Switching Servers - Need some advice

[aspkin]

So this is the current server the forum is hosted on:

2 AMD \ 2212 - dual core - 2.0 ghz \ Opteron 2212
2 Maxtor \ 146GB:SAS:10K RPM \ Atlas 10K - SAS
1 Dell \ 9G Drive Controller - SAS/SATA - budget raid \ SAS 5/iR
4 Generic \ 512 MB \ DDR2 667 ECC Reg
1 Dell \ Dual socket next gen opteron - 1u \ PowerEdge SC1435

It's an awesome server for my sites, but a bit expensive for the forum needs. So I'm either looking for a very good VPS or a smaller dedicated server to just host this forum and maybe a couple other sites of mine.

I think I'm going to keep hosting at The Planet, since they have a perfect uptime record with me. And it's a good location for most of you guys (central US).

So I'm thinking about either these two servers:

Intel Pentium 4 Series 2.4+ Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz+ 80GB Hard Drive 2048 MB RAM 750 GB 5

OR

Conroe 3040 Series - SATA Intel Xeon 3040 Dual-core Conroe Processor 250GB Hard Drive 2048 MB RAM 1500 GB 10

I know the Conroe 3040 series is better then the Pentium 4, but I don't think the forum needs all that processing power. But I'm not sure. I talked to a few other people and they said Pentium 4 is good enough for the forum, but I'm not sure.

Looking for any advice some of you guys might have.

Thanks,
Aspkin

[GreenBean]

Hmm. If you decided on the chat room, would Conroe be better?

[aspkin]

I'm not sure. But I'll find out.

[aspkin]

Well, a very crafty salesman at The Planet gave me a good deal on this server:

2048 MB RAM
Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz+
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Version 4
Month to Month Contract
5 IP Addresses
10 Mbps Uplink
750 GB Bandwidth
IDE
80GB Hard Drive
Plesk 8.1 with PowerPack for Linux (100 Domains)

Under $100 a month... so I'm going to try it out and if it's not up to par with the current server then I'll find something better.

[thelizardking]

month to month is always good!

[aspkin]

I think all The Planet servers are month to month.

But yeah, it's not bad. If they had a discount for 6 or 12 months I would go for that though.

[mantisinc]

That deal from the planet is not bad. Personally when buying a new host, I look for the quality of customer service. There is NOTHING worse when you have a server issue, or your website go down, having to wait over a day or so for a reply. I always think it's better to fork out the extra for good CS.

[Mr_Wolf]

Web hosting provider - Bluehost.com - domain hosting - PHP Hosting - cheap web hosting - Frontpage Hosting E-Commerce Web Hosting Bluehost


I wouldn't care about dedicated hosting.. Shared hosting works just fine, especially for a forum.

[aspkin]

I was thinking bluehost and hostgator, but I heard with hostgator if you have more then certain number connections at a time to your site, they want you to upgrade off shared for some reason. And if you send more then 200 emails an hour they don't like that either? They're both good and they both host at The Plant from what I understood. Maybe it was just Hostgator.

I should have it setup in the next few days with the new server, lets see if you guys can tell when it's moved.

[Mr_Wolf]

I'm at bluehost.. Don't know anything about hits.. E-Mail per hour can be upgraded, as long as you not sending hard core spam..


Also check out lunar pages..