We would like to move our website over to SM, although we have a few questions regarding the Celeron 1.7GHz server.

1) How many users at a time would a Celeron 1.7 GHz box be able to handle, assuming the site is fairly dependent on MySQL queries? We are using a CMS with almost all data (aside from images) stored within.

2) What is the upgradability of the system? Should we have a need, is it able to upgrade our server with a new processor and more ram without much delay?

3) Would it be possible to run 1 game server, once a week, for a few hours without losing too much website performance?

4) What is the effective throughput available on our connection with the basic server? Are 300 K/sec downloads a possibility, or will we be significantly lower than that? Is the theoretical download speed of a 10Mbit connection 1 Meg/second, or am I mistaken?

5) I assume that redhat will have apache, ftp, php, mysql, and various other basic software packages installed and configured...would I be correct in that assumption? If not, how long will it take to configure everything properly?

I have more questions, but I can't really remember everything I wanted to ask, so as I remember them I will ask them. I wish the FAQ had a little more information regarding all of this stuff...

Can't really answer all your questions but here goes.

If it is going to be quite back-end (scripts + database) intensive, you would be better off with a P4 based server since the Celeron is good for lightly based websites with little back-end scripting. It will not explode or cease to work but just be a little slower in getting things done.

If you were to decide on the Celeron, make sure you are equipped with at least 1 gb of RAM if your site(s) are quite CPU intensive.

As for upgrades, there is no true upgrade paths. You can upgrade on RAM and additional harddisks but that is basically it. If you need a CPU change, you order a new server and move over. RAM installs are usually done in the wee hours of the morning (texan time) so expect anytime within 24 hours after sales approve of it.

You could run a game server on the machine too but it probably depends on how many users and the time of games you run. If it is intensive, it can greatly affect your sites especially if it is going to be intensive without the game.

As far as throughput it depends on the connection to and from your server to wherever you are and the type of connections you are using. It varies.

A standard Linux install will come with the basic services but they are not configured or set up to run. You will need to handle that yourself. If they are not there, you could always download and install them.

I thought the celerons were P4 based servers. Also, a move to a standard P4 server is an extra $40 a month...that's quite a bit of money.

It also appears that the basic P4 server has an 8 meg video card - what's the point of that?

The Celeron that are being offered have the same P4 core but with a smaller 128k cache.

The differences between the offerings would be that the current P4 comes with HyperThreading (HT), dual NICs and a larger internal cache. The Celeron does not support any of those. The HT and the larger cache would indeed add to the speed and performance of the CPU in question.

Eddy hit it on the nail, If your planing on just running a sites on the server it could handle it fine infact it could handle it with ease, but if you want to run a gameserver and a website on it, not in this lifetime, sorry we have one and we put are small package clients on it and they are pushing the limit on it now, with 1 gig ram. Personaly I would go with the P4 2.8 Super Server, it's a little more but it is a great peace of hardware.

The game server would just be a once a week thing, for the regulars of the site to hang out. It's not a full-time plan.

Anyone have an answer about the video card?

I guess it is one of those integrated video card which comes with the motherboard and they cannot do anything about it.. besides you can't find any new video card which is cheap enough to be under 8mb. Don't sweat it.

the graphics chip is integrated in the board - the intel integrated graphics card. The "8mb" is from your system ram, but i think you should be able to talk it down under 4mb - possible to 2mb. I know i was able to get mine bumped to 32mb which is the max.