I haven't tried phatservers, but it seems like everyone here likes them.
Personally, I don't use services that market themselves in shows or boards. Sometimes I will make an exception, but not with hosting. I've been hosting with
JaguarPC for about 4 years now. They have great, fast, and efficient support and they run promos constantly for their VPS services if you're looking for something smaller than a dedicated server to test stuff out.
Give them a try!