What kind of webserver should I buy?

[MonsterMind]

Dear webmasters,<br /><br />Next week I'm gonna switch to dedicated hosting, but I'm not sure what kind of webserver I should buy.<br /><br />I'm not a real tech dude, so I hope some of you guys can give me some advise <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="cool.gif" /> <br /><br />Some specs/details:<br />- 15 websites/accounts<br />- 100 gb/month traffic<br />- all sites use PHP/MySQL intensively<br />- webserver and MySQL server on 1 machine<br />- little overkill is needed: when traffic hits 300 gb it still needs to run smoothly<br /><br />My main questions about the server/hardware<br />- single or dual processor? What clockspeed?<br />- amount of internal memory?<br />- single SCSI or RAID? 10k/rpm? 15k/rpm?<br />- which operating system? Linux? FreeBSD?<br />- everything I forgot that's important...<br /><br />The price is not really important: the performance, stability and warranty/quality/service are my main concern. But I hope to succeed within a $5000 budget. But if it's really necessary to spend more, I will.<br /><br />I'm looking forward to your advice, thank you guys in advance!<br /><br />Greets, Robert<br /><br />P.S. I already have a good provider, so I don't need advice on that...

[daveman]

You should try rackshack.net. They'll give you a dedicated machine with 400gig monthly transfer for $100/month. I think that is pretty cheap :-)

[daveman]

Oops, i didn't see that you had a provider. Sorry.

[AgentCash]

With that kind of budget you could build yourself 5 servers. <a href="http://www.pricewatch.com" target="_blank">http://www.pricewatch.com</a><br />I stand by my RaQ4's but they're pricey. If your sites rely that heavily on processor intensive activities, you'd be much better off with multiple load-balanced $1000 servers than with a dual or quad processor $5000 money burner. Just MHO.

[AgentCash]

And just to add... I wouldn't go with rackshack if they paid me to host with them. There's a reason they're so cheap... wanna find out? Try 'em for a month <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" />

[daveman]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by AgentCash:<br /><strong>And just to add... I wouldn't go with rackshack if they paid me to host with them. There's a reason they're so cheap... wanna find out? Try 'em for a month <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" /> </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Please tell us <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> , I've heard a lot of good stuff about rackshack.net

[AgentCash]

Hey I won't waste my time trying to convince you otherwise, I'll let them do that themselves. Lets just say that I've never seen such piss-poor hosting in my life.

[toker]

Well for 100-300GB a month you can use just about anything its not that much really. I would get a PIII 800-900Mhz 512MB Dell or IBM server for that kinda traffic plus it can handle more if you need to later on. <br /><br />I would say this is an idea server for you and not to expensive to start off. <br /><a href="http://www.dell.com/us/en/esg/topics/esg_pedge_rackmain_servers_1_pedge_350.htm" target="_blank">http://www.dell.com/us/en/esg/topics/esg_pedge_rackmain_servers_1_pedge_350.htm</a><br /><br />Never cut yourself short and those cobalt servers are garbage dont waste your money because they make better paper weight then servers. You dont realy need a high end server till you are pushing some heavy traffic and 300GB is nothing. <br /><br />Also warrenty is a big factor if your not leasing the server you want to be sure your covered and replaced quickly if it should fail. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" />

[Jorge]

buying a computer is like purchase of a new car. a minute after you leave the shop, price drops by XX per cent.<br />better get dedicated hosting or lease-to-own plan, you get better value for your money, and you can avoid lots of headache.<br />think of guarantee, hardware failure, fbi raids, hosting (colo) company bankrupcy, later you can have some argues with them, they won´t ship your server in time ...

[shane94]

Contact Preston of HiEndMedia at 69658209 He has some kick ass deals on servers!<br /><br />Shane

[porntowers.com]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by toker:<br />[QB]Well for 100-300GB a month you can use just about anything QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">True. Some people blow so much money on power they won't even use. Just build a simple Linux server with power that corresponds to your projected traffic/usage. When it becomes relevant to upgrade do just that and don't buy a whole new system. You'll save tons of $.<br /><br />Late,<br />Kyle

[Due]

Get a dual AMD MP.<br />Put in 512 MB DDR ram, 1 Gig if you are gonna run trade scripts and a SCSI disc. 10K rpm is fine for most.<br />I've seen a dual MP with 512 MB ram use 20 mbit and it had a load average on 0.05 so I doubt you will run into problems with that machine <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" />

[ProgGod]

I wouldn't recommend a dual anything. Due to the way processes are switched in the kernel, you lose a good 50% of power from one of the CPUs. Then add in the fact that all the new software, include apache 2.0 uses pthreads, and that makes the second CPU useless altogether. Since pthreads are not multi-cpu except on solaris, and possibly linux. <br /><br />Then again by running linux you make your machine half as efficent as a freebsd machine <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="smile.gif" /> <br /><br />Anyhow a good Athlon or P4, w/ 512-1gig of ram. I wouldn't even get SCSI, not worth the money. Just get two IBM 7200rpm IDE drives, and raid them using vinum on freebsd, or something similiar. Pick striping for speed.

[flyingiguana]

don't buy ibm 7200 rpm ide drives. the last 2 i had both broke. when i get my replacement in 4-6 weeks i'm sellin the damn thing. let some other sucker worry about it when it breaks.

[porntowers.com]

Hey that's true I have returned 2 already! Originally I bought them because a fellow I was building a PC for insisted on having only IBM drives. So ordered in bulk to get a little discount. Well, that was the last time I do that! They are POS they even sound like shit when they are seeking almost like they'll fall apart... Creek creek it's terrible. <br /><br />I have yet to have a problem with Maxtor drives though. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" />

[ProgGod]

Overall ibm is the best, althought i heard recently they had a bad batch, but they will replace them with a different drive with in 24 hours.. Thats why yuo do raid, if one fails you just swap it out.<br /><br />Maxtors and Western Digitals, i have returned more drives, then i can count.

[flyingiguana]

i don't know any place around here that will replace an ibm drive any less than 4-6 weeks. they need to be shipped to toronto because no wholesaler will sell ibm drives here. way too many of the 7200 rpm deskstars are died. <br /><br />maybe their scuzzy drives are solid, but their ide drives are complete garbage.

[flyingiguana]

we need an edit function hehe