What's a good Cisco Catalyst Model?

I'm running a site that lets users create profiles, search queries, stream audio, and buy t-shirts thorugh Paypal.

Setup:
2 Powerful Servers running MySQL, PHP, Apache
Backup Server (Backup, Load Balancer, Router, Firewall)

Question

1. What is the minimum Cisco switch model that I can get away with buying that would still deliver good results?

2. How come there is such a difference in price between the Catalyst 2970 ($2500) and the 2950 ($400)?

3. Would I be better off buying a router to have my firewall and as a load balancer or would the backup server do the trick????

 

 

 

 

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