So I'm thinking of building a home server, mostly to use as a place for backing up stuff, and being able to get hold of files from anywhere.

I have been looking around for a cheap processor & motherboard, nothing fancy, or insanely powerful, I'm more looking for ones that are power efficient.

also I'm looking for suggestions for a rack case for it all to go into, something that's 1u in size, 2u if it really has to be, but I would prefer it to be 1u. and can accommodate 2 hard drives?

and as for an OS, I'm thinking of ubuntu home server, any other recommendations for anything else? or that's better?

I have been looking around for information on all this, but I'm not really finding much.