I am interested in becoming a webhost, I have thought about it before but never thought about owning a server. However, I do have some questions before I get ahead of my self:

1. Build or buy a server?
a. If I buy, where? (Looking for best prices)
b. If I build, where should I buy the parts? (Pricewatch.com?)

2. Should I go colocation or dedicated?
a. What is usually better for a startup?
b. What kind of prices am I looking at for a colocation or dedicated plan? (Medium - High end plans)

3. Who is a good dedicated/colo provider?
a. I've heard a lot about rackshack, but who else is there that is just as good or better?

4. How much should I invest?
a. Colo
b. Dedicated

Thank you for your time,
Blake.

1. Build or buy a server?
a. If I buy, where? (Looking for best prices)

not sure...

b. If I build, where should I buy the parts? (Pricewatch.com?)

Go to pricewatch.com, but i recommend newegg.com, crucial.com

2. Should I go colocation or dedicated?

Provide replacement hardware if hardware fails without charge and usually have it fixed rather quick.

a. What is usually better for a startup?

Dedicated

b. What kind of prices am I looking at for a colocation or dedicated plan? (Medium - High end plans)

Not sure, usually around 100-150 dollars

3. Who is a good dedicated/colo provider?

Dialtone.com - Provides ok equipment (IBM), on the expensive side, they monitor your servers, support always quick, but always looking to charge for support, 100% reliable. Gets expensive...

ezzi.net - Excellent equipment, often uses Dell servers or custom builds, support not as good as dialtone, but very helpful. Maybe not as good for a first time admin on a server, but with some experience. Prices very competetive

Rackspace - Good support and servers, a tid bit expensive

Burstnet - ok, they have had some customer relations issues but i think if you just want a server they are good

Rackshack.net - CHEAP, but unmanaged, your on your own here.

there are thousands more but....

4. How much should I invest?
a. Colo - I personally would only colo if i was within driving distance of the data center incase hardware needed replacing otherwise you have to ship or buy one from the NOC...EXPENSIVE

b. Dedicated - Start with 1 server, but dont skimp on the CPU or hard drive or memory. You should be able to get something between 200-250 for a good price. Make sure you get at least 40-50 GB with it for bandwidth.

SuperMicro.com has some nice products. Some of the Dell servers have good pricing. It all depends, you could build or buy one already built. Depends on what you're looking to do.. (short post, sorry)

1. Build or buy a server?
a. If I buy, where? (Looking for best prices)
b. If I build, where should I buy the parts? (Pricewatch.com?)

2. Should I go colocation or dedicated?
a. What is usually better for a startup?
b. What kind of prices am I looking at for a colocation or dedicated plan? (Medium - High end plans)

3. Who is a good dedicated/colo provider?
a. I've heard a lot about rackshack, but who else is there that is just as good or better?

4. How much should I invest?
a. Colo
b. Dedicated



#1 If you are very comfortable building your own systems, build, if you're not 100% comfortable building a system that will be required to be online and available 24/7/365 then buy.

#2 I found dedicated to be cheaper in the short run, yet colo to be cheaper in the long run if you are successful and begin adding servers later.

#3 What is your "target" to host? I don't know if I'd try to host, say, a million a year in online sales type e-commerce site on a rackshack, they're fine for basic hosting, even small time ecommerce, I use them for 3 servers myself, but I'm trying to now reach out to more professional web sites, larger ecommerce sites, and that sort, so I'm moving things to a data center I feel can supply as near to 100% as can be found. Let's face it you can't offer 99.9% uptime when the datacenter network you're connected to barely can to 99.4 (numbers pulled from thin air).

#4 Well, all you can afford, or rather as much as it takes to reliably host your servers.