Anticipating MySql space needs??

[FrankC29]

I'll be opening up a forum soon, a general discussion forum for my city. I'm going to run vBulletin pretty much stock. I'm trying to figure out if the host I currently have the domain at provides enough space for MySql, assuming my advertising methods work and the site gains a good following. I figure it's better to make a change now if I need to, rather than when I have a big ole database to move around. Anyway the numbers:

The web provider is HostSave

1000GB disk space, 100GB traffic, 100mb MySql. The disk space and the bandwidth seem more than adequate, actually I'm kinda impressed, for $8.95/mo anyway. The 100mb MySql seems wimpy though, at least from the searching I've done in these matters. For another 4 bucks a month, I can double all these numbers, which will give me more disk space and bandwidth than I could ever possibly use, but will 200mb MySql be sufficient? How big a board do you think this could indeffinately suport? How about attachments and avatars, I hear they are no longer stored in the db but now reside in regular space? If a change is needed, I suppose now is the time. I'm eyeballing Xpera, but any other web host suggestions are appreciated as well. Thanks.

[Beermonster]

Attachments are stored in the database by default but you can change that so they are stored as files.

As an example, my forum is quite new and my attachments are stored as files
Threads: 501
Posts: 1,945
Members: 241

And the database is 13.4 Mb, attachments would add another 6.78 Mb

Hope that gives you some idea

[x3n0]

I've been up for a little over 8 months now. Getting about half a million hits a month and my numbers look like this:

Database Data Disk Usage 45.09 MB
Database Index Disk Usage 4.27 MB
Attachment Disk Usage 208.47 MB

Our forums are quite image intensive. Paid search indexing and magazine ads almost immediately doubled traffic. Expect fast growth for a specialty forum. I would never use a host unless I get the ability to lay hands on the server and have root access with the ability to configure SQL, Apache, and PHP on my own terms. Owned hardware and co-location at a server farm is the best option.

I store images and CSS as files instead of in the DB to reduce bandwidth usage by enabling caching of the attachments and stylesheets on the client machine. vB.com staff taught me this trick, it helps significantly.

We are already on our second server machine (catastrophic hardware failure) and have decided to stick with Sun/AMD hardware paired with redundant Barracuda SCSI in the future because of dramatically increased reliability and performance vs. cost. Next machine is planned to be one of those sleek new quad processor AMD/Sun Sun Fire V40z U3 servers:

http://store.sun.com/CMTemplate/CEServlet?process=SunStore&cmdViewProduct_CP&catid=116125

MySQL performance is rumored to be exceptional and the prices are right.