Home boot servers, any advice?

[stevensspam at cox.net]

So I was thinking to myself, "Self, terabyte disks are absurdly cheap now. You should build a file and backup server to replace that old and slow Stora." And sure enough there are great prices on disks that cost a fortune only a few years ago. And then I though, "Hey, if this potential box is going to be sitting in the living room spinning rust 24/7 surely I should get some extra work out of the electricity cost. Which got me thinking about stuff like taking dhcp off the cheap router we're currently using, which eventually lead to thinking about setting up a boot server with OS installers and utility discs.

I've been doing some googling and it doesn't look like it's all that complicated. But I thought I'd poke the local Plug hive mind and see if anyone had any advice. Whether, "flee now while you have your sanity," or suggestions on tools and howtos.