Greetings and salutations!
First and foremost I am a Computer Science major! Secondly, this is my first post. Anyways here's what I've got.
Home server uses: Hamachi VPN, Streaming recorded television, file server, hosting a steam server or two (think Left 4 Dead 2, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2), it will be on 24/7 (or as much as possible), and maybe a small website.
Power usage requirements: I need low power consumption and a relatively quiet case and components; while not sacrificing on necessary performance. If quiet isn't possible, low power consumption is a higher priority.
Current network setup: My room houses the main cable modem, and wireless router. The router supports DDSN (but only DynDNS which is $20/year) which is what I will be using to get around our dynamic IP address. The download speed's average about 10mbps-15mbps and .95 mbps Upload speeds, I have two roomates who typically only use the connection at night time.
I am pretty interested in some sort of SSD to house the main OS (something small, like 64 GB's) and a larger HDD for data.
My budget would preferably be around $250-$300 but I can go beyond if necessary; I am going to be using consumer grade components. However, I found some used servers on ebay e.g. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-840-Xeon-X3210-2-13ghz-Quad-Core-4gb-500gb-CD-/290855747413?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item43b85a7f55 if this will satisfy my needs I have no issues buying used (except these don't seem to take SATA III or SSD's from first look).
Thanks for any help the community can provide! Constructive criticism welcome; I don't know everything! :)