[ubuntu-uk] LAN filesharing

[Lee Willis]

I'm looking to put a small server in place to store all of my digital 
photos/music etc. so I can keep them in one place (Instead of scattered 
between the study (XP Home) and the laptop (XP Home/Ubuntu) depending on 
where I am when I take them off the camera!). My first thought would be 
to get a cheap PC with a big hard drive, Ubuntu & SAMBA - however 
thinking about it a little more it'd be nice if the laptop/desktop could 
have their own local copies of the data (Mainly for performance reasons) 
and automatically keep themselves in sync.

So really, this email is a request for suggestions :)

My initial thoughts are either:
- Cheap NAS & forget about syncing (But would prefer PC as I can do 
unattended downloading every time the next ubuntu release etc. comes out!)
- Cheap PC (Anyone know of anywhere that sells OS-less cheap PCs in the 
UK?) with Ubuntu/SAMBA & forget about the syncing stuff
- Cheap PC  with Ubuntu/SAMBA & iFolder to keep everything in sync 
(Anyone used this?)

Any suggestions from people who've implemented one of the above (Or 
something similar), I'm particularly interested in how low a spec PC I 
could get away with for the PC options.

Any opinions gratefully received!

Thanks
Lee