I'm not above throwing X11 and XFCE on a server - there are just some admin tasks that can be done more efficiently with a few open xterms, a couple basic editors and a mouse. Once the work is done, back to the CLI and the server is none the worse for wear.
Honestly, in the world of quad core and gigs of RAM, the GUI is barely going to make a dent in the resources.
I've deployed a fleet of linux-based thin clients (debian/xfce) on hardware as lowly as P200 / 64MB RAM and although boot time is lengthy, they do the job nearly on par with the newer hardware.
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