Two machines = two different systems to break in for a potential attacker. Even if your gateway becomes compromised, your file server will survive.
One machine = two different users to break in. For some people it is equal to the previous scenario, but IMHO breaking in a local user using some sort of local exploit is a hundred times easier than to attack a new system.
So using one machine is not secure as using two machines. But it is cheaper and simplier. So it is up to you to decide if you need so high-level of security. For a home/neighbourhood network I'd prefer one machine in order to reduce cost.
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