[webmastersun]

Originally Posted by jack7142

First of all hi everyone,

I'm new to all this and i would like to setup a forum for myself and would like advice to what server spec would be required to run VBulletin etc and where best to purchase from?

Thanks all

If you just want to start a forum from scratch then I would suggest you go with a shared hosting, it's enough for a small forum.

I recommend some shared hosting providers from here
http://www.webmastersun.com/forums/102-Shared-Hosting-Offers

When your forum has a decent traffic and more members then you should choose or upgrade your hosting to a VPS or dedicated server if your forum is high load.

Originally Posted by Dave

Well it depends on how many plugins you plan on running in vBulletin and how many visitors you expect to get. Shared webhosts will do just fine for forums with a low amount of visitors.

I personally always go for a VPS. It gives me more freedom and I can configure it to my needs. A VPS isn't that expensive anymore these days. DigitalOcean, TransIP, Linode and DreamHost are all good quality providers of VPS.

I agree with Dave, VPS or dedicated servers always is a good choice for forum because forums require more resource to run them hence VPS or dedicated can apply to all our requirements.