Server CPU/RAM Choices

[Kestryll]

As I've mentioned I'm not happy with the vB Cloud hosting, it's decent but very limiting, so I'm looking at self hosted on my own server. But which one.

Right now I'm looking at three:

A dedicated server with 6 cores, 16GB RAM and 1Tb SSD. The RAM amount is my concern with this one.
A dedicated server with 4 cores, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD. The lower core count is my concern on this one.
A VPS with 16vCPU cores, 32GB RAM and 460GB NVME SSD. The vCPU compared to physical CPU and lower drive space are my concerns with this one.

Our database is currently 55 GB in size plus the forum software, image files, etc. And I'd be moving some stuff I have on another shared host on as well which would likely add 75 GB on the drive.

Of the three does one stand out as best by a lot, does one look like lukewarm crap compared to the others or will all likely do the job?

[Preston-CLB]

Kestryll, give Puget Systems a call. They are located in Auburn, WA.

Here's their Server Page.

Their tech support is in-house, including for Windows. They have a lifetime labor warranty. They test every part before they will sell it. When you call, you get a real person.

I have one of their workstations that I bought in 2011. It still runs perfectly. I also have one of their laptops (they discontinued them a few years ago) that works a as well as the day I bought it in 2012.

They are simply the best system integrator I have used.

Puget machines are not inexpensive, but it will be money well-spent. They won't abandon you after the sale. Tell them I sent you.
-P

[nishanh]

I'll say one thing about the VPS. It's easy to try out and cheaply dispose of if it doesn't work out. Physical servers are a commitment in cost. I'm running a cheapie Lightsail VPS on Amazon for some web dev experimentation.

[ibanezfoo]

RAM and drives are cheap nowdays. I would get the chassis you want and upgrade the rest when you need. I probably have a pile of 512 NVMe drives around here somewhere I can send you a couple. I agree it might be worth setting up a server in AWS too and get a feel for the kind of horsepower you need. I don't know how easy it is to move the board from one system to the next though. I am partial to Dell and IBM servers just because I've used them forever and they have good support. I dunno what your budget looks like though as they can be had from $1200 up to hundreds of thousands.

[command_liner]

Hardware is cheap. As I mentioned in the other thread, configuration and tuning is important.
One can get refurbed systems on Amazon, with all required CPU, RAM, SSD and NVME. $2500 should cover everything, including the
dual boot configuration so multiple operating systems can be checked.

What you probably want is an excellent Ansible script so you can actually test the setup on multiple providers. Spin up a config on AWS,
and one or two other sites. See what happens. Run that Ansible script on Ubuntu running QEMU and see what you get. Do the same with
Cockpit and the web-based virt-mananger on RHEL.

Unless your VM host allows for super-provisioned VMs, all your page faults and context switches in the VM have to be serviced by page
faults and context switches in the underlying OS. This can lead to wildly erratic response times for non-trivial web sites with non-trivial
loads.

Remember, that NVME and SSD are two separate concepts. Sure, sometimes both use the exact same connector and might have very
similar physical appearance. Yes, you can use NVME to host a virtual disk drive. A strictly digital SATA disk is still constrained by the
SATA protocol, and will run at (for example) 5% the speed of a modern PCIe NVME configuration.

[Kestryll]

As much as I appreciate the suggestions I am not buying a server and collocating it. I have neither the funds nor the familiarity to do that.
I am looking at existing hosting plans, either VPS or dedicated which also does not allow for buying discreet hardware for the server.

Trust me I'd love to have a gigabit line running in to my garage and a temp/humidity controlled room for a private server. That is a level of nerdistry I aspire to but will never see...

[arrix]

+1 for VPS. It's the best of both worlds by far.

[ibanezfoo]

As much as I appreciate the suggestions I am not buying a server and collocating it. I have neither the funds nor the familiarity to do that.
I am looking at existing hosting plans, either VPS or dedicated which also does not allow for buying discreet hardware for the server.

Trust me I'd love to have a gigabit line running in to my garage and a temp/humidity controlled room for a private server. That is a level of nerdistry I aspire to but will never see...

In this case I'd go with a VPS solution that gives you some flexibility in resources. Without analytics its hard to know what is actually needed. Something like AWS or Azure gives you some ability to add more resources (at more cost) if you find you need more.