I currently have a dedicated server on the West Coast US which at the time of taking on was going to suit a more global audience push for my sites. However that has been canned and I really don't need US hosting for my Aust focused sites so I am looking at what options I have here in Aust.

My US server is an incredible overkill for what I need but I wanted the best performance in terms of latency for Aust users, room to expand and for a price that was affordable for the global push.

I pay for a Dedicated server:
$179 for Intel e3 1230 16gb ram 4x73gb 15k rpm sas hdd raid 10 320gb sata II hdd 5TB 100mbps port 29 cuds
$30 for WHM/cPanel
$30 for 24/7 Server management and support to Platinum Server Management
TOTAL: $239 USD

My average current use is:
Server load 0.09 (8 CPUs)
Memory Used 9.76% (1,591,892 of 16,311,948)
Swap Used 0% (0 of 2,097,144)

If I ping one of my sites I get:
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 181ms, Maximum = 186ms, Average = 182ms

My sites are all forum based sites using Xenforo (and a cart site using CS-Cart) so heavy on high performance of mySQL and PHP, I need root access to be able to say move mySQL databases between domains etc, guaranteed 6gig ram (room to move), auto backups, 100+gig traffic and fully managed VPS or ?

Now, I am wondering whether that with my sites audience being mostly Aus, my canning of the global push etc, can I get a better deal (financially) for an Australian host or should I just stay with what I have now.

Hi ibaker,
Your most likely to find US hosts are a load cheaper than aussie hosts. Maybe look at downsizing in the server you have now as the servers over here with those specs are extremely expensive.

Thanks, yes I did down size as I said I didn't need all that resource so I am now with VPS Blocks and can resize according to my needs at any time...I am saving around $100 a month now basing the server on what I really need

Wow $30 for 24/7 Server management and support to Platinum Server Management

Sure they did heaps of "Server Management" for that

About Platinum Server Management...many problems have now arisen with them to the point that they have currently taken my money for support and then closed my account without any notification etc

I will post a review of them in due course in the hope that many other WHT users are informed

The US certainly has some cheaper rates, one day maybe we won't all pay insane prices for data.

I would be love to find out more about your requirements and look at assisting you if you are interested in moving your sites back to Australia.

Cheers,
Ray