[asterisk-users] Asterisk System Setup Question

[Zaheer Master]

Hi All,

I have done some research on Asterisk and I would like to try it in my
office. Here's what I'm looking at for my system:

AsteriskNow running one of two ways:
1) As a virtual machine on a VMWare server (Eight core Xeon server with 4GB
ram)
2) on a P4 2.4Ghz with 768mb RAM

I'm looking at 4-5 phones in the office. I was going to go with Grandstream
or Polycom phones but I've heard people have had some issues with that. The
Aastra 51i seems to be a good choice. I'd eventually like to link my
Asterisk installation with my CRM, so the XML capabilities of the 51i should
come in handy.

I'm going to use SIP Trunking through Bandwidth.com with 2-3 SIP trunks.

I'd like to know what more experienced users think of this setup, and if
anyone has had any experience with either the 51i phones or the
Bandwidth.com service. Also, has anyone had problems using a fax machine
(either computer or paper) with Asterisk?

Thank you in advance for your input!

Regards,
Zaheer K. Master 
President, Adamant Security Inc.