Whilst similar questions exist, I couldn't find any which quite match my request.

I'm looking for hosting for some personal .NET projects which for various reasons I do not want to host on our servers at work. I need to be able to host multiple sites and for that reason I'm thinking of a VPS with RDP access for the time being - don't fancy shared hosting as I feel that doesn't offer me the flexbility and control I'm looking for.

What experiences do people have of Windows 2008 VPS providers? I've come across a few possibilities although it seems a lot of places are still on Windows 2003 with 2008 'coming soon'. Is VPS the best way to go? Eventually (depending on how the projects take off) I intend to get a dedicated box but at this stage it's not cost-effective.

Also, what are people's experiences of running SQL Server Express on a VPS? What would you say the minimum requirements are for CPU/memory? I know it's not going to be anywhere near as performant as SQL Server 2005/8 running on a dedicated box but I'm hoping it will be an acceptable starting point.

Any other tips/advice also welcome!

Edit: Forgot to mention, I'm ideally looking for UK hosting although I'm open to alternatives.