[From EITPlanet]
With server hardware getting more and more powerful, and prices dropping just as dramatically, companies, especially smaller ones, are seeing their options open up when it comes to buying database servers. This means that database administrators who are newer in the field are being asked to design increasingly powerful systems.
When designing database systems for a large system you are able to purchase large database servers with a large number of hard drives and plenty of RAM. There are some general rules to fallow when designing your system.
The article continues at
http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com/networking/features/article.php/3791396