I want to build a stand-alone server, help?

[Paveslave]

What are the key ingredients for a decent gaming server. I am tired of other people lagging when I am hosting an online multiplayer game like Halo. I thought my setup was good enough to host and play games like that, but apparently it's not.
What are the basics to building a stand-alone server, what components exactly do I need to complete on, i.e: graphics card, memory, motherboard, harddrive, and so on. What is a decent combno with todays hardware at a decent price. I'm not setting a price limit, but I am hoping it wont be as close to this computer when I built it, hehe.

 

[kursplat]

my medal of honor server is a cheap ESC K7S5A mb with a 1333 palamino and 512 memory. it has no problem running a teamspeak server , spearhead and breakthrough at the same time in dedicated mode ,a couple of game admin programs, tight VNC so i don't have to walk across the house and playing a DVD all at the same time. mines not a "pure" server , as i watch movies on it too , but the cheapest video and no sound sound is what you want. for a hard drive i just swaped from a 20 wd and 40 maxtor to a single 120 baracuda. (the one that comp usa had on sale). didn't see a difference from that.
don't know if you have a router already but you'll want to research port settings and such for the game your running. you might also need to get another copy of the same game your serving so you can join with a different CD key. although you have the advantage of joining from the LAN side and may not need to.
access it remotely you don't need a moniter ,key board ect.
good luck