load balancing between the servers isn't an easy task no matter what version of linux you use. ~g~ though the most effective structure would be one gateway/router server with each module of the site being on it's own backend server only accessed through the gateway. RH8 doesn't handle large amounts of ram properly? that's the first I've heard of that problem. you might want to look at apache 2 series for the threaded processes then, lower cpu demand and lower ram usage without sacrificing performance. instead of multiple instances of apache in ram it's one insance with multiple threads ( processing chains ) this allows better performance with lower ram levels. hmmm maybe I'll remove the apache 1 and put apache 2 on my workstation then put a fairly complex site script that we all know is slower than sh%t ( php nuke ) let you see the performance capabilities without risking a production server crashing. though would have to get people to hit it just for testing to show the load handling.