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  1. #1

    Dedicated server in UK - what is a reasonable price?

    Over the years I have had 3 different dedicated servers, all with different providers. It's now about time I upgraded to newer hardware and OS again, and am now looking at options to do so. Having been a few years since I last moved to a new supplier, I'm hoping WHT will be able to offer me some advice on the subject.

    I think my requirements are fairly modest; I generally just host sites I have developed for clients or for my own projects - currently around 20 sites in total, maybe rising to 30 over the next year or so. They are all fairly niche and don't have particularly high traffic or resource usage.

    My current setup is a 2.7GHz Pentium E5400 CPU, 1x250GB HD, 2GB RAM, 100Mbps network, 1.5TB/mo bandwidth, 7 IPs, running CentOS. I've been paying around £145/mo for this, which has also included an hour or two of support a month if needed (which I've only made use of once in several years but was very good when I needed it).

    Better spec hardware is not my main driving force although it would be nice, looking to the future. The main thing I am wondering is if I can reduce my costs without losing a decent level of support. I consider myself to be a capable Linux admin but in times of urgency it is very reassuring to have a professional on hand to fix things!

    So, the 'how long is a piece of string' question... What would be a reasonable price to expect to pay for the following, considering I would like to minimise expenditure but be able to pull on some good support in times of need.

    My requirements (with some flexibility) are:-

    2GHz+ dual core CPU,
    4GB RAM,
    2x250GB+ HD in RAID1,
    1TB+/mo bandwidth,
    100Mbps network,
    Reliable data centre / connectivity,
    10 IPs (with additional available on demand),
    FreeBSD / CentOS pre-installed, ready for me to administer,
    24/7 telephone support (either free or at reasonable rates for work done),
    Hosted in UK.

    I would love to hear advice, or suggestions on guide prices for similar setups from others in the UK.

    Thank you!
    Steve

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Coventry, UK
    Posts
    368
    For a completely unmanaged server of that specification £40-60/Month should get you something decent...

    It sounds like you don't really need management just the occasional little bit of advice here and there. Alot of providers will probably just help you out as and when you need it, though many (generally speaking it will tend more to be the larger providers) will want to charge £xyz per hour for anything more than a reboot/fsck etc.

    I've noticed there seems to be alot of old hardware particularly being offered by UK dedicated server providers, Dual Core CPUs have been around for 6+ years now, which may mean the server you rent is upto six years old, which although isn't a problem for CPUs I personally don't like the idea of my server having fans/psu's having been ran for 6+ years...

  3. #3
    Hmmm, I hadn't really considered the hardware being that old. That's something I will definitely check up on before I order anything. Thanks for the heads up!

    That kind of price range would be ideal, especially if it's with a reliable and friendly host who'd be willing to put up with the occasional support request for free (reboot requests, etc). Are there any providers in particular you'd recommend?

    And as for failing hardware, I've been lucky enough to not encounter that yet, although I'm sure that time will come one day, especially now that I've just said it! Am I right to presume that most, if not all, providers will replace faulty hardware at their cost, seeing as I am basically just renting the server?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    London, United Kingdom
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    4,455
    Quote Originally Posted by unixwrench View Post
    2GHz+ dual core CPU,
    4GB RAM,
    2x250GB+ HD in RAID1,
    1TB+/mo bandwidth,
    100Mbps network,
    Reliable data centre / connectivity,
    10 IPs (with additional available on demand),
    FreeBSD / CentOS pre-installed, ready for me to administer,
    24/7 telephone support (either free or at reasonable rates for work done),
    Hosted in UK.
    Unmanaged from about £100/month
    Managed from £150/month

    A lot depends on the datacentre, connectivity etc
    And of course the expected level of support/management

    Any decent provider is *NOT* going to give you an old box - older hardware is less reliable (due to age, moving parts, avilability of spares) and more power-hungry (in general) than new kit, and anyone looking at keeping your online and retaining the business will be providing a new piece of hardware.

    DualCore CPU's are still current and available - Intel just launched an entire new line of them
    Rob Golding Astutium Ltd - UK based ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar - proud to accept BitCoins
    Buying Web Hosts and Domain Registrars Today @ hostacquisitions.co.uk
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  5. #5
    Thanks for the input, Othello.

    £100/mo would still be a reasonable saving for me, so certainly in the price range I will consider.

    I'm going to make a short list of a few providers over the next couple of days and then probably feed that back to the WHT community to help me whittle it down.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    England
    Posts
    513
    Depending on how much disk space you'd need I'd consider a medium-sized virtual server as you'll get to utilise higher-end hardware (in theory ) and can more easily upgrade, plus save potentially some cash depending on your additional requirements (management, backups etc).

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    London, United Kingdom
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    4,455
    Questions to ask your shortlisted suppliers ...
    * do you own the hardware ?
    * what is the replacement time in the vent of fault ?
    * where is the datacentre and who operates it ?
    * what network / ASN will the server be connected to ?
    * can I have an IP to traceroute to ?

    etc
    Rob Golding Astutium Ltd - UK based ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar - proud to accept BitCoins
    Buying Web Hosts and Domain Registrars Today @ hostacquisitions.co.uk
    UK Web Hosting | UK VPS | UK Dedicated Servers | ADSL/FTTC | Backup/DR | Cloud
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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by vidahost View Post
    Depending on how much disk space you'd need I'd consider a medium-sized virtual server as you'll get to utilise higher-end hardware (in theory ) and can more easily upgrade, plus save potentially some cash depending on your additional requirements (management, backups etc).
    I must admit I havn't investigated VPS much, simply because I feared sharing hardware with other hosts could potentially bottleneck my own services if they happen to have a spike in resource usage. Although, I guess this is controllable to some degree by the provider. Something else for me to research!

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by othellotech View Post
    Questions to ask your shortlisted suppliers ...
    * do you own the hardware ?
    * what is the replacement time in the vent of fault ?
    * where is the datacentre and who operates it ?
    * what network / ASN will the server be connected to ?
    * can I have an IP to traceroute to ?
    Thank you! All great advice I will definitely be asking.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Sittingbourne, Kent, UK
    Posts
    197
    Assuming you go unmanaged you should have no issues getting this or a higher spec server for around the £80 p/m range.

    Again as Othello have mentioned ensure that you are granted an SLA or a gaurentee regarding hardware replacement.

    As you grow it would be worth investing in offsite backups / backup services external to your machine... while it may have RAID1 a backup service ontop of a dedicated server is essential.

    Personally I'd say the following is essential for self management:

    APC / Remote Reboots to the server - without the need to contact support
    Dedicated KVM or KVMoIP on request
    Backup Services
    Reinstall Services

    I hope this helps, I wish you luck with your search.
    RackSRV Communications Limited
    UK specialists in Dedicated Servers & Server Colocation
    Company: 06856870 VAT: GB 934 7073 15 Tel: 0330 111 4444

  11. #11
    Thank you Lee. I already have daily rsync backups in place for my current server, but I'll be adding APC and KVM to my wishlist.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Scotland
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    4,549
    Does it really need to be in the UK? Not trying to take business away from there but bottom line is that in locations such as Hetzner and others you can get an I7 processor, far too much ram, raid 1 as standard.

    From the sound of it you can manage the box, ok Hetzner do not assist you at all on root servers however they also do decent managed options and you get 100GB of backup space.

    P.S hetz was just an example, there are plently in europe that can do better deals than many in the UK, although hardware is not your main issue it does not hurt

  13. #13
    Hi Wisenerl, thanks for your reply.

    One good reason for having the server in the UK is that all the sites I'm hosting are primarily marketed at the UK and I'm led to believe that the geolocation of my IPs influence localised search engine ranking (at least for Google).

    If this was not the case, and if I could also guarantee that language, time differences and country specific legalities were not going to cause issues, I'd definitely be interested in the lower costs.

    As it is though, I rather like the idea of putting my money back into our economy. Every little helps!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Scotland
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    Quote Originally Posted by unixwrench View Post
    As it is though, I rather like the idea of putting my money back into our economy. Every little helps!
    100% behind you, however my UK based customers are not and would rather save the money non UK hosting brings. As to general location issues my views are that it makes no difference done properly, Some views differ (Mostly by SEO people).

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    London, United Kingdom
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    Quote Originally Posted by unixwrench View Post
    One good reason for having the server in the UK is that all the sites I'm hosting are primarily marketed at the UK
    Keeping traffic "local" improves performance and reliability - and you cant get more "local" to the UK internet than E14 - where all* the traffic in the UK exchanges/originates.

    Whilst I'm sure a-n-other-provider-in-another-country is great, they'll always have the issue of having to carry that traffic out of wherever they are, to whomever/wherever they can get it to cross-europe, to wherever/whomever they buy transit from to LINX, to the UK ISP - lots of places for bottlenecks and problems

    Aside from the SEO issue of country/ip location.


    *all is an approximation - it's 97.x%
    Rob Golding Astutium Ltd - UK based ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar - proud to accept BitCoins
    Buying Web Hosts and Domain Registrars Today @ hostacquisitions.co.uk
    UK Web Hosting | UK VPS | UK Dedicated Servers | ADSL/FTTC | Backup/DR | Cloud
    UK Colocation | Reseller Accounts | IPv6 Transit | Secondary MX | DNS | WHMCS Modules

  16. #16
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Scotland
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    4,549
    Agree Rob, and I have given up with some customers on the subject, cost is always > than performance for some.

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