Potential xServe/OSX Server Buyer Advice

Hello all,

Well I have somehow managed to pick up my first consulting client and I need some advice. My primary responsibility with this company is not office technology but they are very busy and are asking for my help in moving to a new server and network. The president is aware of the benefits that can come with open source software and the MIS/IT guy is turning on to Apple hardware as I talk with him more, so what I am wondering is, how do I go about deciding if a G5 PowerMac or xServe with Panther Server is right for the company? A friend in IT suggested that he would try to get *two* other-brand servers for the price of an xServe and dedicate one to print and file sharing and have redundancy if one crashes.

This is a small engineering organization. The internal stuff shouldn't be too demanding at all, just email and sharing big files, and the website should get a fair number of hits, but nothing to which I'd dedicate a server.

Do I really need to be worried about system failure on a G5 with Panther Server? Should I consider a redundant server? How well will a PowerMac run as a server?

Thanks for any help.

As it is, they don't even have a true server, just a peer-to-peer network where the "server" is really just another PC with a shared hard disk.

They aren't serving their own website or email at all right now.