When your coding a website do you prefer to go with a static or dynamic base?

For anyone that doesn't know the difference a static website is one that is hard coded and will never change unless edited directly, where as a dynamic site can change depending upon a manner of factors such as url values, parameters, posts, etc.

Usually my larger sites are always dynamic with a database otherwise there would be thousands of pages to code by hand and that would make no sense at all. Where as any smaller personal sites I create are static to save time not having to setup a database. The only downside to that is they are harder to expand in the future if you wish to.