Important Database Info You Should Know Before Upgrading
 

I was just reading through the latest blog posts and found ibxanders "Part 1 vB4mance: Helping communities grow* performance data model changes in vB 4.0"* which explains a serious change for many who endure MySQL issues with their hosts. The main issue being as your forum and DB grow* you tend to outgrow your hosting. Well... for many if not all* cost is a large factor in hosting. How vb4 handles queries will drastically change from how vb3 handles the same queries* especially writing data and searching the thread and post tables. Basically.... InnoDB is being used which will change many issues and server loading for a good majority of forum owners.

You need to read it if you haven't* and especially if you are looking at having to upgrade hosts* as you may want to just hang tight until you have the new product installed and utilising a far superior database method from what you are now. The new version should drastically reduce database and server loading* thus your hosting requirements.

Basically.... you should get much more growth within your forum before having to upgrade to larger specs from here on out.