home server hardware requirements

Hi,
I am looking to buy a server for my home and i dont really know what hardware i really need to do this.

Here is what i want to do.

I want a central location to store all of my files. I am a photographer and i end up with about 750GB - 1TB per year of data
I really only need the last 2 years of data available to share. the rest i would archive.

From this central location i want to be able access these files from any one of 3 machines - all running XP. I want all of my application to reside on these 3 machines such that the server is really just a storage device. I would like the server to act as a print server also, so i dont have to install printer software on each machine as i have now.

I have no interest in accessing any of these files outside of my little home network. I do not want this to be a web server either.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Andy

 

You may want to consider a Network Attached Storage (NAS) solution. Buffalo's TeraStation http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1177693 would hold 1.5 Terabytes on a RAID 5 drive set for less cash than most servers. NAS is designed to do exactly what you want, just provide a file share for networked computers.

You can also attach external USB drives directly to it for backing up if you want to. It looks like it also supports a printer connection. You will have to install the printer software to each computer. This is always the case, just most servers will auto install it for you when you connect to the share.