Need a lightning fast server

I've been on a dedicated server from The Planet for 2 or 3 years. Here are the specs:

QTYHardware Component
1Dell \ Single socket 1067FSB - Quad Core Capable \ PowerEdge 8401Intel \ 2.4 GHz 1066FSB - Conroe \ Xeon 3060 (Dual Core)2Generic \ 2 GB RAM \ DDR2 667 ECC4Western Digital \ 250GB:SATA2:7200RPM (x4) \ WD2500JS13Ware \ 4 channel SATA2 \ 9550SX-4LP

Installed Software
cPanel, Inc. cPanel STABLE- Urchin Urchin 5- CentOS Enterprise Linux - OS ES 4.0

Even though it's pretty hefty, I think it's sluggish. I need pages to load instantly (using broadband, of course). Does anyone have any suggestions for a lighting fast server for $300-$400/month?

You can check out my site speed here:
www.churchmedia.net

Thanks!

[DivisionByZero]

it doesn't matter how many domains you have on a server, if you learn some easy apache configuration, then you can do it manually... those crappy control panels hog about half your resources. I've helped many people "wean" themselves off the panels.... and now they're happily engaged in day-to-day SSH administration

[ChurchMedia]

Well I'm always up for leaning something new. I honestly don't even access my site's cPanel except to make email changes. How would I go about learning? Does dumping the control panel improve the php page's speed (in other words, do the pages go through cPanel somehow)?

[lighti]

Well the biggest downside to cpanel is it loves to eat memory. It runs a few different monitoring programs and things that will suck your memory dry. You can disable a lot of these, and it should help your performance. Making sure its configured for best performance should help a lot but if your still having trouble with it being laggy upgrading the CPU may help. PHP scripts use a lot of CPU power to run.

Perhaps a Core2Quad Q6600 2.4GHz with 4GB ram would help, cost ya about 230/month including cpanel and everything.

No the pages do not go "through" cpanel. Its just the programs I mentioned above that it runs in the background that chips away at your ram and even cpu at times.

[Blazin Trav]

Yeah I can refer you to someone that can configure a better server than that. PM me.

Also just add RAM. That is a nice configuration but the Conroe is not a server optimized CPU.

Also your page loads fine here so it might be something on your ISPs end not your server end.

[x3sphere]

I would consider moving to lighttpd or nginx. Personally I use lighttpd with XCache installed and I am on a less powerful server than you (1GB RAM and C2D E4500) and all my pages load instant.

[IronMountain]

cPanel is certainly bloated and not needed if you're only running a few sites. Directadmin, LXAdmin are all lighter in the pants. H-Sphere control panel actually resides outside your server.

When browsing your site, it doesn't feel like it's been optimized. At your next hosting company, perhaps you can find a host that will assist you in getting your vBulletin optimized...I think you'll get more bang out of your buck that way.

[ChurchMedia]

Yeah, it's self managed right now and I'm not a server-guru.

This is good info, everyone! Thanks!

[Boofo]

DirectAdmin sucks for setting up mail and having it actually work. I have never had any problems in the past with mail from the site with CPanel, but ever since the went to DirectAdmin (against my advice, by the way) it has been a freakin' nightmare.

I do have one suggestion that will help things as far as getting around the site and doing things easier... put some of the non-vb files in the forums directory in their own directories. You have way too much extra stuff in there.

[ChurchMedia]

LOL -- My root directory is my forums directory and as far as I can tell they are almost all vb files.

[Boofo]

Not all of them. Alot of scrolling had to be done to find anything. Alot of directories, too. I had to stop and ask for directions twice.