Server Advice
 

I've recently transfered my forum over to an upgraded server (dedicated just for the forum).

This is what we decided on (I know it's not a big setup but I really can't justify anything bigger at the moment).

Processor: Core2Quad 2.40GHZ
Operating Systems: CentOS 5.x
Control Panels: Directadmin
Extra Memory: 2 GB RAM (ECC Registered)
Storage: RAID 1 (Bi-daily off site SQL backups)

On the old server I was splitting the resources with a friend (who did all the server management) but on this one it's 100% me (and I'm more of a software guy than hardware).

My question is; how much do you think I can throw at it before I'll be looking to upgrade again...
At the moment we get a mimimum of 50,000 page views a day (growing by approx. 150,000 extra page views a month, based on last month).

... and when it gets to the point of upgrading what would be the first thing to change?

Any advice would be great.

W.>

On my forum it was ram, I went from 2 gig to 4 gig to 8 gig.

I then went from a quad core to a dual quad core.

I then upgraded my harddrives to SAS 15k

Little things like that helped alot.

I then went from apache to LiteSpeed which was great.

As for how much you can throw at it, I have no idea, its a tough one, depends on too many factors. maybe someone else can give you an answer, but I doubt you will get one for that part.

From what you said in your post, you should be fine. If you could tell me more information I would be able to answer your question a little bit better.

Hardware is very important, yes. But software is just as important. Tweaking apache, sql, and php is important as well as kernel tweaks.

I have a client with 12000+ user forum with over a million posts and 200+ active users on a server with a duron processor (1.2GHz)! Granted it has 4GB memory, which is one of the most important, but the server runs with minimal problems.

Thanks for the posts guys. At least I'll be ok for the time being :D