Ask HN: Calculate Server Needs

[invitro]

Hi all,

I am newbie in HN, I need help about my own project. Any advice will be appreciated.

1. how many co-founder to start my own project? I knew some people tell me to find a partner, but some successful site has been created by a single creator. Well, any comment?

2. how to estimate the server needs to start my own project? any points I need to consider? like how many RAM, how powerful CPU and how to determine those? any reference?

Thanks all, any idea will be great. I really appreciated.

[jwilliams]

1. Most articles around start-ups, including Y Combinator, suggest that having more than 1 founder greatly improves the chance of success.

2. It's impossible to answer that without a lot more information. Capacity estimation can be a black art... Unless you're using novel technologies, I'd focus on making sure you have scalable application first (you can always start out small).

[invitro]

ok thx guys, refer to point no 2, I understand about how hard we have to determine the specification.

I just wondering, for example : how do we know how far MySQL can handle concurrent query, and how much time ffmpeg need to transcode a single movie and how many request nginx can handle a request, I already googling for those kind of information, but not enough information on internet. Could you guys give me some clue or reference? any site has been discuss those problem? tomshardware (I don't think so)?

thx in advance.

[m0digital]

For server specs it really depends on technologies you're using. Java, PHP, Rails, etc. Each will need a different amount of resources. It's probably easiest to get an entry level container from a place like Joyent and scale up as you need it.