After many years of having my website hosted on a generic home-made server I have  upgraded to a newer server.

The new server is a HP ProLiant DL360 G3 with the specs-
CPU x2: Intel Xeon 3.06GHz
RAM: 2.5Gb ECC
HDD: x2 146.6GB SCSI 10,000RPM in a RAID1

The old server was a Intel D845EWD entry-level server motherboard with the specs-
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz
RAM: 2Gb non ECC
HDD x2 80 IDE in a RAID 1, 3x 300Gb SATA1 in a RAID5 on a Adaptec PCI Hardware RAID controller
Case: Antec beige tower

The choice of which Linux distribution to use was a not a decision I look lightly. In the end Ubuntu 12.04 LTS won over Centos 6.2. Both operating systems offered an awesome Enterprise OS but I am familiar with Ubuntu and already use it on my desktop and other servers.

I upgraded my firewall server a few weeks ago and since then have performed some tweaks to varnish the reverse web proxy service and now my website should load quicker and almost be slashdot proof. I think only only issue now is my lack of upload bandwidth and my ADSL router is crappy.