rackshack.net - your input

[Jake Bunce]

vBPortal is being integrated with phpwebsite (so says wajones - the vBPortal guy).

[Jake Bunce]

RaQ concerns

i want to be sure before i go with a RaQ:

JimF,

the way the Raq's are built, they are terrible in terms of serving dynamic content, especially where any sort of sql-based app is involved.

why?

I have been searching these forums for info on RaQs. I found one person saying that his RaQ3, 128 meg ram, 10.2GB handled 500,000 page views a month under vB 1.15. But when he switched to vB 2 beta 2 it all went to crap. See: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...&threadid=3344 . Is this increase in server load specific to beta 2? How does it compare to vB 2 v2.0.1?
Also see: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=10382
I'm concerned about this if I'm going with a RaQ.



Philipps forums are nice though!

[Philipp]

why?

Maybe he is talking about the basic RaQ3 configuration with 32MB Ram

Is this increase in server load specific to beta 2? How does it compare to vB 2 v2.0.1?

There is a huge different in performance and server load between the first betas and release candidate/final 2.0 because Beta 1-3 didn't create indexes in the database.

[Jake Bunce]

got another one for ya, Philipp.

RaQ3 has a 300MHz chip? RaQ4i has a 450MHz chip? Is this correct?

rackshack's $99 a month deal gets me a RaQ4i. 4webspace's $99 a month deal gets me a RaQ3. Sooooooooo, ummmm, yeah. Rackshack is looking like a good deal, but I always hesitate with those "good deals" because the "you get what you pay for" saying usually applies. Well, I mean, not what you pay but if they are both the same price but one has a lot more it makes me think the one with less is a better way to go. Does that make sense?

Help me decide between these two.

[Philipp]

RaQ3 has a 300MHz chip? RaQ4i has a 450MHz chip? Is this correct?

Yes.

Maybe you check out the RaQ forum at Webhostingtalk and do a search for rackshack and 4webspace:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=11

There is also a thread at the 4webspace forum:

http://www.4webspace.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=189

[SharkY-IFA]

Have you ICQ'ed the rackshack sales and tech people?
That is a good way... Note that rackshack also gives you 150gigs of BW. I have had no problems with them in a year. Great service speed and so on...

When in doubt... http://forums.gamingalliance.org/ <-- take a look at one of rackshacks raq4i's in action.

[Jake Bunce]

thanks again guys.

sharky. are you using gzip?

philipp and sharkey. do you guys use persistant connections?

i will go talk to the rackshack techies. right now rackshack is looking pretty good.

i did a search and found this:

The idle % is the amount of CPU power you have left over. If this stays at or near 0 most of the time, you should get a faster processor.

what is both of your idle %s during your highest usage times?

[Philipp]

do you guys use persistant connections?

Yes

what is both of your idle %s during your highest usage times?

Idle is not a good value to see the server performance.

Better you check the server load average. My server load average (1 Minute) is between 0.10-0.40 and sometimes up to 1.00 (if someone use the NewsPro search engine)

[Jake Bunce]

oh poopie. rackshack charges monthly for extra RAM. they said there is no way around the extra monthly.

[SharkY-IFA]

When I was looking I thought I saw 4webspace charging also?

Dont know what gzip is... I can always try it for you.

My cpu USAGE % is about the same as philipp's
.15-.45% usage

[Jake Bunce]

4webspace charges a one time fee for a RAM upgrade... as if you bought the chip and put it in and that's it.

rackshack will upgrade the RAM but they charge you a monthly fee to maintain that RAM upgrade.

poopie i say.

gzip is an option for vBulletin under Control Panel -> Options -> Headers and output. It compresses the text on a page significantly but it also increases your server's CPU cycles.

[SharkY-IFA]

It is running gzip at compression level 1. With those %'s above.

[Technics]

Hello,

I've been managing and playing with cobalts for over 2 years now. People seem to be stuck on the fact that RAQ's cannot process cgi or handle large sites.

True, The RAQ2 couldnt do this and was always having problems processing cgi scripts when i had one. But since the RAQ3 came out i've had very little in the way of problems processing cgi scripts.

An RAQ3 or RAQ4 could easily handle a busy vbulletin forum providing it had enough memory. 256mb RAM Minimum id reommend and if your server uses less than that you should be ashamed .

An RAQ3 with 512mb RAM would stand up extremly well with a forum that has 150 users logged in at the same time. The server wouldnt slow down and i know this since i was managing a server a few months back that had this kind of traffic and server loads rarely went above 2.00

[Philipp]

There are current alot users online. Here some stats:





No problem for the RaQ

[Jake Bunce]

my only concern lately is that the RaQ 3 has a slower processor than the RaQ 4. rackshack has the RaQ 4 for $99 a month but charges a hefty monthly fee to maintain a RAM upgrade. 4webspace has the RaQ 3 for $99 a month and they charge a one time fee for upgrading the RAM (which is what I want). I don't want to pay any more than $99 monthly. So it looks like the RaQ 3 at 4webspace is the way to go.

Am I going to be able to tell the difference between the 300MHz RaQ 3 and the 450MHz RaQ 4? (assuming they both had the same RAM)

I think the RaQ 3 on 4webspace is what I'll get if I go with a RaQ. Of course I will be upgrading the RAM to 256MB. I don't think they offer more than 256MB as an upgrade option for their RaQ 3.