One of the trickiest parts of choosing your first dedicated server is knowing how many resources you’ll need. Veteran server users can predict resource usage relatively easily, but it’s different for new server owners.

This is even truer if you’re creating a new app or website where usage data is either non-existent or limited. So how can you estimate resources needed in these situations?

Start with a Few Broad Categories of Dedicated Servers 

The first step in getting an accurate estimate of resources needed is to lay out some broad categories. Our expert staff at ServerPronto has created several dedicated servers based on a few common use cases. These are great starting points for estimating your needs.

The first category will be for a single, small to medium traffic website. For this, we recommend using the following specifications as a starting point:

  • A Dual-Core CPU (or two vCPUs if you’re in the cloud)
  • 3GB RAM
  • 500GB SATA Drive
  • 5TB Traffic

The next category we’ll define is when you’re hosting multiple websites, running less intensive apps, or using your server for virtualization (ESXi for example):

  • A Quad-Core CPU (or 4 vCPUs for cloud users)
  • 8GB RAM
  • 500GB SATA Drive
  • 10TB Traffic

The third basic category is for those running more intensive apps, using their server or streaming, or for VOIP. A good starting point for these uses is as follows:

  • Quad-Core CPU (4 vCPUs if you’re on the cloud)
  • 16GB RAM
  • 500GB SATA Drive
  • 20TB Traffic

The last general category we’ll outline is likely the biggest server that most people need. Anything after this size is likely only going to be used by individuals already with IT knowledge and usage statistics or organizations with a team who can handle that anyways.

This last category is for those utilizing their server for big data or database solutions. These need quite a bit of resource, so the server’s going to be more demanding. Still, it’s manageable option needing only:

  • A Dual Quad-Core CPU (or 8 vCPUs for cloud users)
  • 32GB RAM
  • Two 1TB SATA Drives
  • 20TB Traffic

With these categories, you should have an idea of where to start when choosing a dedicated server. You’ll still want to customize each server to account for differences in your needs though.

Some Basics for Dedicated Server Customization

Customizing your dedicated server to fit your specific needs is an important part of choosing a dedicated server. Here’s a quick rundown of possible upgrades you’ll want to consider.

First, you may want to swap out the SATA drive for an SSD hard drive. SSD drives have better read/write speeds and will represent a major speed increase in your server. This is especially true if end users are often requesting files from the server or uploading their own files.

Next, you’ll want to check RAM levels and type. RAM is easy and cheap to upgrade, but remember you can upgrade in two ways: quantity of the RAM and quality. Most servers now run DDR3 RAM with some hosts beginning to offer DDR4. If you can snag DDR4 RAM your speeds will increase greatly.

Last, and something that’s rarely thought about is the port your server runs on. If it’s not a gigabit port, you may be bottlenecked as the server has the performance necessary to get the job done, but not access to enough bandwidth.

ServerPronto offers the best affordable hosting service in all dedicated server packages.

Author

Anthony is a tech fiend. As a child, he dreamed of seamless integrations between hard drives and brains as a method of enhancing the human brain. As an adult, he enjoys more rational ventures into tech such as experimenting with and writing about the latest technologies and softwares.

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