Ummm... OK, I'll try here... I'm upgrading my servers, but need advice!

[rabid_nerd]

I posted a poll in the on-topic Computer help DU Groups, but those don't show up in Latest pages (unlike the extra DU forums), and they are low traffic..

So I cross posted into Web/Software/etc...

Now I'm trolling for fellow nerds here...

Which way should I go - server cluster, or single big server?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=242x2188

On the side - does anyone want to contribute articles to a site from a tech perspective? I have a domain that get's traffic that's perfect - TodaysNerd.com

[leftofthedial]

1. what kind of site

traffic

bandwidth?

distributed apps?

??

[rabid_nerd]

4. traffic?

a quarter million raw hits a day.. Not too bad.

But many are dynamic image and content generation (which I've managed to cache rather well)..

bandwidth is metered > 1TB/month, and I usually use less than a quarter of that..

[dave123williams]

2. Load balancing, packet switching, and a nice fat Beowulf array...

Are always good :)

[ender]

3. why on earth is a beowulf a good choice?

unless he's got loosely coupled fortran calcs to run, a beowulf will do absolutely no good.

(sigh, and for the record, i was an engineer at a beowulf manufacturing co)

[dave123williams]

5. We built one once out of Playstations running Linux...much fun :)

You're right; maybe not such a good idea, but I'm not taking the time here to spec out a fault-tolerant server solution for a noob.