All Purpose Server

Hi! I need to build a server that will be capable of many things including: (most important to least)

1) PHP, Mysql, Apache Server (I do web development)
2) Back up (linux, windows, mac)
3) iTunes Storage
4) File Storage
5) Small DNS (for putting school documents on for download remotely)
6) Small LAN game server (3-4 players max on minecraft)


My biggest dilemma is what server software that I should choose that would do all of this. I could go without the LAN serving aspect, but everything else is essential. I was wondering if Windows Home Server 2011 could be capable of all this, or I could buy a refurb mac mini (with the 2.66 core2duo) because I've heard good things about the Mac OSX Server. Or if linux is capable, what add ons would I need for all of those?

Then hardware. I will probably need at least 1TB of storage. Should I raid some disks together or would a single 7200rpm disk be fast enough? I could also buy some 10,000 rpm disks. I am pretty open to ideas. Thanks for the help! (I have built a couple computers before and I am some-what comfortable with linux)

Use Windows server 2008 enterprise 32BIT. for the hardware. get a Motherboard with 2 1gb /s Lan. and add an extra 2 1Gb/s cards. for maximum network speeds. for the harddrives, get 4x 2tb HDD's in level 5 RAID. Use 2x 1tb in level 1 raid for the windows. that is a total of 6 drives.

the CPU and ram. i would say get an i7 2600 with 16Gb ECC ram

if you know linux verywell, i would say get ubuntu server and get apps for all the roles you want the server to do (i would go with Windows) but yeah. if your able to do it. go for it.

if you aren't fimiliar with RAID, let me explain. level 5 raid is putting 4 drives in as stripping and miroring. so at the end you will see 1 drive in My Computer as 4tb. not 8, because 2 drives is miroring what the other 2 are doing. so if one crashes you can add a new one and no data will be loss ect.

level 1 raid is only miroring. that is for the windows. so if one drive crashes, you can take it out and add a new one. windows and all will still be safe.

a second option is if you want to go HEAVY big. you can get a dual xeon motherboard. it uses 2 physical Cpus(it will cost you alot) and there is mobo's that use 3 PSU's so you have 100% uptime. the system will never be shut down.

there are many options.