The easiest thing to do is put the SQL server on a separate server, but this is not cost effective under 100 000 users. When you get up to past 500 000 you should separate the web server from the SMTP server as well.
do u really need to have everything on one box?? i m no expert myself but wouldn't it be better to split up the required functionalities over several boxes??
But, SQL is fast, the web code all runs under mod_perl and mod_gzip and @Mail usually uses Exim which talks to mySQL as is fast as well. You should not have a problem with one dedicated server.
~dec
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