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Celeron 1.7 GHz fast enough? (ServePath)

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Celeron 1.7 GHz fast enough? (ServePath)
Hi,

I need some help choosing a dedicated server package for running Gossammer Forum, LinksSQL, and AdvertPro.

I'm choosing between two packages at ServePath.com - the BasicPath and the BusinessPath. The BasicPath has a Celeron 1.7 GHz CPU, and I can get it with 512 MB ram and 100 GB transfer. The BusinessPath comes with a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 512 MB ram and 500 GB transfer. Both run RedHat Linux 7.2 (or 8 or 9, but I suppose I should just go for 7.2). From what I know of my traffic on my current virtual server, I'm reasonably certain that 100 GB transfer should cover me. (If it doesn't it's $1.99/GB overage charge...) What I don't know is how quickly the Celeron 1.7 GHz CPU will perform for Gossammer Forum - I've heard it's rather CPU intensive...

I'll be able to run GF under mod_perl on either server, and I'll use mySQL as the database, so it should be as quick as possible on the server.

My average is about 85 posts/day in my current ikonboard forum. I've got about 700 members, and about 30 people on the board at any one time (# of people active in the past 15 minutes on the board). I'm not sure how many pageviews it gets, but I'd imagine about 100,000/mo. Does the forum starting getting slower after a certain number of posts are in the database? I've got 18,000 posts in my current board, and would expect to have just as many in GF (unless there's some kind of archive feature that helps keep the main database relatively slim).

I'll also be running several instances of LinksSQL (each for different content purposes), and expect to hit around a million pageviews a month with the pages served up by LinksSQL (I figure I'll display mostly dynamic pages). AdvertPro will be serving on average about 4 banners per page, so 4 million impressions a month there.

On top of all this, i'll have a small number of 5-10 MB files available for download from the site, which I expect to consume about 50 GB transfer a month. Is that likely to hamper performance, or are big downloads not much of a resource hog?

Also, if anyone has any experiences with ServePath, please let me know!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Stephen
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Re: [biketrials] Celeron 1.7 GHz fast enough? (ServePath) In reply to
Hi Stephen,

Running under mod_perl, I think the 1.7GHz should be enough. Although Gossamer Forum is fairly intensive, most of that intensity is in the initial loading of the script and modules. Under mod_perl, that initial overhead is eliminated and can cut the required CPU cycles on the average page from 1/3 to 1/10 the time.

Gossamer Forum has several indexes to ensure that the forum does not noticeably slow down when large amounts of posts are present. There are GForum installations out there with millions of posts which show no noticeable slow down.

The large files are not a problem at all - as far as server resources, downloading a static file is about the least intensive thing you can do.

So, as long as you run the programs under mod_perl, the 1.7GHz server should do the trick. With the 2.4GHz, everything will be a little faster (as expected) - but I doubt you'd run into problems with the server choking with the 1.7. Are there options to upgrade the CPU or memory in the future, should your requirements grow?

Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com
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Re: [Jagerman] Celeron 1.7 GHz fast enough? (ServePath) In reply to
I just went and ordered the server, thanks for your help!

Stephen