SSD-powered VPSes: first results
Hello,
I was in quest of SSD-powered VPS/DSes. There are several providers available right now. The analysis isn't scientifically precise, but it gives some kind of general feeling about that.
The task was to find most cost-performance efficient DS/VPS solutions at a cost equal or below 40 USD/month. I was ordering the most cheap solution (hence the result can't be very precise) and run several types of tests:
- Copying large files (command used looks like dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/2gb.dat bs=8k count=256k conv=fdatasync, "DD"), measured in MB/sec
- Byte UnixBench, "UB"
- Running a copy of site using 'heavy' engine such as Drupal ('heavy' in terms of disk I/O requests and computing required, not in terms of overall efficiency)
Whereas the third option is hard to reliably measure, the first two can be. Here are the results ordered by UB rating decreasing:
64u.com: UB score 1678, DD speed 352
infinitie.net: UB 1128, DD 501
vpsdeploy.com: UB 359, DD 216
digicube.fr: UB 288, DD 99
serveraxis.com: UB 251, DD 89
I haven't tried miniVPS and SSDNodes yet (to be done in the future). If I haven't noticed any other SSD VPS providers able to provide a VPS at or below 40 USD/month, let me know.
Comments on the providers.
64u.com. They offer a single plan. Fantastic speed, quick professional setup. I like the first impression.
infinitie.com. The most DD-efficient VPS I saw so far. The only problem I had were strangely long connection times from my location. I ad even decided to cancel the VPS, but in the last few days the situation changed, I decided to keep the lowest SSD VPS from them and used it for further testing.
vpsdeploy.com. The general impression of this provider is it's too young so far. The site lacks certain useful information (such as 'About' page), but I will watch its development.
digicube.fr. I used their only low-end SSD-powered dedicated server. Alas, even though the facility is run very professionally, the DS itself isn't too impressive. I'll watch their news, however, perhaps they will have more interesting things in stock in the near future.
serveraxis.com: quick, efficient setup, overall feeling is rather positive. I cancelled their VPS, though, to me it's the least efficient (it doesn't mean all of their SSD VPS plans are - if I have time to test 'larger' plans, ratings can change)
Currently I am using cloud hosting from bluelighthost.com, but if I firmly decide to move to SSD VPS, 64u.com and infinitie.com will be the first candidates, after at least 3-4 months come and I have better impression.
I would be grateful for more SSD VPS providers suggestions. However, I can't guarantee I will do the comparison quick enough, since my month budget I use to order/test new VPSes isn't endless, and my day is limited by 24 hours.
If the above results and further studying is of interest to someone, perhaps I'll run a site dedicated to finding and using good reliable inexpensive VPS/DS providers.
Your suggestions and feedback on the mentioned providers are very welcome.
I think it's rather unlikely, but if a SSD VPS provider would offer a VPS to run tests and watch overall stability (for a month), or offer moneyback, I will be glad to test that candidate. Most VPS providers do not grant moneyback at all, and in that case I am limited by a set budget I can exhaust.
SSD-powered shared hosting will be studied later, when there are at least 5-10 reliable candidates.
Sorry for several corrections of the post, it was really full of typos. This was the last correction.