PCA Forums

I'm going to be opening up a online store in the near future and basically i've been considering building a system just to host the site. The site will compose of a HTML site, a vbulletin forum (fairly active forum) and about 5gigs of mp3s (with the number of mp3s growing on a weekly basis) [for audio samples].

Basically i'm clueless on what specs i should get for a system that will make the site run fast as well as take care of my bandwith needs. I wouldn't want to restart more than once a week.

Can anyone help me or give me some insight on what i should do?

thanks

pretty much anything will work, but I would suggest atleast a p3 of 1ghz or higher (depending on how much code your pages will contain that needs to be processed) and atleast 512mb of ram. 7200rpm drives wouldnt hurt either

If you are talking about hosting a web site that will have a signifigant amount of traffic, and you are "clueless" on the server, you need to find someone to host it for you. There is a myriad of things to consider when you start talking about hosting web sites: platform security, physical security, network connectivity, bandwidth, power redundancy, fire surpression, etc, etc, etc.... The list goes on forever. If you really don't know what you are doing (which I'm guessing you don't b/c you are posting here), you better think twice about what you are trying to do.

^^^The problem is there is no host that will meet my demands (and if their is then its outta my budget). I've never hosted a site off a computer before and thats why i'm clueless on the topic. However, i do know my way around a computer.

I had planned on getting 1gb of ram, a 7200rpm hard drive & at least a 2ghz processor. I was just wondering if that was going to be sufficient. I'll make sure it's packed with fans too. Physical Security is not a problem. I plan on getting a fire-proof safe that will have a daily back-up in there. Platform security i could get schooled on but it wont be hard (just gotta ask what program people reccommend). Bandwith is the one i am clueless on.

You really need to rent a dedicated server, if not, and you do build your own PC you need to pay for co-location in a proper data centre...

for a web server, i prefer apache over the IIS that is built into windows. the 2.0.xx version will work with windows. you can also run the forums on php and mySQL in windows. but make sure you keep them up to date.

that being said, you can build a decent server with the hardware being discussed here. but it is not going to matter how fast your server is if you do not have a proper upstream provider. most of your mainstream cable and dsl ISP's state in their terms of service that you can not run servers although a lot of people do. you could likely get by with it until you have a lot of users to the site. then your users will start complaining that the site is slow and you will always run the risk of getting shut down by your ISP.

most ISP's do offer business packages, i have seen some around $75-$100 a month i have never used any though. if i had enough users and needed to run a web server from the home office, i wold get a t3 or a fractional t1 connection in the $400 per month range. but when i can find a decent host that fits my needs for $10 a month, it just isn't practical for me to run a server from here, unless it is just for practice.

yup, as wpublic mentioned bandwidth is one of the most important things, you don't need a super pc, if you are only using a residential service.... if you were to have a higher grade business with the bandwidth equivalent to your needs, then something with around 2GHz maybe Athlon 64 that has plenty of room for expandability

i wold get a t3 or a fractional t1 connection in the $400 per month range.

Lucky you

I got you beat on one hand, and no where close to that low on the other!
I got a 10/100 lan direct to the net servers at my office, I go as fast as the net basically, total cost? $100
I rent the office, Net is free.

Getting my own line is another story though. I am 65 miles from an AT&T pop, it would be $650 for my own T1 line if I were with in 50 miles of the POP, but since I am 15 miles to far I got to go leased line and that tacks on alot more!! I think My best price was $1300 a month or more!

For the question at hand on the server, It really depends on so many variables. How many users at one time, bandwith available, how much CPU power does it take to operate at those max levels etc..

For a smaller server (low number of users, limited bandwith, ect) probably any XP 1700 or above CPU would do fine. I have a 2500XP 333FSB at the office and have had as many as 20 LARGE files kicking up and down from the net (while I was watching it) All running as fast as the other end would alough them to be transmitted. I was also working with several apps open using alot of CPU power. I never noticed any slow downs. I have tried to do many small files at once, but at those speeds it's just not posable for me to get very many started at once, the first ones keep getting done!!

Myself, I would start small and leave plenty of room for upgrades. Go with a hard drive 2X as big as you need (room to expand). Probably get 2 of them and run a raid mirror, if one goes down no problem just replace it. As for anything else, you can get really good parts with more power than you need CHEAP. I would get a System board that will upgrade alot, up to a really high priced CPU, but then I would buy the least expensive one I could for it!! For example I would try to find a great board that would run a 400FSB Cpu, but right now they cost to much and it's not needed starting out. SO, I would try to find a 1700-2500XP cpu at 266fsb for as low as I could, or maybe pop the $80 for a 2500XP 333FSB. Later the 400FSB cpu's will be hitting the $80 mark and I would upgrade then if need be but dought you would need to unless your doing more than a server with it.

Ram is cheap, I'd go 512MB DDR anyway. I'd try to get a system board with 4 ram slots, if you ever needed more you could upgrade 512mb at a time all the way to 2 gigs

The site will compose of a HTML site, a vbulletin forum (fairly active forum) and about 5gigs of mp3s (with the number of mp3s growing on a weekly basis) [for audio samples].

If that's all you really end up doing with the site then what I mentioned above is probably alot more than you need allready.

It's nice to have video, keyboard and mouse, and maybe a CD or DVD-rom drive also. But those are kinda extras. You could basically do everything from a lan connection remotely, or just connect "borrowed" devices from another system if you need to work on it locally (like first install of OS)

Been awhile since I bought much, but I think for case, PS, fans, system board, CPU, ram, you could get by with around $200-$300 for a pretty darned good system. That also figures in a 40gig drive (about $40) But I'd go 120gig for about $80 myself. 3X times the gigs for 2 times the money. You can always use the server for your own personal storage also, maybe connect it to a local lan etc...

If your opening up an online store your biggest concerns are bandwidth and security. As mentioned, your probably better off getting a hosted site so you have to worry about 1 less thing...bandwidth.

As mentioned, your probably better off getting a hosted site so you have to worry about 1 less thing...bandwidth.

Yes, and secure connections and such for payments, kinda forgot about it being a store. I would not want to host anything over a normal connection like home stuff that takes payments unless it was maybe strictly Paypal type stuff since that uses thier secure servers and connections. Lot's of work to do it right! And probably not that cheap either.

Stuff that don't need to be secure, like just a forum and downloads I might do off anything if no real info is exchanged that anyone would care about.