so i'm following this guide howtoforge.com/perfect-server-centos-5.4-x86_64-ispconfig-3-p6

and wanted to know is there anyway to reduce memory useage? they have you installing a lot of mail related services are they all really needed?

I can disable its antivirus, amavis. I run a couple of vps with 256mb of ram, and that was the quickest way to reduce the memory usage.

Read here:

bnight.skyhost.bg/?p=10

Better to optimize your Apache first and then, go for ISPConfig tweaking :)

yes, but that amavis really takes like 120mb of ram itself alone. if you have a low ram system, you have to disable it.