Looking for a new 1U dedicated server solution for a highly trafficked forum - help!
 

I currently am running a dedicated server only running 1 vBulletin forum. The current server is a Dell PowerEdge with the following specs:

CPU - Dual Intel Xeon 2.4Ghz
Memory - 4GB RAM
Storage - 2x36GB 10K SCSI Hard Drives in RAID

The entire forum database is less than 2GB, and the files are less than 500Mb's. We dont allow attachments within the database so the database size has been kept very low.

The forum has 13,000 members with 1.7million posts.

The current server uses less than 70% of the memory, uses nothing for a swap drive, but the processors (4 cores total) are all running maxed out. The site takes 17 seconds during peak hours to load.

I am currently looking for a server replacement. I colocate at a datacenter, and would like to replace the 1U with a different solution.

Do I just need something with a faster set of processors? If so, what is recommended?

I'd like to purchase a server that will last a couple years, and my budget is around $3,000.

Do I need dual Xeon quad core processors? Will 4GB of RAM suffice?

Open to all suggestions and feedback?