Is it worth expending $$ with a dedicated server?

[Ipuck]

I have around 15 web sites, 5 forums, over 200K register users in 3 hosting companies and I'm getting tires of unreliable web hosting. I'm thinking on getting a dedicated server on rackspace, but the difference between the share hosting and rackspace is big. The hosting service cost will jump from 4% to about 12% of my income.

My question

Is it worthed to make the change?

Does having a fast and reliable hosting makes a difference on users experience?

Can I gain more users if the server is fast and reliable?

I would really appreciate if you provided your opinion.

[peterska2]

I made the jump a couple of years ago after having nothing but problems with multiple hosting accounts and unreliable hosts. It was the best thing I have ever done. Of course, shop around as it is a big decision. You need to decide whether you want managed or unmanaged too if you decide to make the jump as managed servers are generally a lot more expensive than unmanaged ones. If you are not sure yet, you could always consider a short term VPS which is an intermediate step. Many people reach a stage when they can no longer manage on shared servers but are not yet ready to go straight to a dedicated server and quite a lot find that a VPS is suitable for their needs without needing to go for a dedicated server.

[Loco.M]

If your sites are going, or the sites you host are going down, then I think it's a no brainer.
My personal preference is get fast and reliable hosting, I want it fast for our users, as well as for the search engines which bring a good deal of traffic to one the sites.

[Ipuck]

Thank you very much for the answers.

After reading for hours about the subject, I'm think on moving to a dedicated server.

One more question, since most of my sites are database driven sites, can the just one dedicated server handle all the queries?

The server I'm looking at is:
1 AMD Opteron Dual-Core 1212 HE 2.0GHz Processor
1GB DDR2 RAM
250GB SATA Hard Drive
1TB of Bandwidth a Month

[peterska2]

Thats almost the same as mine, apart from the ram and bandwidth. As for how it will handle, well that depends on your activity, concurrent users, database sizes, etc. The more information you can provide about what you currently have and things like your growth rates then the more insight can be got and the more chance you have of getting some advice about your needs.

[gigapros]

The server I'm looking at is:
1 AMD Opteron Dual-Core 1212 HE 2.0GHz Processor
1GB DDR2 RAM
250GB SATA Hard Drive
1TB of Bandwidth a Month
That's a great spec to start with. Simply add new resources to your server as required in the future.

[eUKhost.com]

Thank you very much for the answers.

After reading for hours about the subject, I'm think on moving to a dedicated server.

One more question, since most of my sites are database driven sites, can the just one dedicated server handle all the queries?

The server I'm looking at is:
1 AMD Opteron Dual-Core 1212 HE 2.0GHz Processor
1GB DDR2 RAM
250GB SATA Hard Drive
1TB of Bandwidth a Month

Processor is good to start with however I would recommend 2 or 4 GB RAM with the server.

[alemcherry]

200K registered users is a lot! I too would suggest more RAM.

[PaulCleese]

200K registered users is a lot! I too would suggest more RAM.

That was my thought as well. You will probably need more RAM. I reckon it make a fair bit of difference to your users experience. I know how frustrated i get when something doesn't work for me. Or it is slow. It's like when the tv remote doesn't want to work properly, it's just annoying.

[motowebmaster]

If you have never managed your own server before, consider something small to start out until you've got a handle on things.