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.>

[Hornstar]

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.

[alphadeity]

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.

[woostar]

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