question before purchasing a client

[Dan.]

My server machine has a very strong hardware.
I want to buy 2 new machines to serve as clients.
my video library contains mostly 720p, 1080p .mkv files.
playing those files with subtitles requires about 50% of servers cpu usage.
stuttering and freezing occurs while playing those files with older
hardware (p4 3.0ghz)
My question is, when i want to watch those files with a client, which cpu does most of the work - the client's or the server's? since if the server is taking all the burden than i can get along with cheaper hardware for the clients.

[sub]

My question is, when i want to watch those files with a client, which cpu does most of the work - the client's or the server's?

It is almost entirely the client cpu.

[Dan.]

ok, thanks