One powerful server or two less powerful servers?
 

My forum is currently 500k posts, 66k members, 500 online users, about 14k unique visitors per day (a lot of readers). My forum has photopost installed and serves a good number of images. I currently have the following server:

Processor = Dual Xeon 2.8GHz 1M Cache 800Mz FSB
Memory = 8 GIG PC27000 ECC Registered DDR RAM
Hard Drives = 2 x 200 GIG SATA Maxtor 8M Cache HD
RAID Option = RAID 1 Configuration

My forum continues to grow, and server load is quite high, particularly after upgrading to 3.6.2. I am considering either upgrading to a better server, or adding another identical server for the mysql database only. In your experience, what should I do? For those that have a 2 server setup, what was your experience?

The powerful server that I am considering upgrading to is:

Processor = 2 x Dual Core Intel Woodcrest 5130
Memory = 8 GIG DDRII ECC FB-DIMM RAM
Hard Drives = 2 or 4 x 150 GIG Raptor 10K SATA
RAID Option = RAID 0 or 10 Configuration

I need to make a decision in the next few days. I really appreciate feedback from users that have upgraded from dual xeons to dual 5130s or users that have upgraded from one server to two.

Also, how difficult is it to set up a seperate server for mysql?

Thanks!

For anyone thinking of replying to this, there is already a more active thread over on vbulletin.com.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=209535