Step 2: Hardware
This page explains how to select and correctly configure hardware for your server.

Minimum Requirements
Surprisingly, a server doesn't necessarily have to be a high spec machine. You could minimally host your website, mails and ftp with the following:

100MHz CPU
32MB RAM
2GB Hard Drive
10Mbps Network Card
Broadband Internet Connection

The main thing that needs to be fast is the Internet connection. However, with a lot of traffic coming into your server you will find a higher specification server more desirable. A better configuration could be:

1GHz CPU (possibly higher with a very busy server)
256MB RAM (possibly more with a very busy server)
40GB Hard Drive (possibly more if your require a large amount of storage space)
10Mbps Network Card
Fast Broadband Internet Connection (the faster the better)

Memory Considerations
It is very important to have enough memory on your server as busy servers will always perform much quicker with plenty of memory. Most of the important application data is usually stored in the memory (which is called RAM - Random Access Memory). Therefore, the more memory you have, the more applications you can safely run. If your server starts to run low on memory, it will start to use the hard drive. This is often referred to as page file memory and usually results in the system slowing considerably. If the computer has a good amount of memory, then commonly accessed files on the hard drive may be 'cached' into memory to improve general performance. This is intended to help reduce the bottle neck of hard drive access, which compared to normal memory access is very slow. Also, once a system starts to run low on memory and page file use is increased, the system becomes more unstable and is more susceptible to crashes. The 'bottom line' is: more memory means a more stable and efficient server.

Hard Drive Performance
To add to the above memory considerations, it is worth noting that with a very busy Internet server, the Hard Drive is often responsible for bad performance. Web, Mail and FTP all usually perform some degree of accessing and distributing files to users. Ensuring a fast Hard Drive (at least 7200RPM) is a key element of your servers hardware configuration. Additionally, if the server begins to make more use of page files, then a good hard drive will help maintain performance under exceptionally large demands.