Hosting VB on Multiple Servers, are these servers suitable?

[donnacha]

***
I have also asked this question in the hosting section of Vbulletin.COM but as I've learnt so much by reading vbulletin.ORG, I'd very much appreciate input from the folks here too, especially since you guys are used to messing about beneath the hood and might have insights regarding my OS choice etc.

***

Hi,

I'd be very interested in hearing opinions on the 2 dedicated servers I'm planning to buy from ServerMatrix, to host what I expect to become a fairly heavily-used VB site. In particular, I'd like to hear if you think I could spend the same money more effectively in a different way. For instance, should I be thinking about Xeons rather than P4s?

I'll be spreading the site over 2 servers, connected to eachother via a crossover cable, synchronized via Mysql replication.

2.8 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 800FSB, with HT
2 x 80GB Hard Drive
1024MB RAM
1000GB Bandwidth
5 Usable IP's
FreeBSD
Floodguard Protection ($10 per month, worth it?)

NO Cpanel/WHM

Per server $99/setup, $139/mth
Total for both $198/setup, $178/mth

I'm going for FreeBSD because these servers will be hosting ONLY VB and FreeBSD seems to offer better integration of the core services that VB needs. In that very lean configuration, I gather that it tends to be somewhat more efficient that Linux. FreeBSD's CVSup system also seems to offer a less time-consuming way to upgrade and keep my servers synchronized. RHE would cost exactly the same.

I have decided to avoid CPanel/WHT because, going on past experience, while it makes account and name-server creation easier, it seems to mess up quite a bit and I feel that editing the relevant configuration files by hand will give me a better grip on things.

I'd love to hear what you all think, Thanks.