First foray into building a load balancing server

Hey all!

Newbie to these forums

Just thought I'd announce myself before I start needing some serious help with my project.

I have set myself a project, maybe you can tell me if I am going down the right route.

I have two ADSL connections. One with a Static IP, one with a Dynamic IP

The static connection runs at 5120/896K
The dynamic connection runs at 6144/768K

I have two ADSL Routers (Billion 7402 - very good at eeking a higher sync on longer lines)
I will be configuring them for No-NAT or PPPoE Pass through (bridged); haven't decided which yet...

I will be building a server based on an Athlon 700 / 512Mb RAM / 40Gb Hard Drive
I have planned to use Clark Connect as the OS

Initially the only purpose the server will serve is load balancing (FTP / Torrents mostly)
With a view to expanding it into an SMTP server, webhost, FTP server, and Squirrelmail Webmail server in due course, and possibly a print server.

I have never setup a rig like this before, and am a n00b to Unix based OSes; hence the choice of ClarkConnect; Unix based but without all the itty bitty configuring to do.

The ClarkConnect box will have three NICs (one for each WAN interface, one for the LAN side network)

THe LAN side NIC will server a mixed wired / wireless network, by way of a Netgear switch and Netgear access point (yeah not really all that good a brand for a semi-serious setup, but I'm doing this on the cheap with kit I had lying around - budget is v. important in this project).

I'm going to start the setting up of all this kit tonight (about six hours time, probably as you're all on your lunch break with the time difference).

My query is really straightforward; Any of the pro's have any reccomendations, or forsee any problems?
Anything I should remember when doing this to prevent major foul ups?

Any input is greatly appreaciated, and I'm sure I'll be back on hear later wondering why the thing ain't working or getting grief from my ISP shouting at me for setting up an open relay to their SMTP server