We are currently building an ASP.net N-Tier application build on .NET 3.5 with Oracle 10gR2 as the backend database.The application is data intensive and transaction based and needs to support an average load of about 600 concurrent users.
The intention is to use Windows Server 2008 / IIS7 for both the web tier as well as the application tier. 64 bit is definitely an option. The database servers are already in place and is not a factor under consideration right now.
Since the application is still in design, I am not in a position to do any load/perf testing and use that data to get an idea amount / kind of hardware that will be needed for the proposed load. Also, any idea as to what kind of servers / cpu's are the standard for such a configuration.
I have only very limited experience / knowledge with regards to Server Hardware / Models and even lesser with regards to cost so any help on any of these parameters will be greatly appreciated!