[thelist] my own server, or not?

[Peter Van Dijck]

I am VERY tempted to get my own server for only 29 pounds a month. I'll 
prob. also pay the support, so +5 pounds. And I realise I'll probably have 
to pay 100 pound the first year when I mess up and they need to do 
something manually for me. So that's 500 pounds for a year.

I've got the digitalspace.net deal now for 36$ a year X 8 sites. That's 150 
pounds a year. But I can't install php4 or anything, and they are slow. 
Seems my own server would be way faster.

So my questions: what am I missing in these calculations? 500 pounds is an 
investment, so I want to make the right choice. Also: when their service 
gets popular (as it will), can that really slow down my server? Or doesn't 
it work like that?? I know that on digitalspace I share server with lots of 
other sites, and it does get really slow.

One other thing, from my 8 sites, there is right now only one serious one 
(popular one), so the others are basically fine on their slow host. It's 
just that I can't install PHP4 and things...

And finally, has anyone experience with these cobalt raqs, or with 
powerraq? Are the cobalt raqs easy to use, or do they have quirks?
http://powerraq.com/ offer the deal.

Thanks for your help, I find it hard to make such a heavy decision...
Peter