I want to build my own 1U rack server for fun, and for the learning experience. But of course I am not sure how much power I really need. I would be running smartermail / smarterstats / mySQL / potentially SQL server / and IIS all from the same box. The sites I would host on it would be heavy mySQL users. I could see hosting 20 sites on it, with an average transfer of 100 Gigs a month. OS would be windows server 2003, and most of the sites would be running asp.net 2.0 Even though I would love to run due core 2 intel chips, and a butt load of ram, / RAID 1 on a couple of 15k SCSI drives. I suspect it would be overkill. I have seen servers on ebay go for pretty cheap. Duel PIII systems for just a couple hundred $. What do you all recommend? After I get famialr with running it on my home network. I would send it off to HMS for Colo.

When you say potential SQL server, are we talking MySQL or MS SQL?

MySQL that's not running too hard will consume a lot less RAM than MS SQL that's not running too hard. As these servers get hit more and more that will begin to even out, but MS SQL is a bit more intensive, particularly in the RAM department, so that would definitely be a consideration.

Thanks man!
currently I use MySQL for all my websites because I can't live without the LIMIT command, MSSQL only has TOP and that is worthless, when you need to page out stuff. Any idea how much RAM and Processing power I should use to start with? I could just buy one from Dell, but I prefer the experience of building my own from scrach as then I learn more. Plus I want to get a kick A$$ case with LCD displays in the front for system information. I want to make sure when I call in form tech support it will be obvioius which Server is mine. HEH

You an always use "Max Rows" and "Block Factor" attributes on CFQuery, But I know you use .Net For your apps