budget fileserver/webserver

[GotNoRice]

Currently I have a small webserver/fileserver that fills a number of small roles:

Web Server to host files on the web
File server, basically a place where I can put old drives where they will be accessible via the network.
I use it to run my EMU 0404 PCI soundcard. The 0404 doesn't have Windows 7 drivers yet (and the vista ones have issues) and I don't have room for another PCI card in my main rig anyway. The soundcard functions like an external DAC for my X-Fi.

My primary concern when I built it was to keep power consumption absolutely as low as possible since I can't really afford to have any other power-hungry rigs going given how much my main system uses. the current hardware is:

Celeron 366mhz, 256mb PC66 or PC100, Sis chipset motherboard.

The slow speed of the computer doesn't affect the 0404 or it's ability to act as a webserver but file transfers take way too long and I'd like to run some torrents on there eventually as well. I'm just not sure what I would replace it with. Here are a few candidates:

Potential server1:
ASUS CUV4X (Via Apollo Pro 133A chipset)
Pentium 3 700Mhz (100fsb) running at 933mhz (133fsb). Not sure if I would keep it overclocked or not.

Potential server2:
Soyo K7VTA-Pro (Via KT133A chipset)
AthlonXP 1700+

Potential server3:
Intel VC820 (Intel 820 chipset w/ PC133)
Pentium 3 600Mhz (133fsb)

I have other options as well such as an old Pentium 4 system, some old Dual AthlonMP systems, even a rackmount dual-xeon server, but I think those would all be a bit too power-hungry. I'm leery about making a server using one of the Via chipsets, but then again I seem to recall the 820 intel boards that used PC133 instead of Rambus had their share of problems also. I've also thought about using an Atom or something but I'd like to use existing hardware if possible.

 

[NukeULater]

I use a 800MHz P3 as my file server and torrent box. It's specs are in my sig. It runs really well and has been for years.

 

[Dangman]

The slow speed of the computer doesn't affect the 0404 or it's ability to act as a webserver but file transfers take way too long and I'd like to run some torrents on there eventually as well. I'm just not sure what I would replace it with. Here are a few candidates:

File transfers usually depends on the following:
- The network itself (an all gigbit network helps here)
- The hard drives themselves (IDE drives are pretty slow in general)
- The storage controller on the motherboard

So have you ruled those three out yet?

 

[GotNoRice]

File transfers usually depends on the following:
- The network itself (an all gigbit network helps here)
- The hard drives themselves (IDE drives are pretty slow in general)
- The storage controller on the motherboard

So have you ruled those three out yet?

Not sure really. I have an old Intel Pro/100 adapter in there right now but I'm not even coming close to hitting the limits of 100mbit, I'm transferring files to it at barely over 1Mbps. Also whenever I VNC into it, it just makes it all worse as the VNC process is enough to bring the 366mhz celeron to it's knees. The server itself is a kludge and I never intended for it do do half the things I'm doing on it when I built it (it's running XP and hosting my web server for example....) so it really needs to be rebuilt regardless.