Building a home server

Hey there.

I'm planning to build a home server. My dream for it is that it will sit there running all day, and every time my pcs connect to the network, it will back up any new or changed files on them.

I will then also be able to use it for remote access when away from home, meaning i dont have to leave on my other pcs.

So it doesn't need to be fast, but it does need to be able to have about 2 tb of HDD. I also need a software solution that will do the backup how i want.

Do people recommend XP with third party software, or should i look at windows server, and if so which one.

Finally, the less energy it uses, the better - since itll be always on. It wont need a graphics card or sound, so i can take them out to save on power draw.

Any ideas welcome!

Bless,
Chris

Thanks for the reply. Okay, so what kinda motherboard would you recommend? You see i was thinking just getting a second hand pc off ebay, then just adding a couple of hench hard drives.

Probably XP (if i get a secondhand one, itll come with XP free). There are several types of sync/backups progs that wouldn't need an agent.

It would be specific folders, but huge ones. Ideally i want it to vaguely run in the background, but have an option i can start if i know im going to need to access the files remotely, so i can press it, turn off my desktop, and access the files off my server remotely, the server already having copied it for me. You understand?

Thanks

How much are you willing to spend on it? Ideally if you are using it to back up files you should have a raid 1 or 5 setup for redundancy.