Hi guys,
I'm in the process of building my own WHS from stratch but I need some other opinions as well :)
First configuration would be an AMD based one:
CPU AMD Sempron LE-1200, Socket AM2, 512K, bus 1600, 0.065u, 1.2-1.4V, 45W, 64bit, (2100 MHz), BOX
MB ASUS M2A-VM AMD 690G/SB600, Sk AM2 HT2000/1600, 4*DDR2-800/667/533 DualCh ECC, VGA on board, GB LAN
DIMM 1Gb DDR2, PC-6400, 800MHz, Kingston
2 x HDD Seagate, 500 GB, 7200rpm, 16Mb, Serial-ATAII 300

The 2nd configuration is Intel based:
CPU Intel Dual Core Celeron E1200, 1600MHz, Socket LGA775, 512K, bus 800, 0.065u, BOX
MB GIGABYTE G31M-S2L, Intel G31, s.775, FSB 1333, video, LAN

The rest of the components will remain the same.
I have a spare power suply + case and I will buy also a cheap UPS so that should be all.

Which one you will go for?
As you can clearly see - these are cheap things, nothing fancy - just to server my basic 2 PCs max home use.
To my main Desktop PC it will be connected through wired Gigabit LAN.
So here comes the question:
I will play movies most probably straight from WHS, HD quality maybe as well?
From what I read, the movies will be rendered on the PC that plays them, not on the one that hosts them on disk, so with the configurations above, I would be able to play movies/ HDs as well.

Of course, any other opinions / suggestions / ideas are very welcomed.
Many tks,
Chris

How about giving a price factor on both of these systems.

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If you think you can or you can't, you're right!

I ask because I can probably point you in a better direction within the price range.

My WHS was built out of parts laying around the house and the office, and I do all the things you are wanting to do with no problems.

You have to keep in mind the minimum requirements of the WHS O/S. Now im not saying to do only the minimum, but WHS is generally a headless server (no M, K/B, or MON) and requires very little processing power. You can put your money in add-ons instead of the basic components and have many more options.

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If you think you can or you can't, you're right!

I bought a $350 desktop on tigerdirect.com. It came with vista basic, I loaded WHS on it, and it runs great. I had lots of hard drives laying arround, so now I've got about a TB of storage, and it all works great.

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Doug Vanden Berg www.vandenbergstereo.com

I installed WHS on my old P4 2.4 pc.   I ran into issues with drivers.  For example, the PC has an ATI radeon card with no drivers for win-2003.  Not a big deal since you don't need graphics for a server. 

Just make sure your hardware supports win-2003 and you should be OK.

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Athlon 64 X2 6000+; MSI K9N Platinum; 2GB DDR2; NVIDIA geForce 8500GT - Purevideo HD; LG GGC-H20L BD/HDVD DVD+- RW; Twinhan VP1020 DVB-S; 1.2TB storage; Thermaltake Tsunami Case; Nspire - 550W PS; Vista Home Premium.

The best and easiest thing to do is to go with the amd configuration. They are known for their power sipping processors and provide more than enough power to run home server. remember all it does it hold data, you could even toss in a celeron chip but that makes alot of people cringe. For about 200 bucks i just got together a nice homeserver with a celeron and a gig of ram on a gigabit mobo and the thing runs like a pro

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media center is king!