Making a forum site.. question
 

I'm a n00b wen it comes to this but I am getting started. I am an active user of many forum sites and am reading up on how to get my own started.

Anyway, I am thinking of hosting a site but I was wondering if I only plan 90% of the usage being to a forum site that links from the main URL should I not spend as much money on the host site? does that effect the forum @ all?

I'm not sure if I explained my question well but I'm just trying to figure out where I should spend my money. Thank you for your time & thanks to any help u may give me.

You should still pay for the hosting, as you host the forum on the same account as the rest of the website. Not spending as much on hosting because of the idea of the main site being disused can also effect the service and such like of the forum. Also, choose hosting relevant to how many members and how much activity you expect to have. If only a small to medium amount, shared hosting or VPS, if a larger site, dedicated server. If even larger (as in, hundreds of 1000s of members) multiple servers I suppose. Oh, and please explain your question better.

i plan on just telling friends in the beginning. that should be about 100 or so. also plan on promotin it on certian sites. anyways, the site will have some music and movie uploads and basic forum chat yadada. should i go for a certain server if i plan to use vBulletin ?

i would suggest you to go with a host that provide free upgrades on plans... so if your startup plan is good for the begining, you can switch to a bigger plan by the time you reach a certain level...

if it is a fan club, or a personal place, i would suggest you don't allow too much gadgets, so you can run the site for a low fee, instead of spending all your money for a project that bring no profit at all...