Currently I have a Raspberry Pi connected to TV, LAN and NAS, I use it to enjoy all my multimedia files through an OpenELEC distribution with Kodi. I like it and everything is working fine. I just wondered if it's possible to replace the Raspberry Pi with a PC and also make it working as a server. The PC is equipped with a Xeon X3360 and a ATI Radeon HD5450, I was thinking of turning it into a home server (Ubuntu Server working like file server, print server and torrent downloader for the moment), and install Kodi on it. A practical solution that let Kodi visible and accessible via TV (Currently I can control Kodi with the remote control of the TV thanks to HDMI, the Radeon should allow to do the same because it's also equipped with HDMI port), but that also allows to control the Ubuntu Server (access via ssh or rather through a visual interface from another pc) to download torrents and perform other common tasks.
I hope I have explained the idea in a right way. In case, is it possible? If yes, which distro (Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, etc.), what software and how to set it up. Thanks in advance.
It is possible. If I would do it like that, I would use whatever distribution I know best. If this is Ubuntu with you, I would use Ubuntu server as a base.
I would suggest though to use one PC as server (in a home environment I would opt for power efficient components, my guess would be the xeon cpu uses rather a lot power) and the raspberry pi with openELEC as client.
Why? A server makes noise, the hard drives and fans are loud, you don't want them near your living room. And secondly, most pc equipment doesn't support cec (thats what enables your pi/kodi being controlled via HDMI with the TVs remote.)
If you still want to do your idea, use Ubuntu server, samba for file sharing, cups for printing, rtorrent in a screen for torrents, kodi with a basic graphical environment for playing videos and a USB CEC adapter for control through the TV remote.