Home Server Setup

I'm looking at setting up a server at home running Leopard Server once it ships to replace my current server which is a G4/500 running regular Tiger. My wife and I each have a laptop which is our work machine, and I've created a data share on the G4 using SharePoints which is auto mounted at login so that all data is stored on the share. No data is stored on the laptops except for those that must be stored there (preferences, Mail archives, etc). The reasons I'm considering Leopard Server vice Client for the server are portable homedirectories and Open Directory for network login. While I am aware that Leopard isn't shipping yet . . .I don't believe most of the questions I have are Leopard specific and would be interested in any guidance or recommendations for how to proceed. 1. In general, does Server have any performance penalty over Client on a given piece of hardware? I'm not serving websites or running mail . . .just file services and (once I'm running Server) portable homedirs and Open Directory authentication. 2. If I am currently using a user name of user1 on my laptop for daily use . . .can I easily convert that user into a portable homedirectory user or do I need to create a new username and move the homedirectory data appropriately? In other words; is the conversion from a local username of user1 with local authentication and homedirectory to OD authentication and portable homedirectory pretty transparent or a pain? 3. Same as #2 but regarding the username user1 . . .how does the local workstation know that user1 is now an OD authentication vice local? 4. What happens once user1 is converted to an OD username and the laptop is at Starbucks with no connection to the OD server . . .does it use a cached copy of the credentials or what? I'm assuming that OD authentication goes hand in hand with the portable authentication so that the network OD server and homedirectory are used when the laptop is at home and the cached copy of the authentication and homedirectory when away . . .is this correct? 5. Since I'll only be running a single instance of Leopard Server . . .what's the best way to backup the OD database. Can a copy of Client run as an OD replica or do I just need to separately backup the database for restoration if required. 6. How do portable homedirectories perform as far as synchronization goes? I'm currently running an MBP and a MacBook across 100BaseT . . .but will be upgrading to one of the 802.11N Airport Extreme base stations soon . . this will give me N speed for the MBP and G only for the MacBook. Homedirs are in the 8 GB or so range in total size. Thanks in advance . . .looking forward to some recommendations on proceeding.