$887 Supermicro SuperServer SYS-1026T-UF Dual LGA1366 Xeon 1U Server Barebone System
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...345b4caa7c8f49c27db94199f0737e631fd2a48364b6e
$884 Intel Xeon Six-Core X5650 2.66GHz 6.4GT/s 1366pin 12MB CPU, OEM
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...re-X5650-2-66GHz-6-4GT-s-1366pin-12MB-CPU-OEM
$127x2 Kingston KVR1333D3Q8R9S/8G DDR3-1333 8GB ECC/REG CL9 Server Memory
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...9S-8G-DDR3-1333-8GB-ECC-REG-CL9-Server-Memory
$180 tax
$135x7 Lenovo 300 GB Internal Hard Drive SATA - 10000 rpm - 2.5"
http://www.buy.com/pr/product.aspx?sku=211110771
$3150 6-core w/o Flash each
$309 OCZ Technology 120 GB RevoDrive Series PCI-Express x4
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology-RevoDrive-PCI-Express-OCZSSDPX-1RVD0120/dp/tags-on-product/B003OBZ9GC"]Amazon.com: OCZ Technology 120 GB RevoDrive Series PCI-Express x4 Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSDPX-1RVD0120: Electronics[/ame]
$3459 each
The above is what we're considering. We would buy one. A friend of ours who would be sharing the hardware and connection with us would buy another. He would purchase both boxes up front (and build, place, configure, etc.), we would pay him back for one of them over the next few months out of March Madness ad money and the Spring drive. We would have the opportunity (but not the obligation) to buy the other at some point in the future if we ever needed to split back off on our own for some reason.
If we green light this, the hardware will be purchased and the boxes built over the next couple of weeks, to go online on or before March 15th. We'd then take the next few weeks to move the databases over, install new/fresh upgraded files in fresh directories (stripping away years of archaic/unused files left over from past mods and versions), and then clean it up and tweak it as we please before moving the DNS over.
The positives will be immediate. On top of saving money every month, we'll have redundancy we've never before enjoyed, a sysadmin to maintain and update the box itself who is local to the colocation facility, and an increase in server power that I really just can't measure against our current box (maybe others can). The bottom line is we'd be going from 4-cores on one box to 12-cores across two, with the freedom to double up to 24-cores in the future. 16gb ram on one box to 32gb across two. SSD drives for fast caching, 300gb drives x14 for RAID-10 on both boxes. Integrated management versus none -- it really is just night and day.
If we ever buy the second box from him, the money spent will be quite a bit higher than the 4k for two used boxes we originally imagined. If we just stick with the one, obviously we're spending a little less. Either way, we'll be well prepared to stand on our own if we ever need to, but for as long as we're with him on the new connection, the site should never really struggle with any level of traffic we're able to throw at it.
Anyway, just want to throw all of this out there in case anyone has anything to say or contribute to the discussion. We're a little pressed on time in terms of setting all of this in motion, but I want this to be as transparent a process as possible, particularly as it's the site itself which will be paying for the upgrade, largely through the power of the Spring Drive donations.
Exciting stuff, really. :)