XPEH,
Thanks for the info! That pretty much seals the decision for me as that was my only holdup between the two, and in fact I will be much better off using ESXi, I like it, I just didn't like the 32GB limitation.
I also didn't consider that as it is all emulated, I could emulate an IDE channel for the install, perfect!
As for the final question, No I don't believe that the server I am using is the BEST answer, but it is in hand, can't beat that right? Plus, compared to my current setup, it will be a step in the power savings area, I currently have a desktop PC running FreeNAS and a server running ESXi, I am going to consolidate the two, into 1. The other reason for the move is that my desktop has only 4 drives in it and expanding it would cost me more money and a reconfigure anyway, this chassis has 8 bays that are ready to go.
I plan on eventually creating a NAS out of the current desktop, but I need to do this step first to convert and preserve my data...