Been googling about and searching the forums, but I figured i'd just come out and ask.

 

I have no linux experience whatsoever.

 

I only want one machine in my house running 24/7, and i'm trying to figure out if a potential unraid server could do everything i need it to do.

 

all of my media aggregation is done through a virtual xp machine running through virtualbox.  it takes care of all my torrent downloading, podcasts, dropbox, and ftp.

 

If i were to put together a budget Unraid server, would it be possible to install my virtual machine and have it running either from a ssd cache drive or the memory?

There are several dated and rather intimidatingly complicated threads on the subject, but I wanted to know if you guys thought it was feasible for someone with no linux experience to even attempt something like this.

 

If it turns out that I can have my good ol' virtual xp machine running quietly and unobtrusively alongside all my data in one tidy box in a closet somewhere, i'd be a happy happy man. 

possible... yes, will it probably take you all weekend... yes.  unRAID is not designed, built, nor advertised for what you want to do with it.  The beauty of it being Linux means you can do that to it... it just takes a little work.

I'm guessing that this sort of setup would be broken if I ever wanted to update my version of unraid.  perhaps I should reexamine my goals with this project and figure out an alternative solution.

Nope typically unRAID lives in a USB stick and is updated with key file changes but all. Basically make all your custom file changes and it should reload everytime you reboot.