[lug] server spec

[karl horlen]

I've building a centos web server.  I need to buy the
equipment.  My targeted colo has plenty of guaranteed
bandwidth.  

Estimated load:
---------------

- 8 (open source cms php/mysql based) sites 

Of those sites:

- 6-7 (very, very, very low traffic - may as well be
static html sites with low bandwidth requirements)

- 1-maybe 2 will be info based site (99% functionally
delivers article posts viewed by users) and see 95-99%
of site traffic.  will have maybe 300 user forum.. so
should handle some concurrent user subset of that
(MaxClients=?).    These sites will probably see low -
modest average traffic so doesn't need the latest
greatest. in the event that some critical mass is
built, would like to see it handle 100-500K page views
/ day at which point i think about hiring out the
server or upgrading because it's worthy of the
investment.

HW target:
-----------

I'm on a budget.  would like to stay under / around
$1200 but will slide to around $1500 if needed.

Specs:

- 2G Ram (3-4 would be better if i can get under
budget)
- 2 disk sata raid 1 mirror (obviously not for speed -
redundancy)
- Single P4 3G CPU on a mobo that can handle a dual
cpu upgrade (my biggest dilemna.. not sure if single
dual core, opteron, xeon for teaming with a later 2nd
cpu of the same buys me anything right now when i can
spend the extra money on RAM which will probably give
a better price peformance return over teh short term)
- 1U - needs to fit in colo rack

NOTES: 

i do NOT want to buy used / ebay for this system (just
not ready to take the chance on that right now)

i've already decided i don't want to vps space.  i
want to do it myself for a variety of reasons.

SUM:

Is my server adequate for my requirements above
assuming i have optimized / confg'd lamp stack and cms
adequately?

If not why or what needs to be beefed up?

I'm really just trying to set my level of
expectations.

FYI:

I'd really like to hear from people that have actually
experienced or supported 100-500K+ page view per day
loads in the real world.  otherwise i'm basically
getting subjective / hypothetical opinions.  

My tendency is to believe that with the right sw
optimization, this kind of performance can be achieved
with less than the avg person is marketed to believe
they need (to pay for).  Case in point, most services
provided by ips's are delivered on pretty minimal hw
(albeit the service / performance usually matches!).

thanks 


       
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