As some of you might, or might not know, I rent a dedicated server at iWeb in Ontario, Canada. They have some decent deals going on and starting at USD 69,- a month you can rent your own server. That is if you stick to 1GB ram and either Linux or FreeBSD. If you want a different operating system, you have to pay extra, and if you want more memory, you also have to pay extra. In my case it ended up at USD 109 a month for An Intel Celeron D 3.0 GHz with 2GB Ram and 300 GB IDE hard disk, equipped with Windows 2003 Standard Edition. The package includes a 10MBps uplink and 1 TB of traffic per month.
This is an average price for renting a dedicated server, but it always struck me as odd that I have to pay USD 10,- a month for an 1 GB memory module that costs € 15,- at my workplace. Time for change, I thought so I did a bit of researching and found out that for € 49,- per month, I can collocate my own server on a 100MBps uplink with 1 TB traffic per month, at Trans|ip, the same company where I have my domains registered. Its not rocket science to see that it would save me about € 35,- to € 50,- per month, depending on the exchange rate of course.
I would get 10 times the uplink speed for less money. The only problem is that I didnt have my own server. I had already decided that I wanted a certain minimal configuration:
- Dual Core processor
- 4 GB memory
- 2 Hard Disks in raid 1 configuration
First I checked the website of my employer, Aces Direct, of course. Unfortunately, the cheapest server that met my desired specifications was way over the budget that I had in mind. The problem is that most servers are sold without disks, and server hard disks are a bit more expensive than consumer hard disks.
Next I ended up at a company that sells reasonably cheap web servers. For € 399,- (ex taxes of course) you can get a simple server with either an AMD Athlon 64, AMD Sempron 64, or Intel Dual Core E2220 processor. A bit of research told me that neither of the AMDs was Dual Core, and that the Intel was a first generation Dual Core processor and had performance that was comparable to a single core processor.
A co-worker told me that one of our suppliers might have something on stock. On our website, we prefer to sell the latest models obviously, but the suppliers might have an older model on the shelf somewhere. A quick E-mail here and a phone call there told me that indeed one of our suppliers had some older models on the shelf that might fit within my budget. The price would be comparable to the cheap web server with the AMD or Intel Dual Core processor, but it would be a Hewlett Packard or I.B.M. Of course I feared that it would end up way too pricy again due to the more expensive hard disks, but the supplier told me not to worry about it.
A bit of haggling and ass kissing later, I had made a very nice deal on my new server, which should arrive next Monday or Tuesday. I went a bit over my planned budget, but also managed to make a deal with my boss so that I can pay for the server in parts. Ill pay half of the server in cash (which is well within my budget), and half of it will be deducted from my salary in 3 parts. So what did I get?
From a supplier I managed to get For € 819,91 inc taxes :
- Hewlett Packard Proliant DL 320 G5P with Intel Xeon 2.66 GHz processor.
- 4 GB memory upgrade kit.
- 2x 250 GB hard disk (hot plug)
Via another channel I also managed to get a 64-Bit Windows 2008 Web Edition license and an additional 2GB of memory for free (the guy owed me a favor :P). I think going from a Celeron D 3GHz with 2GB ram and IDE hard disk to a Dual Core Xeon 2.66GHz with 6 GB ram and raid 1 hard disks is quite a nice upgrade, and after the server has been paid off, I will save money and have more performance.
My Server should arrive Monday or Tuesday, so stay tuned! 