We are transfering one of our web sites from a virtual private server to a dedicated server but not sure what type of processor, RAM and server configuration is need to support our current and future traffic needs. Of course our hosting provider has a few suggestions but we feel like they are trying to sell us more than we need.

Currently we do between 70 - 100 gigs of transfer a month and we need room to grow to 200 gigs per month. The site is a trading card site so a lot of card images are viewed. We are running a vBulletin message board and an online store written in PHP/MySQL. Most of the traffic is coming from the message board. We want to go with a Linux 7.x setup and we prefer to keep the server configuraton as simple as possible since we will be administering the server.

So our question is this; what configuration would we need to satisfy our requirements without breaking the bank?

Thanks in advance!

what are they suggesting?

A good server I would use for a growwing web site would be something like the following:
p3 1ghz
At least 512 mb ram
20gb 7200rpm hd
Redhat 7.1 or 7.3
30 Domain Plesk License (unless you can admin a server without a cpanel)