Thanks fenderman.
I just finished downloading
BlueIris so I'll play around a bit to be more familiar before I buy dedicated PCs.
We were given some high quality, but now a bit older 720p IP cameras. So I doubt that they will generate too much traffic. I'm guessing we may be upgrading some of those to the newer generation stuff in time - so I'll try to purchase enough processing power to allow for that. I am a fan of lower power/heat processors in general, and might be willing to pay more for it. But getting adequate performance trumps energy efficiency.
The PC will be remote from the monitor - so if web is lame, lame is what we'll live with until there is a remote monitor client.
Good news on the graphics acceleration. This bodes well for growing resolution requirements.
ben