My first REAL server

I have run serveral sites on linux servers that were actually pc's and I have administrated real servers like dell power edge and IBM e-server.

But now I have to buy my own server and I feel completely lost. It will be placed on a 10mbit connection and I want as much out of it as I can.

I'm thinking of running about 5 - 10 communities on this server, some that will have almost no traffic and some that perhaps will need their own server in the future.

What is most important? The CPU? The RAM? The speed of the hard drives?

What I have been looking on is some Xeon server with 1gb RAM and SATA drives. But this is already a bit to expensive for me.

Would a Pentium 4 with 1 gb ram and mirrored IDE drives still perform well?

What did you buy for your first server? Can you reccomend any special brand?

The server has to be 1 unit high only.

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

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