What kind of dedicated server/bandwidth will we need?

[Simon]

Hiya,

I'm trying to get some input on what kind of sever/bandwidth we should use for the Free Hosted Sites we're going to be offering as part of our affiliate program soon. We've had a paysite for a long time, but we're only now venturing into FHS -- actually because of suggestions we've gotten here. We're planning to have hundreds of free hosted sites on this new server eventually, and hopefully we'll have them listed on many great link lists, and we'll have lots of surfers visiting our free sites every day.

Since we've never done thumbnail galleries or free sites before, my question is this: what kind of box and what bandwidth do we need to support something like this with no troubles?

I'm thinking that most dedicated server plans will provide plenty of hard drive space, so it's more the processor(s) speed, amount of RAM, preferred OS, bandwidth, monthly transfer needs -- and anything else I'm not thinking of -- that I'd like to get whatever feedback I can on from folks here.

I'm not looking for a hosting company right now (though anyone's welcome to reply), just a good understanding of what kind of demands we need to meet so that our affiliates don't ever wind up with slow loading sites due to something we could have done.

TIA for whatever help you can offer,

Simon