Like you, I was a webmaster in search of hosting when I needed a dedicated. I picked
Cyberwurx. I chose them because of price vs what you get. I have some very busy blogs and on my old setup they used to run out of memory and put the server load at 3.x to 10.x which basically killed my sites!
After moving my server load went to .4 (yes! point four!).
They run their own stripped down version of Debian and I have to say, it kicks ass. They are on 24/7/365 to help you with scripts, domain additions/deletions, etc. That was also a big reason for me moving. My old host was only available for support during business hours M-F!