2.1 Hardware

You don't need top-notch hardware to run a web server, even with CGI enabled and a database server running. This does not apply if you are expecting a lot of hits, especially during peak hours, or that what you are doing is critical to your financial well being.

For experimentation purposes, a good old PII class processor, 128MB of RAM, 10GB of hard disk space is already quite sufficient. Of course, you still need a network card to connect to the network. In most cases, even a monitor and a keyboard are optional because you can perform most tasks over the network.