In the end you do get what you pay for - the trick is not to end up with a package that seems good value - but then find that you don't really need have the stuff.
We have been surprised how many people have gone for a really lowend server (£35/month) and been very happy - too many people are chasing the latest, fastest best system - when all they are doing is serving a few web pages.
Naturally some people need (and get) dual CPU systems, with RAID storage, mirrrored servers etc - but not for a small hobby-server