15 websites, 15 SQL Express 2005 databases... server spec? Ram specifically

[guest2013-1]

Hey guys, busy looking into the minimum server spec I can run these off of.

They're basically very low-bandwidth, low-usage sites and each have a CMS running to SQL Express 2005 db's... I was wondering what you would run these on?

Looking for Ram recommendations as the disk-space is laughable (each db is about 4mb big max and each site ranges in the 2-5mb range depending if they uploaded quality images)

Thanks peeps!

 

[Kloon]

SQL Express has a 1GB ram limitation so I would say 2GB for OS and 1GB for your server

 

[guest2013-1]

1 GB ram limitation meaning if I go with 512mb usable ram (excluding the OS ram now) I can still host successfully? Currently sql server is only taking up 350mb ram for these on the current server

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Our online server has approx. 40 databases hosted in SQL Server 2005, with a bunch of sites sharing the same set of source files / binaries and runs quite well on only 2GB RAM...

 

[guest2013-1]

Thanks, I reckon 512mb would be enough for 4 sites then to start out with and see how things go

 

[Kloon]

If your databases are small like in your instance 512MB should be enough for the DB, however if you start to work with databases exceeding 2GB then I would consider moving away from express. I'm not even sure if you may use Express for production purposes, but I could be wrong.

 

[guest2013-1]

If your databases are small like in your instance 512MB should be enough for the DB, however if you start to work with databases exceeding 2GB then I would consider moving away from express. I'm not even sure if you may use Express for production purposes, but I could be wrong.

I checked on that a few years ago if I recall correctly and it is free to use... and like someone mentioned, limited unlike the standard edition etc

The db's are quite small because they're small-ish websites with CMS's. (I say small-ish because one has a few hundred pages now, but minimal in terms of db growth)

The next thing I'm considering is bandwidth usage... I've noted that bots/spiders tend to use a **** load of bandwidth... almost 4 times as much as my actual visitors a day... which could kill me entirely.