"you'll literally _have_to_ to different media serving and load balancing if you plan to grow whatever_this_is."

I guess my point is that it's a mod_php issue and I may not need nginx. My plan is to try a threaded apache without mod_php and use mod_fcgi for php. If that doesn't work then try a threaded apache with mod_php and see what happens.

Another solution is find another provider that offers more memory and similar service for the same price. But it will be hard to match slicehost's service I think.