Are questions about acceptable hardware for given OS on topic

Question

I am looking at replacing my home server and trying to understand how a specific CPU will perform in my environment with a specific OS. Are such questions on-topic?

For more clarity, my question is roughly (although I would expand some details so as not to keep important info hidden behind links obviously):

I am looking at a inexpensive and low power home server to run Windows Server 2012 Essentials R2. I see there are some server versions of the Atom processor but I am concerned because the clock speeds are below Microsoft's recommended requirements although they do exceed the minimum requirements.

So for a server box that will do nothing else but acting in the Server 2012 R2 Essentials role, is an Atom processor sufficient power, or should I opt for a more powerful processor in the Xeon family? I am interested in an Atom because the low power consumption is extremely appealing since I already have enough higher-power hardware running 24/7, but it is not a hard requirement.

Answer 1

Im not a big moderator or some guy like that, but in my opinion, yes.

I'll say it like this:

You're looking for a banana peeler. However, you need to peel magical bananas that are only available to use with one certain type of peeler. You therefore ask for a peeler that will work well with this magical peeler.

The other reason is that we close off-topic questions for being to BROAD. This question doesn't seem broad. He gives what he needs to do with the piece of hardware, the options he is looking at, and what support he needs. The fact that he is looking for a hardware-piece optimized for server 2012 will cross out all the Linux options, just making it easier for an answer that will be useful.

More on the topic here:

Are questions related to third party hosting requirements on topic?