Building a media server with a old PC

[Space Edge]

I'm thinking of doing this to a old PC I have laying around

http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_make_your_pc_media_server

Do any of you have a similar setup? Or is there a better/easier way of doing this ?

I want to be able to access media from the old PC using my Macboobk Pro I want to be able to use external HD's connected to the old PC also.

[instrument]

I would install ubuntu and mediatomb, if you have a ps3 mediatomb will stream to it as well.

Works great for me, I run it headless and just use remote viewer from win/macs/linux comps.

[Space Edge]

I decided to installing FreeNAS so far it's ok. A few other people have suggested other things I may look into those.