Which server should I use?

[Guest Paddy Mac]

Hi,

 

My current web server died last week and I've been shopping around for a budget web server. I've came across two that is within my budget. The 1st one is a dedicated server with the following spec :-

 

Windows 2003 Web Edition

1.0GHz Processor

1GByte RAM

72GByte Storage

for £65 a month

 

The 2nd is a virtual server limited to 12 clients with the following spec :-

 

Windows 2003 Enterprise

Dual Quad Core Intel Xeon E5420 2.5 GHz

12 GB DDR2 RAM

50 GB Hard Disk Space

for £50 a month

 

I'm not sure which would be best. The dedicated server is of low spec but it only me who will be using resources, and the virtual server is of high spec but I'll be sharing resources.

 

Can anyone with knowledge of this area please give me a recommendation?

 

Thanks,

 

Paddy

[Guest Brian Cryer]

Re: Which server should I use?

 

<Paddy Mac> wrote in message

news:200842144224patrick_mcallister@yahoo.co.uk...

> Hi,

>

> My current web server died last week and I've been shopping around for a

> budget web server. I've came across two that is within my budget. The

> 1st one is a dedicated server with the following spec :-

>

> Windows 2003 Web Edition

> 1.0GHz Processor

> 1GByte RAM

> 72GByte Storage

> for £65 a month

>

> The 2nd is a virtual server limited to 12 clients with the following spec

> :-

>

> Windows 2003 Enterprise

> Dual Quad Core Intel Xeon E5420 2.5 GHz

> 12 GB DDR2 RAM

> 50 GB Hard Disk Space

> for £50 a month

>

> I'm not sure which would be best. The dedicated server is of low spec but

> it only me who will be using resources, and the virtual server is of high

> spec but I'll be sharing resources.

>

> Can anyone with knowledge of this area please give me a recommendation?

 

Its worth doing a bit of research on the hosting company. I suggest you

visit http://www.webhostingtalk.com and see what people have to say about the host.

Who are the hosts?

 

Personally if it were me I'd go with the dual-quad core option. A single

core 1GHz processor sounds quite slow (and is probably quite old too!) For

most tasks a dual core processor is likely to always have spare cpu

capacity, so with 12 clients across 2 quad core processors I would expect

most of the time for you to have the equivalent of at least one core

available to you at all times (I know the math doesn't work out like that

and it does depend on what the other clients are doing). Do you know

anything about the disk arrangement? I would expect that the dual quad

machine to be disk bound before it ran out of cpu resource.

 

A few other things in case you've not considered them:

 

1. Do your hosts need to be in the UK? I've found hosts in the US and Europe

cheaper, and (for shared hosting) I've not had any problems hosting in the

US instead of the UK.

 

2. Do you need Windows hosting or will *nix do? If (for example) you are

using asp.net then you NEED a Windows server, but if its just for plain html

file or for php then a Unix server would save you £10ish a month.

 

3. It might also be worth posting to alt.http://www.webmaster.

 

These are just my opinions, but I hope it helps.

--

Brian Cryer

http://www.cryer.co.uk/brian