> Of course, a bigger box running PostgreSQL is still cheaper and
> easier to maintain than multiple replicated servers.
Cheaper? Look at the prices for two 2-cpu machines, and compare that to
the price of one 4-cpu machine. You can get nicely equipped dual-CPU
machines for what, $4,000 or $5,000 total? When you get into the 4-way
machines, you'll pay that much just for the motherboard and chassis - and
you still have thousands left to spend on the processers themselves.
Besides that, two 2-CPU machines can perform much, much better than a
single 4-way machine, because you only have half of the processers
fighting for I/O.
steve