Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : I need some tips and help

[Emil W]

Hello,

Basically I need help to find out what kind of dedicated server that's good for my sites.

I'm currently running my sites on a shared hosting account but lately I've noticed that I need something more powerfull.

My sites
My forum is a vbulletin forum and we have 10,400+ members, almost a million posts and on average there's 50-100 people online at once.

The main site gets about 3000 visitors per day and we have some audio and video on the site.

Together the sites are using about 300-400 GB of bandwidth per month.

I'm soon also going to have another site (a artist promotion site) that will have a lot of audio, both streaming and downloading.


Basically I need help with what kind of specifications I would need on the server. Ram, processor, etc.

Also, if you have suggestions on what companies to use, please let me know. I'm a newbie to dedicated servers so I would need a dedicated server that's managed by the provider, or at least semi-managed.

Thank you,

Emil Wagenius

[Jame$]

I would get a medium-high end dedicated with whatever control panel you are currently using - to ensure smooth transfer.

Management of the server is probably your biggest issue.

Befriend an experienced server admin. Perhaps you can pay him to setup/configure your server and security harden it. (Do NOT ignore security issues, something a lot of newbies neglect - you will pay later) Keep buying him doughnuts, for maintenance that would be required at a later date.

Most servers come with 1000GB bandwidth. I would say avoid unmetered servers.

[ankushdawar]

You should buy a dual opteron or dual xeon atleast with 2 GB RAM.
That will be perfect, i run similar forums with no issues... on such a machine.
Also ... never buy a self managed machine...

[Jame$]

A high P4 HT would be enough I think.

No problem buying a self-managed if you have somebody to manage it for you. Most of the best server providers are self-managed.