Any opinions on the best hosting company for a dedicated server? I was leaning toward Hostgator..any others to consider?
Hostgator, dreamhost they are not good for dedicated boxes. For Dedicated server you should try any from the following: http://www.softlayer.com http://www.layeredtech.com Both are giant dedicated server provider in the market.
You're out of your mind! Big No for Layeredtech too. Unless you want to keep your fingers crossed you never get even one spam report. In my mind it's Softlayer only.
I'm not a pro with anything but with looking at all of these links above and checking the prices for what you get you may want to see http://www.urlhost.net I've been using them for awhile and the more differant hosting prices I see the more happy I am to be with these guys.
http://www.layeredtech.com http://www.theplanet.com http://www.tailoredservers.com http://www.softlayer.com I got servers at first 3 providers, all seems good. Softlayer is also good, you get free unlimited internal transfer if you have more servers.
I am looking for getting unmetered servers, plan to go with FDC. Do you have any similar offers ? Where servers are located ?
I've never come across anyone providing dedicated servers as cheap as these guys: http://www.leaseweb.com They're in the Netherlands and have dedicated servers starting at €39 - decent enough webservers, 512mbs RAM, 160gb hd, 500gb traffic. I'm not affiliated in any way with them, just a happy customer. I was paying €85 for a slightly worse server before I moved to them. Now I have 3, will probably extend to 15 for a new project.
With Softlayers new pay per ticket system it may aswell be managed. Try PSM with them for a good managed solution. FDC is just okay for a budget solution or very high bandwidth needs.