Topic: computer HDD size for small forum

[Buzzliteyear]

Hi, my idea is to build a computer and install at my partners work in town where they have faster internet speed than rural,

at a guess the forum would have no more than 1000 people with low traffic,

I have no idea on HDD size for above plus backup,

would i5 and 2x 500gb be a good start and maybe a 250gb SSD to hold the main forum

what size is this forum take..... could i divide that by 433 ?

Brett

[Arantor]

Bear in mind that this forum is vastly larger than most SMF forums out there; it does so much more than just be a forum, it also copes with the mod and theme sites.

Size is mostly a function of how many posts and attachments you expect to have - 1000 accounts takes maybe a few KB in the database. Assume an approximate size of 1KB per post once all overheads are factored in; 1GB therefore allows for a million posts, give or take.

The other question is attachments; people uploading images and so on is vastly larger and I could see a photography forum consuming a decent chunk of that 500GB. If your forum isn't about people uploading files (be it photos, or technical documents or whatever), those numbers are enough to cope with pretty massive forums.

Remember a lot of people are hosting on very cheap shared hosting with much smaller numbers than that.

[Buzzliteyear]

Thanks Arantor,

ok the idea was to take the poor format that our FB group  offers to search and look up stored files/documents/images etc about a vehicle manufacture from the 50's to the 80's (bedford) so I guess there are plans for at least half decent file size else it wont be worth it.

I was trying to have more control with little to no ongoing cost that way I wont  have to ask for money to keep the forum alive etc

cheers
Brett

[Arantor]

Then it sound like you have something perfectly suited to cope with your needs

[Rock Lee]

I do not know if my comment contributes something but I have a forum for my university running with an AMD Apu with a disk of 16GB SSD + HDD 250GB with a connection let's say it works, the forum does not occupy me even 400MB with all the modifications, nick, images, etc. On average it should be between 500 to 700 who mainly upload PDF about the content of the race (of the 2nd disk it is using about 80GB) my class asked me to mount it since my university server crashed many times. For what you say is enough !


Regards!

[JohnS]

FWIIW I run a family history forum with 2000 members which has been going for 10 years with a fair selection of attachments and pictures and it currently takes up 1.08GB on my server. If you have half the people and low traffic your 500GB should last you a fair while.

[Buzzliteyear]

Thankyou JohnS  ,  Rock lee  ,  Arantor