Requirements:

   1. rackmount
   2. 2 to 8 CPU's (hopefully dual-core)
   3. fast RAM 8 GB
   4. very good hard drives (fast and reliable) -- SAS or SCSI
   5. redundant power supplies
   6. Good RAID controller -- RAID 5 config
   7. 6 to 8 drives (for performance)
   8. profrssionally built
   9. 3 year warranty
  10. 2 NICs (onboard OK)
  11. 2 to 4 U (Rackmount height)
  12. Hot-swappable disks
  13. parts must be linux compatible RedHat (most are, but it's good to know)



Nice to have:

   1. Hot-swappable power
   2. Hot-swappable fans



Depending on what you look at, 4/8 CPU servers are very expensive. 2 CPU servers are a more prudent buy, but don't allow easy scaling, though maybe that's not too bad. I mean, it might just make sense to seperate out the database server from the webserver / gameserver. That would probably be a more frugal option, now that I think about it.

So I could go with a 2-server solution. The database does have quite a bit of a load on it typically, and putting all that in a seperate server isn't that bad of an idea. Though then the only issue is that we'll want high-end RAID systems and power supply redundancy in both systems, which might just land us in the 4-CPU ball park again.

I have contacted a few vendors with what I'm looking for, we'll see what kind of prices they come back with. I'm sick of stuff dying on me, so I want to go with something high-end.