I am going to build a server that will be used to simultaneously share a printer, host a PHP/Apache testing setup and run about four virtual machines at once. I know it may be cheaper to buy an off the shelf Windows PC and just upgrade the RAM but i prefer to build my own and not give money to Microsoft for a license that I will not be using. Unless of course, the license that comes with a PC can be used legally as a virtual machine under Linux.

Mainly, I am looking for suggestions about the following:

- I know that I will need plenty of RAM and at least a quad-core processor, but I wonder about the choice of video card. Does Nvidia or ATI have better driver support? I have no problem with using a non-free driver, because I need all the performance I can get. If I go with Intel integrated video, will the RC6 bug bother me at all or is the power consumption issue not that bad on a desktop?

- I am leaning toward an AMD solution due to cost and the fact that I have built AMD systems in the past and have been very happy with their performance. Is the difference in performance between Intel and AMD CPUs worth the cost for my use case?

- Any suggestions for a good, solid motherboard with gigabit Ethernet and 16GB RAM capacity? I do not intend to overclock at all. My needs are modest, but this machine will be running 24/7.

- Is VNC good enough for remote access to this system? I may need to go in from time to time and restart a VM or do some other menial maintenance when away from home.

- Are there any other issues I should think about?

I appreciate any ideas you can offer.