I think the problem with forums is the amount of posts. Once you get over the 1 million mark, IMO you have to go dedicated because one forum search for like a 3 letter word could be crazy. I had a forum with 1600 users on at one time, it was on an old ass p4 2.8gz xeon. Of course it didn't handle it too well but it settle down. I think I had 500k post at that time. I got on the front page of digg that's why =D
I would recommend for you, a server in the 150-250 price range. IMO, a quad core core 2 duo with like 4 gigs of ram would suffice. Ram is the most important when it comes to forums is what I notice.
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