Help me decide, I'm torn between 2 servers.

[KuJoe]

I currently have 2 dedicated servers for personal use (mostly development and testing) and I'm not sure which one to keep (I just ordered a new laptop so I was going to drop one to pay it off faster).

Server1

2xL5420 Intel Xeons

16GB DDR2

1x256GB SSD

/29 (5 usable)

Unmetered 100Mbps Port (average 80-95Mbps around the US)

>99.9% Network Uptime (total downtime 51 minutes in the past 124 days and no SLA)

100% Power Uptime (no SLA)

24-48 hour response time from help desk

No IPMI or Remote Reboot

Ashburn, VA (~64ms from my house)

$35/month (and earning $5/month)

Server2

2xL5520 Intel Xeons

72GB DDR3

1x500GB SATA

2x1TB SATA

/29 (5 usable)

3.5TB on 1Gbps Port (reaches up to 900Mbps around the US but averages around 200-400Mbps)

<99.8% Network Uptime (total downtime 2 hours 2 minutes and counting in the past 50 days, SLA provided)

100% Power Uptime (SLA provided)

<1 hour response time from help desk (24x7)

IPMI included

Kansas City, MO (~30ms from my house)

$75/month

I'm interested in your comments and thoughts. Is the network downtime worth having access to 24x7 support and more resources than I will ever need? Is having a slower network port worth having near perfect uptime (aside from scheduled network maintenance)? Also, you can see I don't have RAID but I do nightly off-site backups of my data so I can restore the whole server in less than 2 hours if needed.

 

[jarland]

My take, if I understand it's purpose like I think I do.

For personal use, offload any actual hosting to a cheap VPS with someone you trust (hint: top of LEB right now) and keep the personal toy/development to a kimsufi or online.net for easier reinstalls (hardly worth the $75 just for the IPMI, and the $35 one makes reinstalls too much trouble) and a good hybrid between power and cost. Use a good VPN to fix the throughput to France if you lack it locally like me (less than 10mbit from home, easily 100mbit from Dallas, no speed issues between me and Dallas, solved).

It's the no IPMI on the first one and the second one being entirely too much for your needs (as evident by your placing it up against the first option) that makes it pretty hard for me to pick a winner between them.

 

[KuJoe]

I need a dedicated server for dedicated resources and I need US-based providers, I've already offloaded my important stuff to a KVM of mine but there are some things I cannot move to a VPS without spending a lot of money. Additionally, my Raspberry Pi would cry if I RDPed to a Windows server in another country.

 

[NodeBytes]

How much do you need in terms of actual resources. My current dedi is fairly similarly specd to your first. If you only need that, stick with it and a cheap KVM or Kimsufi for other testing.

 

[rds100]

If it's just for personal / development purposes, do you need it to be on a server and does it need to be online 24/7? You could just get some old machine in your house which you power on when you need to do development and then power it off when you don't need it.

 

[NodeBytes]

If it's just for personal / development purposes, do you need it to be on a server and does it need to be online 24/7? You could just get some old machine in your house which you power on when you need to do development and then power it off when you don't need it.

That's boring.   

 

[KuJoe]

How much do you need in terms of actual resources. My current dedi is fairly similarly specd to your first. If you only need that, stick with it and a cheap KVM or Kimsufi for other testing.

I'm currently using 12GB of RAM, 200GB storage, and during testing I will max 6 out of the 8 cores on Server1. I've moved most of the testing to Server2 but since they are both ESXi servers, I can move the VMs around as needed. The server must be able to run virtuals as the majority of my testing requires multiple VMs and multiple virtual switches. At one point my testing involved a lot of VMs with about 40GB of RAM usage but I do not expect to run any more tests like that anytime soon but I will definitely need at least 9GB of RAM just for my 2 Windows Servers and one virtual router/switch.

If it's just for personal / development purposes, do you need it to be on a server and does it need to be online 24/7? You could just get some old machine in your house which you power on when you need to do development and then power it off when you don't need it.

I wish I could but my living room doubles as my office so space is severely limited. I also need a 100Mbps uplink to the internet and that would cost me a lot more than $35/month.

 

[wlanboy]

Is the network downtime worth having access to 24x7 support and more resources than I will ever need?

No. Waste of money. 75$ ... 900$ a year for testing? Nope.

Is having a slower network port worth having near perfect uptime (aside from scheduled network maintenance)?

Yes. I never "needed" a 1 Gbit port. Just because noone else does support that bandwith.

Also, you can see I don't have RAID but I do nightly off-site backups of my data so I can restore the whole server in less than 2 hours if needed.

You answered your own questions.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Ehh, from the sound of it I think you'll be fine with the Dual L5420 one then for 35/month.  

 

[wdq]

You might be able to find a server with similar specs to that 2xL5420's (but with IPMI) for a very similar price. If you can't you may be able to buy a used server and then colocate it for a really great deal if you don't mind paying a bit up front.

 

[KuJoe]

Adding some more things into the mix:

1) I just noticed I'm running low on disk space on my 256GB SSD so I'm getting a quote for a 2nd hard drive.

2) I'll be running a game server on whichever server I decide to keep. I think the lower latency and better network speeds would benefit me more.

 

[KuJoe]

You might be able to find a server with similar specs to that 2xL5420's (but with IPMI) for a very similar price. If you can't you may be able to buy a used server and then colocate it for a really great deal if you don't mind paying a bit up front.

I looked into both of these options and unfortunately I couldn't find any decent servers under $50/month and I can't afford to purchase a server to colocate right now.

 

[clarity]

I am guessing the 2nd server is from wansec. Those are your drives right? Are you ok losing those so quickly?

 

[KuJoe]

I am guessing the 2nd server is from wansec. Those are your drives right? Are you ok losing those so quickly?

Correct. The 2 1TB drives are mine, the 500GB drive is theirs. It's one of the reasons I'm stilling hanging on to the server.

 

[clarity]

They keep the drives when you cancel right? That would make me want to hang on to that one more. Plus, the guys at wansec are great, and it has better everything spec wise. Why not split all of that with someone? They could get a good deal, and you could keep the better dedi.

 

[Coastercraze]

Well, since you're making something off Server 1, I'd keep that one. Plus, $75 / mo savings would help you pay that laptop off faster too

 

[mikho]

If thats my 5$ on the first server then I have no problem moving. So don't let that stop you.

 

[Shados]

Adding some more things into the mix:

1) I just noticed I'm running low on disk space on my 256GB SSD so I'm getting a quote for a 2nd hard drive.

2) I'll be running a game server on whichever server I decide to keep. I think the lower latency and better network speeds would benefit me more.

Generally speaking, even with very twitch-based games you won't see much difference for any latency <80ms (at minimum, mostly people can't tell the difference between anything under 120~150ms) unless you're superhuman. Plus, games with good netcode (here's looking at you, Valve) will further negate most difference via lag prediction on the client-side & lag compensation on the server-side.

You're also unlikely to use more than the 80-90Mbps you're getting on the $35 server unless you have a game with fairly terrible netcode or a lot of constantly-active players, and the 3.5TiB/mo on the second server only comes down to an average of ~11Mb/s, which you may actually use more than, so the $35 one might be the better option there.

More relevantly than either would arguably be the network jitter - as I said, constant latencies under 120~150ms generally aren't distinguishable from one another, but latency changes & spikes are very much noticeable (and annoying) to most gamers. If running a game server is (one of?) your main goal(s) here, then I'd suggest you test out the network stability & jitter on both and choose whichever does better in that regard.

...Also, if you do decide to drop one of the packages and the provider is OK with transferring it to another account, I'd be interested - both plans are better than my current dedicated playground .

 

[NathanielD]

As per the above discussion, I would recommend you to consider 2nd server. At the same time, you also need 24/7 support service as this be really help in case you need any assistance.

 

[peterw]

100% Power Uptime (SLA provided)

<1 hour response time from help desk (24x7)

IPMI included

Kick the first server.