Hi guys. A common problem I see is that many of you are outgrowing VPS or shared hosting, but can't yet justify renting a high end dedicated server. Currently, the core2quad server is the best bang for the buck, but many of you don't need that level of performance, and all you can afford is a lower end sempron offering. We've come up with an idea to help out in exactly this situation. It's called a semi-dedicated server. We take a server that has a core2quad processor, 8gb ram, two hard drives, and a 30 megabit internet connection, and we split it in two. Each of two customers gets dedicated access to 2 cpu cores, 4gb ram, one of two hard drives, and 15 megabit of bandwidth. Because there will only be two customers put onto each of these servers, all these resources are dedicated. This way you get the advantages of a dedicated server and with the cost effectiveness of a Core2Quad based system, without having to rent a server twice as big as what you need. In effect we are offering a powerful core2duo / 4gb ram server for what it usually costs to get a sempron with 1gb ram. Basically we're offering 4x the performance of a sempron for the same price. Before finalizing this decision, we wanted to know what our loyal customers think of this. Do you see a market for this service at a price point of $149-179 / month? thewird
Well, Personally, No. Why would someone want to buy a Semi-Dedicated which when you think about it has half the reliability, Because it's shared and these days, You can buy a Core2Duo of WHT for about $139 (Look here). It's just really not that likely that someone's gonna want a shared server when they can get dedicated
You have to compare apples to apples. If you look at the hivelocity offering you mention, thats 1gb ram, 1500gb bandwidth, no control panel, 160gb hard drive if you configure it to 4gb ram, 10 megabit unmetered (which is only 2/3 of the 15 megabit offered in the example), cpanel, and 500gb hard drive, they want $269.00. That's $90-$120 more for what amounts to the same thing. Plus I'd take the FDC network over the HiVelocity network thanks (though that's just my opinion). Now, I'm not personally interested in this offering, I have plenty of bigger servers don't need half of one. I'd like to see what others think, but its important to compare apples to apples.
Well, I think it is good for those looking for a similar server type with affordable (lowered) price. If the main level of performance will not decrease that much (even though it will, but it can stay level or better than other servers), I think it will still be good for customers.
It's basically as funkywizard said, the offering is completely different. Comes with 4GB of ram and bandwidth is a 15mbps dedicated port. I was planning to either use 500 or 750 GB drives. Also, control panel would be free. The fact that its shared plays no merit at all since all resources on the server are dedicated. You get 100% dedicated access to two of the four CPU cores, 100% of the 4GB of ram allocated to you, 100% of the hard drive so there are no iowait conflicts, and you have a 100% 15mbps dedicated port that is not oversold in any shape or form. Your looking at a 1-3% CPU overhead compared to its dual-core counterpart. I could have offered these as dedicated servers and people would not notice. Basically what I'm offering is... Core2DUO 6600 2.4 Ghz (with a 1-3% downclock) 4GB DDR2 RAM 500GB or 750GB HDD 15Mbit port thewird
the main thing is the performance. if a person needs a reliable and good server, he will have to shall out $$. Good Service and Quality always costs.
I think its a great idea. In fact, It'd be better if you have say 4 customers on a box, as long as RAM/CPU usage is also burstable. That ways, there would be even more savings.
The main downside there is that the bandwidth is not infinite. At FDC you can either get 30 meg cap on a 100 meg port or you can upgrade to gigabit (50 meg or 100 meg average allowed), but that's quite a bit more money. So you could either get 7 megabit to yourself on the 30 meg plan (with 4 customers say), which may not be enough, or, he could go with 50 meg average allowed gigabit, but then you've doubled or more the hosting costs, so it doesn't really save money. To justify gigabit, you've got to have more customers, which means you're now talking about just a regular vps rather than a semi-dedicated situation. Which is fine, but TheWird already offers that.