Best Hardware for a server attached to LCD TV displaying a Flash frontend

Question

I need a recommendation on what hardware (PC) to buy in order to achieve this task:

I have a webserver (WAMP) running in my laptop, this server has a webapp who can manage information from a user. In a few words, a user enter in my webserver and a php script ask gim for a mensage who get store in a MYSql database, in other hand, inside the same PC there is a flash running with a frontend who take this mensages and shows it. My English is bad, maybe this diagram may help you:

Well I want to connect the pc who runs all (Webserver, MySQL server, Flash front end) to a LCD TV in order to create something like an information spot that will be on almost all day (sometimes all day).

Do you recomend to have the webserver and the frontend in the same pc? or to separate in two? What hardware do you recomend? i mean, type of pc, with fans or no, please cheap solutions but good.

Answer 1

It depends on how many people are using the website; how critical it would be for the service to be down; and how critical it would be to lose data. But if it's a smallish non-commercial project I'd start with a normal (expandable) desktop PC that's not too expensive, put the server and flash app on it, and put it on trial and see how it performs. It's a good idea to get a UPS for the computer and ideally all network equipment (eg. modem, router).

If it's commercial, then I think it would be a better idea to rent out a server, and have the flash app be a client to that.

There's a lot of things you can do to improve the efficiency of hosting web applications without buying new hardware, but they vary depending on the specific situation you have, and can be more expensive (if hiring an expert) than buying hardware.