VPS or Semi-Dedicated deal?

[Stoffer]

Hi everybody...

I'm thinking about moving my site (from dreamhost.com) to Jaguar in order to get a faster host with my site that is running the Gallery2 ( http://gallery.menalto.com/ ) software. The Gallery2 developers recommends that users install eAccelerator (or other php-accelerator) in order to load the photogallery much faster.

I'm currently considering either the Semi-Dedicated or the VPS deal here, but are not entirely sure which one would suit my need for a fast photo website best. The difference in price (30$ against 40$ for VPS Freedom) is not a big deal.

Any suggestions or input?

[muks]

if you need to install eaccelerator then VPS is the way to go.

[Vin DSL]

Any suggestions or input?

Well... Obviously, we've never 'met', so it's kinda hard to make a recommendation.

If you're really 'into' the core aspects of serving web pages -- a real nut's 'n bolts kinda guy -- then you will probably love VPS. If you've never setup a web server from scratch before, and so forth, then you'll probably find VPS akin to having a tiger by the tail. So that's one thought...

As far as speed is concerned -- and hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong -- I *think* that SDX boxes have 1GB of (shared) memory, whereas the Freedom plan will only give you 256MB. This may, or may not, be a consideration. And, that's another thought...

Hrm... I'll be back later if I think of more...

[Ron]

I think SDX boxes have 4GB or better, but I could be wrong.

[Vin DSL]

Yeah, you might be right. I just checked Neutron and it has 2GB RAM.

1.6 GHz AMD Athlon MP 2000+ CPU, eh?

Heh! Never paid any attention to this before. Go figure...

[Stoffer]

if you need to install eaccelerator then VPS is the way to go.

Thanks, I just got the same reply from Jaguarpc. Apparently a php accelerator is needed if you want gallery2 to work fast. They talk about an increase in speed about 200 - 300 % AFAIR.

[Stoffer]

If you're really 'into' the core aspects of serving web pages -- a real nut's 'n bolts kinda guy -- then you will probably love VPS. If you've never setup a web server from scratch before, and so forth, then you'll probably find VPS akin to having a tiger by the tail.

Well, I have never setup a web server 'from scratch' before, so I'm in for a pretty step learning curve here, but it could be fun. After all I 'only' need to have Apache, PHP and MySQL up and running in order to install Gallery2, methinks....

[Vin DSL]

Well, I have never setup a web server 'from scratch' before, so I'm in for a pretty step learning curve here, but it could be fun...

Sounds like you'll do just fine with VPS!

[muks]

I'm from an sdx plan and just transferred to a freedom vps with directadmin early december of last year without any know how whatsoever on how to operate this thing.

I just used WHT (webhostingtalk.com) as my guide and google. It's fairly easy once you get the hang of it. Don't be afraid to try it out.

[Stoffer]

I'm from an sdx plan and just transferred to a freedom vps with directadmin early december of last year without any know how whatsoever on how to operate this thing.

I just used WHT (webhostingtalk.com) as my guide and google. It's fairly easy once you get the hang of it. Don't be afraid to try it out.

Sounds good! Now I just have to figure out whether a Freedom VPS will be overkill for me or not.

[JPC-Les]

I think SDX boxes have 4GB or better, but I could be wrong.

Our newest generation of Shared and Semidedicated servers both have a minimum of 4GB RAM. VPS hardware nodes have a minimum of 8GB RAM.

Sounds good! Now I just have to figure out whether a Freedom VPS will be overkill for me or not.

If you're going to have WHM/cPanel then the Freedom plan is the starting point as the Discovery package does not meet cPanels minimum system requirements.

[tank]

I would be very surprised to see that much of an increase in performance. I've run mmcache and it's fork, Eacellerator for almost 2 years now. Both work great. Ea has not been updated to run on 5.x officially but I found it ran OK on my 5.0 installation and haven't tried it on the 5.1 APC seems to be the accelerator of choice lately as it's built by the PHP dev team. I have been having some issues getting installed but I'm not sure why yet.

[Stoffer]

If you're going to have WHM/cPanel then the Freedom plan is the starting point as the Discovery package does not meet cPanels minimum system requirements.

If I go for the Discovery plan and add 128 mb ekstra ram at 5$, will it then be as fast/powerful as the Freedom plan - or do I need to add ekstra cpu power as well?

[Gwaihir]

tank - I had eAccelerator on PHP 5.0 on our intranet and IIRC that was supposedly a stable release (i.e I expect it was to run officially too). However, it is 5.1 that it isn't ready for yet.

Stoffer: if you want to skip most of the setup stuff, I think you can ask them to set your VPS main account up with "the usual stuff". You'd then be doing some tweaking only, rather than starting from scratch.

Where did you find you can customize the VPS package itself like that (like: some extra guaranteed RAM)? I haven't heard that before.