Keep in mind that some of the December troubles might have been avoided if the new hardware had gotten more testing before being put online, so let's not be so impatient this time around. All the Wikipedias are slow, it's not just the German one.
I don't think you have to do much hardware testing. Hardware it's working, or it's not working. Some errors may shine up only if the hardware is running some weeks. Ok. If there's an error, hardware as simple as we are running right now should be replaceable within days.
We need to overcome the current problems fast with a solution that isn't for eternity, but that works for now. It's a bad idea to wait for the new hardware, since *this* hardware and *setup* needs to be tested, probably software must be rewritten and so on. I do not believe the new server farm will be up and running smoothely before end of february.
I've got the feeling that everyone right now is concerned with and waiting for the new hardware, and forgetting the one we have. As I said, we get complaints from contributors, we are losing contributors. Today we got a mail from the PhD assistant of a german university professor announcing he and his boss would like to write an article. What do I tell them? "Sure, we like to have it, but keep in mind to save it well on your hard disc, probably the ipload will fail. Or please, wait until end of February, probaly we have new hardware then, but probably we have not? " That's ridiculous. This guy will turn away faster than you can watch.
Uli