How much web space is needed to run a large forum (with a few hundred active members)?

[Minamoto]

I'm scratching my head at the amount of web space I'll need to run a large forum. The forum I have in mind has a few thousand members (say 5000), but only approximately 200 or so posters are active daily. These posters also frequently post media such as pdf's, jpg's and youtube vids, but these are typically small files. Post count is in the millions, thread count is in the tens or hundreds of thousands. How much web space is needed to accommodate all of this, assuming bandwidth is unmetered? Is it 100 gigs? 200 gigs? 300? How much?

Also, can I maintain a forum of this size on shared hosting for an indefinite period of time or should I consider switching to VPS? At what point should I consider upgrading servers? Thanks.

 

[duderuud]

Just FYI, some info of the forum we are about to migrate to XF:

28.8 mln posts
Close to 250.000 users
1.2 mln attachments

DB is currently around 60gb
Enhanced search index is 5gb
Attachments (and avatars) are around 900gb

VPS is much more configurable but you have to know what you're doing. If you find the right host, shared hosting should be fine. Be sure to check the requirements though.