SERVER MANIA!: SSD Cached Linux VPS – 4 GB RAM
Server Mania has a very attractive offer in WHT with the following features:
• 4 GB RAM, 4 GB vSwap RAM
• 4 IP Addresses
• 150 GB SSD RAID Storage
• 4000 GB Monthly Bandwidth
• Customize & Order – $88 USD/year!
The price: Only USD 88 for a year which works out to a paltry $ 7.33 for a month.
Sounds too good to be true. After a lot of hesitation and hee-hawing, I couldn’t resist any more and so I signed up to see what I would get.
I bought a “SSD Cached Linux VPS: SSDC-4096L”.
The deployment of the VPS is not instant. The process took the (advertised) time of 45 minutes.
Here are the core specifications of the VPS:
The processor used for the VPS. I was worried that a weak processor would be offered. However, it is a 3.50 GHz processor with 4 CPU cores.
root@vps:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 58
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1270 V2 @ 3.50GHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 3500.246
cache size : 8192 KB
cpu cores : 4
root@vps:~#
The I/O (Input Output ratio) of the VPS
root@vps:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 7.19166 s, 149 MB/s
root@vps:~#
Here is the download test:
root@vps:~# wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
--2013-09-21 22:19:41-- http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net (cachefly.cachefly.net)... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net (cachefly.cachefly.net)|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `100mb.test'
100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 58.2M/s in 1.7s
2013-09-21 22:19:44 (58.2 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
root@vps:~#
The Upload & Download Speed:
root@vps:~# python speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from ColoCrossing (192.227.159.96)...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by LayeredServer (Buffalo, NY) [30.81 km]: 8.98 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 93.06 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 20.91 Mbit/s
root@vps:~#
So, I think it is an excellent deal especially considering the rock-bottom price.
I haven’t tested the support yet. They promise a “24/7/365 Technical Support Fleet with a 15 Minute Response Time’.
Also, we have to see how stable/ reliable the network is.
CPanel is obviously not included. Managing a VPS can be a daunting task if you don't have a control panel. If you don't want to spend on CPanel, you can get VirtualMin, which is free. It does an excellent job.
I suggest you get yourself a cheap ($5) VPS for a few days or weeks from Digital Ocean and play around with it to check your aptitude and proficiency on whether you can really manage without a CP.
The advantage of not having a Control Panel is that you can well enough with a low-RAM VPS. Otherwise, you need a minimum of 1GB RAM (or more) for your site to survive.
Hi
Great review. I am looking to purchase the same. But I think in offer cPanel is not included. So is that must required or I can go ahead without cPanel and it wont cause much of trouble.
ServerMania have a new offer now which is slightly more expensive. The details are here:
http://vps2.me/servermanias-new-ssd-cached-linux-vps-offers/
The uptime is fine. The VPS is not crowded (not much load on the server). The support is prompt and quite efficient.
Can't find a specific fault. I think it is great value for money.
Hello, now that some months has passed,
would you buy it again? what about the uptime?
[…] earlier offer that attracted me was the “SSD Cached Linux VPS – 4 GB RAM”. This was available for an annual fee of […]
Yes. I have been wanting to update.
(i) The up-time is quite good. There were a couple of occasions where there were network problems owing to DDOS issues. However, nothing major.
(ii) The support response time is very fast. I have raised several tickets marked "Medium" which got attended to very fast and in an efficient manner. Which is great considering the rock-bottom price.
(iii) The price is a life-time one. That is the practice in the Industry. Given the intense and cut-throat competition in the Industry, customers have to be kept and there is no scope to raise prices.
Hello,
Thank you very much for your review, actually I am checking that offer right now…seems very good. Can I ask you 2 more thing ?
1- Some months passed by, did you experienced any issue?
2- next year you are going to pay the full price or still the $88 ?
I contacted the support and they say I will pay the same price if I renew it.
Did you have the same answer ?
thank you
Alberto
Yes it is OpenVZ. The load on the VPS at the moment is as follows:
top – 18:40:00 up 2 days, 5:32, 1 user, load average: 0.09, 0.06, 0.01
Tasks: 68 total, 1 running, 67 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 4194304k total, 1749288k used, 2445016k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 4194304k total, 106240k used, 4088064k free, 504980k cached
It doesn't look oversold at present.
Hi!
Is this VPS running on openvz or something else?
Thanks,
Peter
Thx for review !