Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : London Co-location or Dedicated - decision decision!

[BioALIEN]

Hi guys,

I have a few big sites, had my fair share of hosting troubles and been in this scene since 1998. However, i still dont know much about co-location, dedicated servers, racks and hardware performance/specs etc.

I'm currently sponsored with a Linux Cpanel/WHM reseller shared plan to host all my sites. This was fine until i released my new project a few months ago. Now the site is growing at a massive rate (500-1000+ members a day -+- 150,000+ page views a day). Its a friends/community site!

Because of this, the site has become very slow the database can hardly keep up with the demands. Which forces me to post this message, pondering about its future.

I'm a university student, and still fighting my way financially. Thats the reason why i've always been on shared hosting plans. Also im kinda scared about upgrading - since its all new to me if i move to the next level. Recently, i've put adverts on the sites to see how much money they can generate to pay for a better hosting. Unfortunatly its nowhere near enough to help me upgrade.


What do you suggest? I dont know what to do, and i hate to let all my members down like this.

[BioALIEN]

Thanks to everyone who PMed - i guess co-location is the way to go! Hmm, gotta look for a 1u server now i guess!

Oh for those who asked, the sites in question are:
- www.friendscene.com
- www.gfxdiary.com
- www.codeunit.com

I know i know, im stupid for sticking to shared hosting for so long

[wayne001]

Dell make pretty good 1u servers, I share rented space at COLT to save money.

[BioALIEN]

Seems RedBus (London) is where everyone is colocating their servers. However, it's a fact that bandwidth is expensive in the UK.

[KDAWebServices]

More of a fact that less UK companies are willing to massively oversell like their USA counter-parts, as bandwidth can be obtained in the UK for comparable prices as in the USA now.

[BioALIEN]

What do you personally recommend? Is it better to buy a ready made server or to buy the separate parts and build it yourself? Each comes with its advantages and disadvantages...

Im looking for a 1U server with the following minimum specs:
Singe AMD Opteron Processor
2x 80Gig SATA + RAID
512mb Ram

rackservers.com - gave me a quote totalling £1,300 (inc VAT):
http://uploads.gfxdiary.com/opteronquote.html

Anywhere i can get similar spec server for cheaper in the UK? My budget is around £800

An option would be to order from the USA - but thats my last resort.

[KDAWebServices]

Flexiserv are doing that spec for £907 + VAT at the moment I believe.

Ordering from the USA - you'd get hit for VAT + Import duty on it.

[4Colo]

Well VAT depends on the company, most won't charge it to US customers

[efunc]

VAT doesn't depend on the company - It depends on the UK Customs and Excise who intercept and bill you for anything imported! FedEx, UPS, etc will also hit you with an admin charge that might double the fee, plus there's the Import Duty to add on top...

[BioALIEN]

:O damn, that sounds scary. Does that mean i should drop the idea of ordering from the US? I've read around here, some hosts are ordering their servers from the USA since it works out cheaper.

KDAWebServices: I've cheked out that link, Flexiserv's deal doesnt come with SATA drives. Normal IDEs are not fast enough, and so i'll be forced to spend more to upgrade the disks. I've contacted them if they can alter those specs. Still waiting for their response.

[KDAWebServices]

IDE drives are as fast as SATA drives unless you're talking about Western Digital Raptor drives - Especially as the Flexiserv in question has 3Ware RAID card, presumably configured with RAID1 - So you're going to get faster reads anyway.