I currently have an asp.net web application running on an xp machine w/ iis 5.1 and sql server 2005 on our network. This application processes large excel files (50MB+), handles 100's of 1000's of records of product information, and manipulates that data. Right now not many people can access the app and do anything substantial with out the system freezing.
I would like to be able to have ~10 people using the system at any given time doing these large tasks.
Should I separate the web server and sql server on separate machines? XP, Vista, 7, Windows server? 32-bit, 64-bit? RAM? CPUs?
Obviously cost is somewhat of an issue...
Any recommendations, ideas, or links to articles would be greatly appreciated!