Server move and hardware upgrades [Sat, May 19, 2012]

Artashes

Artashes

Administrator
Staff member
The great folks at HandsOnWebHosting (a HostingDiscussion partner) have informed me that we will soon be getting a new machine along with the move to a new datacenter. Yay!

While our current server is already quite powerful, Conor mentioned it doesn't hurt to go bigger and better in order to provide the best possible experience for everyone who visits this site. Who am I to argue? :)

I hope to post the specifications of our new server as soon as I have the details.

We have scheduled the move for Saturday, May 19, 2012. Our members and visitors should not face downtime longer than 30 minutes.

Cheers.
 
Here are the specs of our new monster system:

Intel Xeon E5620
Cores: 4
Threads: 8
Ghz: 2.4
Cache: 12MB Smart Cache
Bus/Core Ratio: 18
System Bus: 5.86GT/s
Turbo Boost: Yes
HyperThread: Yes
Memory: 12GB DDR3
RAID: Yes
Backups: Hourly

In comparison to the older machine, it handles twice as many threads per core, faster speed, faster CPU Cache, 3 times more memory on the server, but still retains RAID and Hourly Backups for the system. :thumbup:
 
Hmm, this is a 2+ year old processor now. Should have probably gone for an E3-1230 or E3-1230v2 system - newer, cheaper and faster. But anyway, congrats for the new server :) I never felt the forum was slow actually (usually much faster than WHT for instance).
 
rds100 said:
Hmm, this is a 2+ year old processor now. Should have probably gone for an E3-1230 or E3-1230v2 system - newer, cheaper and faster. But anyway, congrats for the new server :) I never felt the forum was slow actually (usually much faster than WHT for instance).
Click to expand...

Even if its more that 2 years old as long as its better than what the forum is already on then that a step in the right direction.

its like when you replace a car because its 2+ years old does not mean its no good.
 
While the E3-1230 is cheaper, and newer, there's more power available using the older E5620 CPU. The big two items are the ability to scale the memory very high if needed, and the other (which is in my opinion more important) the ability to add a second CPU to the box increasing the number of threads per cores.

The E3-1230 has a maximum of ONE CPU allowed on the board, with 8MB L3 Cache

The E5620 can have TWO CPU's, giving it a huge boost in power and also uses 12MB L3 Cache - more memory available for the CPU means faster processing of data.

While not really a factor when it comes to this forum, the 1230 server has a maximum of 32GB memory allowed, whereas the E5620 can handle up to 288GB memory. Again, not really a determining factor as if we need 32GB of memory to run this forum, we surely need more than 1 CPU :)

Price is a factor, but should never be THE determining factor when looking at data side by side in comparison to the requirements being met.

As it stands, the existing server that the forums are running on is a X3210 - so this is a HUGE jump forward.
 
Just a heads up to everyone - the move of the site to the new machine has been completed.

If you notice any problems or issues, please report them to the system admins here so they can be resolved.

thanks
 
rds100 said:
Hmm, this is a 2+ year old processor now. Should have probably gone for an E3-1230 or E3-1230v2 system - newer, cheaper and faster. But anyway, congrats for the new server :) I never felt the forum was slow actually (usually much faster than WHT for instance).
Click to expand...

In all honesty, I personally was happy enough with the older system that could have easily served our needs another few years. But knowing Conor and his proactive management style, they are keeping their hands on the pulse of this community's technical performance and always try to improve things around. In this instance, as always, I did not even have to ask for anything - it was all their initiative. So all the best wishes go to them for caring so much! :thumbup:
 
Awesome! :D

Nice to see HandsOn is treating you (and the HD community) very well, Art. Conor definitely runs a tight ship and the level of quality, knowledge and respect they have for their clients shows on a daily basis in this forum. :thumbup:
 
This is a dedicated server - a forum like this should never be on shared web hosting - ever! Besides, with the other forums and sites, the dedicated server option just makes better sense.
 
handsonhosting said:
This is a dedicated server - a forum like this should never be on shared web hosting - ever! Besides, with the other forums and sites, the dedicated server option just makes better sense.
Click to expand...

This forum isn't very busy, we've got plenty of shared customers running way bigger forums in a shared hosting environment ;)
 
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