As my business has grown and expanded I've been thinking about building my own file server to keep back ups on documents. Without going into details, having an off-site back up (like Mozy) is out of the question. When I left my old job they have me their old server as they upgraded. That was five years ago. Their OLD server is a PIII 500 MHZ, 1 GB RAM system. It was ancient when I started working there! Still, it runs strong. The tower is huge and has lots of room for hard drives, CD or DVD drives, etc., but I am concerned about how weak the processor is. At one time this server was attached to a CD bank with 16 CD drives in it. I have the CD bank as well. I recently came into possession of two Dell Optiplex GX240 towers. P4 2.4 GHZ 1 GB RAM systems. Both work well. While I am satisfied with the faster processor, the towers are much smaller than the old server tower, therefore there is less flexibility for things like drives, additional fans, etc. However, with the faster processor, the computer could do more. I considered removing the Mobo from the Optiplex and putting it in the old server's case, but that would be too much work from appearances. The core function will be to simply protect my work data; Mostly MS Word files, PDFs, a few photos and a few home movies. I don't need it to stream data or movies, or to play games, etc. I just need it to keep my core files safe from catastrophic failure and sync files the smaller files (like the PDFS and Word Docs) between two locations over a VPN. My wife would like an extra drive to protect family photos, etc. I have a RAID card and will likely configure two drives in a RAID 1 configuration. 1) Will the OLD file server (running Windows 2000 Server) be able to complete this task adequately? 2) How much better off would I be with the Optiplex as the file server? 3) My budget for this project is little more than zero, so buying new components is NOT an option. Any input into this decision making process would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!