I have been running Windows Home Server on a computer which I made out of spare components for some years ago. But I am tired of that OS now, I want to run a linux dist + Windows Server 2008.
So I looked into virtualisation and found ESXi and vSphere Hypervisor (free yay 
).
First here are the spec of the computer:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
4GB Ram
~5TB storage divided on 4 disks that are different sizes
MSI G31TM-P35 Motherboard (Intel ICH7)
What I have read, I need to buy another network card (that is fine by mine). But other than that, what are the possibilities of this computer running ESXi?
As I said, it will mainly run 2 VMs, Windows Server 2008 and maybe Ubuntu Server. In the future I'll maybe run a third VM.
I would like to know the performance efficiency of running ESXi vs Normal windows for example. Sometimes there will be heavy load on the Windows VM (when converting movies etc.), then I want that VM to run with like full power. Sometimes there will maybe be some heavy process running on the ubuntu vm. But there won't be a continious heavy load on the VMs.
So yeah, am I really off now?
I have tried running Workstation, but I don't feel I am getting the power I want. Also, vSphere and ESXi seems way cooler 