this would have but i am so unresearched at this point id love some advice.

thank you

Without knowing the specs or what version of Windows you want on it, it may be hard to tell how well it supports on that hardware. You may have RAM limitations or RAID controller problems, but perhaps if you want cheap (or free) you can install CentOS, Ubuntu, or some Linux distribution. I run a personal server with Windows 2003 Server and pay $20/month for the license, then stream music using Shoutcast. So if you consider doing something similar and pay to colocate the server somewhere, you might turn that server back into a money maker.

I would not DOOM such a badass server to simply keeping music files on it when you could still turn that hardware into a profitable machine. You may still have an asset that someone needs hosting on, or could make you money in other ways.

well i didnt mean just holding music files. multi tracking software uses alot of resources so it wouldnt be too much of a shame but here are the specs if you had any further opinions....

Quote Number: 417360052
Item Number Quantity Item Description

223-4927
1 Dual Core Xeon 5110 Processor 4MB Cache, 1.6GHz, 1066MHz FSBPE2950
465-8875
1 Dual Core Xeon 2nd Processor 5110, 4MB Cache, 1.60GHz 1066MHz FSB, PE 2950
311-6154
1 4GB 667MHz (4X1GB), Dual Ranked Fully Buffered DIMMs
430-1765
1 Broadcom TCP/IP Offload EngineNot Enabled
320-4607
1 Riser with 3 PCIe Slots for PowerEdge 2950
341-3037
1 250GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
341-5734
1 PERC6i SAS RAID Controller, 2x4 Connectors, Int, PCIe, 256MB cache, x6 Bkpl
341-3685
1 No Floppy Drive for x6 Backplane
420-7118
1 Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition with SP2 Includes 5 CALs
310-8172
1 Optical Two-Button Mouse USB, Black
430-1764
1 Embedded Broadcom NetXtreme II5708 GigabitEthernet NIC
313-3923
1 Dell Remote Access Card, 5th Generation for PowerEdge Remote Management
313-3934
1 24X IDE CD-RW/DVD ROM Drive for PowerEdge 2950
313-3920
1 Bezel for PE 2950
311-7936
1 1x6 Backplane for 3.5-inch Hard Drives
310-7415
1 Electronic Documentation and OpenManage CD Kit, PE2950
341-3037
1 250GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
341-5723
1 Integrated SAS/SATA RAID 5, PERC 6/i Integrated
310-7412
1 Universal Sliding Rapid/Versa Rails, includes Cable Management Arm
310-9897
1 Redundant Power Supply with Y-Cord
984-1399
1 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service Inital YR
970-4070
1 Basic Enterprise Support: Business Hrs 5X10 Next Business Day Onsite Service Post Problem Diagnosis Init YR
984-1417
1 Dell Hardware Warranty, Extended Year(s)
960-8162
1 Basic Enterprise Support: Business Hrs 5X10 Next Business Day Onsite Service Post Problem Diagnosis 2YR Ext
960-8192
1 BASIC Enterprise Support: Business Hrs 5x10 Hardware Only Tech Phone Support, 3Yr, Declined Software Support
990-0569
1 DECLINED CRITICAL BUSINESS SERVER OR STORAGE SOFTWARE SUPPORT PACKAGE-CALL YOUR DELL SALES REP IF UPGRADE NEEDED
900-9997
1 On-Site Installation Declined
341-3037 1 250GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
341-3037 1 250GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
341-3037 1 250GB 7.2K RPM Serial ATA 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
310-4352 1 3000VA UPS 120 Volt, Battery Backup and Protection ,2U RackMount