linux server

[Tim Weaver]

Well, wife and I went out and bought a bunch o' hardware, so I will get my
very own Linux box upon which I can dabble in our internal network at home.

I am wanting to learn/experiment/etc with Apache and NFS and maybe a mail
server.  Realizing that in the real world, one wouldn't likely have all
these services on one machine, I am doing it at home for $$ reasons.  Thus
my question to you:

How would you advise setting up the box?  Should I create some sort of
partition for each service or can I just install all the stuff on the HD and
access the services from the box as needed (does this even make sense)?

Thanks for your patience with this obvious newbie.
Tim