Large board (300gig/mo) - hosting suggestions?

[TopGeek]

We are currently with rackspace..
Machine: P800, 512megs of RAM - dual scsi raid

The machine is overloaded 30% of the day (server load goes above 9).

Our board has 20,000+ users, 1000+ new messages/day and we currently are transfering over 10 gigs/day (300+ gigs/month).

Hosting with Rackspace, this is just too expensive. We need to upgrade our hardware (a gig of ram would really help) and Rackspace raises your MONTHLY hosting fee any time you up your hardware... makes a lot of sense we add another 512 megs of RAM and they raise our bill $200/month even if we use the same bandwidth!!???

It's Bullsh*t.

I'm looking for a new host. Anyone have any suggestions for someone who can handle the bandwidth we need? Ideally we likely need a dual P800 with a gig of RAM.

Sincerely,
Edward
edward@topgeek.com

[auto]

Have you thought of getting your own server and colocating it somewhere?
It will be MUCH MUCH cheaper in the long run.
And if the NOC is close to you, you can just drive to it and add any upgrades you want, such as RAM, etc..

[MattLight]

Hi Edward,

Based on your post, I would definitely suggest that you look into co-location rather than dedicated. Most hosts will raise the monthly price for a hardware upgrade, since they are leasing you their server.

Think of a dedicated server as an apartment. If you want a nicer apartment, you will pay more on your monthly rent. Likewise, if you want a nicer server, you will pay more monthly "rent". If you add RAM into the server, it's now a better machine and they will therefore charge you more to "live" there.

On the other hand, if you buy a house, YOU buy it outright. You now own the house. If you want to add to or upgrade your house, you only need to pay for the cost of the upgrades and any associated labor charges. It works the same way with co-location. If you want to upgrade your server, you need to make arrangements to have the server upgraded (your provider can usually do this for you if you're not within 'visiting' distance of the data center). You will most likely need to pay them for the time it takes them to upgrade/repair your machine. In the long run however, it can work out to be much cheaper.

It's really a matter of preference. Some people would rather not have to deal with the maintenance of their own server, while others don't mind it at all.

Best Regards,
Matt Lightner
mlightner@site5.com

[Martin]

check out www.venturesonline.com

they don't charge monthly for hardware upgrades. They charge you for the part (plus prolly a little pocket change for installation) and your monthly stays the same.

[eva2000]

my lord 300gb/month :eek: on rackspace too.. i used to be with rackspace but now i am with http://www.venturesonline.com/ where ram upgrades are only a once only setup

how much are you paying right now with rackspace ?

i have a plan 4 dedicated server from VO + extra ram - http://www.venturesonline.com/Dedicated_Servers/dedicated_servers.html

Dual p3 866, 768mb ram, 18gb scsi and it handles

a dozen or so sites and my vB forum which get's 1,900 posts/day and a film site which gets between 8,000 - 15,000 unique visitors/day which runs another small ikonboard forum

my load is below 0.55 most of the time


dual cpu servers are bloody excellent :D