Hello everyone reading this, thanks for your time. I have several questions in regards to colocating a server with theplanet.com.

I am looking for the ability to host several sites with a small amount of traffic each (no more than 30 GB per month for any one site), and I want to be able to expand to meet my web development/personal needs. PHP, perl, MySQL, and a small amount of other stuff. I can manage the server myself and please don't tell me I don't need to colocate, because I am going to do it anyways.

Pogolinux.com has nice machines, but I am looking for another company (to compare prices) that will stand behind its product and is not Dell, Gateway, Compaq, HP, etc. I prefer to avoid the big names if possible. Any suggestions? I am trying to spend below $1500 on this machine, the lower the better.

I really want dual processors... but pogo's base dual machine starts at over $1700. Can anyone speak to the general performance of a single 2+GHz P4 v. a dual processor machine for basic web serving functions? Is it worth the extra $700+ for serving no more than 20 sites?

Lastly, who generally has the best colocation deals with the emphasis on quality and not necessarily the cheapest price?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

ThePlanet is excellent for colocation. If you need their support though, its a bit pricey at $150/hour.

Why dont you just get a tower system with dual processors?

Can you tell me if a tower 'counts' as 1U-6U? I have been quoted at $50 per month for 8 IPs and 100GB of transfer.... FYI.

Tower will usually count on 4U depending on the size. Also the cpu power is not really important. What you want to buy is ram and a motherboard that can support up to 4gb. A dual p3 system with 2 gb of ram is going to probably fit your bill.

Are we talking mid tower, or does it need to be smaller? Also, does the tower case need any special requirements to be mounted? In theory I could just build my own server... I am not sure if I trust my own handy work as much as a warranty, though.

Thanks for the excellent replies, everyone!

You can build a Dual 1.4Ghz tualitin p3 server that will beat the pants off any p4 server for around the $2,000 mark.

Go with a Tyan s2507 (or 2505, can't remember), 2x p3 1.4ghz, Mylex SCSI Raid controller, some u160 (or u320) hard drives, crucial ram, and a nice case, and you'll be good to go!

:D

BTW - lots of people are afraid of building their own servers, but if you buy quality components like I listed above, you'll have no problems!

<edit>
Ok, so I reread your post. If you're willing to spend $1500 on a machine to colocate, trust me $500 extra is not that much to insure that you have a *sweet* machine that will most likely give you NO problems.

Just think about how much of a hassle it will be to get theplanet to swap out a failed ram chip, or a failed hard drive, etc. Go with ultra high quality now, and you won't regret it! ;)

A mid-tower should be fine as long as it has enough space for heat and ventilation inside. Consider adding a couple fans just to be oon the safe side. If you don't feel comfortable building a server, have a local PC shop to do it ... they normally do it for about $50 - $150 depending as long as you bought the parts.

Alternatively, you can ask your colo provider to put it together for you providing that you sent the parts.