Using different servers to host mini-sites

[RadoJo]

Hi Google-Gang!

I have a question about mini-sites - we are in the process of setting up lots of mini sites to link in to our main site, as the range of products on offer is so broad we wanted to offer information on each subject individually. These sites will be hosted on a separate server to the main site.

Does anyone know if Google would penalise us for having multiple individual sites on similar topics, linking to the same URL, all being hosted on the same server? Some people here seem to think that Google would recognise that these sites are all hosted in the same place and that we should try and put each mini site on a separate server - would this be beneficial in terms of SEO?

Thanks!