Please help me build a basic home server/multimedia PC

[ibex333]

I have some parts left over from my old system, and since I cant sell em for any sort of a descent buck, I decided to maybe keep em and build another computer.

The hardware:

Wolfdale e5200
Gigabyte EP-45-UD3L
4 Gigs DDR2 Ram
1TB Hard Drive (for now)
video card - ATI 4650 (probably overkill, but eh.. I have it and for the money I can sell it at might as well keep)
DVD Drive - cheapo LiteOn drive.
sound - integrated off course...
Zerotherm nirvana LGA 775 cooler
Monitor - none. I want to remotely connect.



Intended usage:

1)I am hoping to work as a server admin/network engineer in the future, so I will be running Server 2008 R2 on this thing.

2)Maybe some kind of Linux server distro instead?

3)This Computer will be used to stream (or play directly through DVI cable) movies on my TV.

4)It will contain at least four 1-3 TB harddrives, and I am planning to add 2-3 more later to store my massive downloads collection.

Concerns questions:

1)Is it viable/plausible/reasonable/possible to use this PC as a server and for movie playing at the same time?

2)Can I do a dual boot with Server 2008 and Linux? I know the whole idea of a server is to be on 24/7 and provide access to files or services. But this is for my home, so off course I am cool with taking it offline every now and then, experimenting with various services, etc, etc.

3)Should I buy a server case or will any spacious PC case do? If I need a server case, what kind of case would you recommend?

4)If I want this computer to connect wirelessly to other computers in my home, should ALL computers have wireless NICs? I have a wireless router already, do I still need wireless NICs? If I do what kind should I buy? Recommend something please?

Anything else I should consider? I know very little about servers so maybe I got this whole thing figured out wrong?

 

[mfenn]

1) Yes, though if you want to play media back directly to the TV, using a Server OS requires a bit more work to get everything set up.
2) Yes.
3) Any old case will work fine. Of course, if you plan to play media directly to the TV, you will want something that has an appropriate WAF.
4) I strongly recommend using wired Ethernet for a server. Everything that's connected to the wireless router (via whatever mechanism) is on the same LAN and send data to any other machine.