Need server for staging environment

Best hardware for linux staging server

[Tvienti]

Hi all. My company's starting to take on a lot of new clients for development work, and I think it's time we get a dedicated server just for staging (currently using my own desktop PC for development and staging).

Can anyone recommend a Dell system that would work best for this? I don't imagine the server will ever be hit by more than 5-10 people at a time, and don't want to pay for more power than I need. I'm somewhat ignorant on the topic of hardware and don't want to buy something too weak that we'll quickly outgrow it as our development and QA team grow larger.

I appreciate any input you can offer.

T

[webdoctor]

(...) it's time we get a dedicated server just for staging (currently using my own desktop PC for development and staging).

Are you unhappy with the current speed of the staging enviroment on your desktop PC? If it's OK, why not simply buy another desktop PC of the same type and use it as your staging server?

Also, are you using static or dynamic pages? Serious db backends or simply .html files? I think we need a bit more info here to give a decent answer :-)

IMHO if you set up a box without all the GUI bits, even a lowly P3 system would be fairly fast a staging server. I've got an development box with AMD Duron 800 / 256MB RAM and it's very fast on the local LAN.

[Tvienti]

More info would help, huh? Silly me :)

I'm developing, and plan to develop, primarily e-commerce sites in LAMP. So a pretty consistent stream of DB traffic per page request, and almost entirely dynamic.

Thanks for your advice. It's very informative.

T