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An issue with virtually all dedicated server vendors is the tendency to grossly under-equip servers with memory: My Mac Mini has 16GB (a $100 upgrade), and it i

An issue with virtually all dedicated server vendors is the tendency to grossly under-equip servers with memory: My Mac Mini has 16GB (a $100 upgrade), and it is simply ridiculous that going above 4GB on a server is considered some extravagant feature the requires significant, expensive upgrades of every other component.

BadassFractal 13y ago
In VPS, memory is everything. Memory is the # of VMs they can spin up, which is directly proportional to the amount of money they're making. What you're ultimately paying for is memory. Yes, some bandwidth, but mostly memory. It's what hotel rooms are for hotels.
- corresation 13y ago
  If we were talking about VPS servers, then sure, however we're talking about dedicated servers. What you are renting is a physical box (such as Dell R210s) sitting in a rack somewhere.
  - BadassFractal 13y ago
    Is it possible that they might want to save money by giving you wimpy memory, because they feel that with the 32gb they give you, they could be making a lot more with something like 64 micros?
dan1234 13y ago
16GB of ECC memory for servers is a lot more expensive than your Mac Mini's memory. I recently spent £250 on 2x 4GB DIMMs for a Dell Poweredge server[1] (ok DDR2 is older and therefore more expensive, but still). The same configuration for my Mac Mini came in at around £50[2] [1]http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=36C1FA30A5CA7304 http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=36C1... [2]http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=9137AB4EA5CA7304 http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=9137...
- p1esk 13y ago
  Actually prices for ECC memory are comparable with regular desktop RAM - both are around $300 for 32GB (4x8GB) sets: ECC memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007952%20600083963&IsNodeId=1&name=32GB%20%284%20x%208GB%29 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=... Regular memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%20600083963%204802&IsNodeId=1&name=Top%20Sellers http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=...
- corresation 13y ago
  You paid a significant premium for that older memory (a funny paradox of the industry). As P1esk mentioned, you could have gotten 32GB for around the same price. Straight from Dell, paying their inflated prices, on a new R210 it's $173 to go to 16GB of ECC memory. I've bought a number of large servers recently (using owned servers at colocation in combination with virtual hosts for DR and geo-sharding), and always equip them with 192GB or more. The pricing of memory is so incredibly low it makes no sense otherwise, yet all of these dedicated server vendors act as if 2GB is the norm and 4GB is the advanced upgrade.

BadassFractal 13y ago

In VPS, memory is everything. Memory is the # of VMs they can spin up, which is directly proportional to the amount of money they're making. What you're ultimately paying for is memory. Yes, some bandwidth, but mostly memory. It's what hotel rooms are for hotels.

corresation 13y ago
If we were talking about VPS servers, then sure, however we're talking about dedicated servers. What you are renting is a physical box (such as Dell R210s) sitting in a rack somewhere.
- BadassFractal 13y ago
  Is it possible that they might want to save money by giving you wimpy memory, because they feel that with the 32gb they give you, they could be making a lot more with something like 64 micros?

dan1234 13y ago

16GB of ECC memory for servers is a lot more expensive than your Mac Mini's memory. I recently spent £250 on 2x 4GB DIMMs for a Dell Poweredge server[1] (ok DDR2 is older and therefore more expensive, but still). The same configuration for my Mac Mini came in at around £50[2] [1]http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=36C1FA30A5CA7304 http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=36C1... [2]http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=9137AB4EA5CA7304 http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=9137...

p1esk 13y ago
Actually prices for ECC memory are comparable with regular desktop RAM - both are around $300 for 32GB (4x8GB) sets: ECC memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007952%20600083963&IsNodeId=1&name=32GB%20%284%20x%208GB%29 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=... Regular memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007611%20600083963%204802&IsNodeId=1&name=Top%20Sellers http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=...
corresation 13y ago
You paid a significant premium for that older memory (a funny paradox of the industry). As P1esk mentioned, you could have gotten 32GB for around the same price. Straight from Dell, paying their inflated prices, on a new R210 it's $173 to go to 16GB of ECC memory. I've bought a number of large servers recently (using owned servers at colocation in combination with virtual hosts for DR and geo-sharding), and always equip them with 192GB or more. The pricing of memory is so incredibly low it makes no sense otherwise, yet all of these dedicated server vendors act as if 2GB is the norm and 4GB is the advanced upgrade.