Introducing the Atom dedicated server: a 2GB, RAID1 system for £45 per month
Posted by Matthew Bloch
Here is version 1 of our Atom server, based around the Intel Atom board. It contains a fixed specification of 2GB RAM and 2x160 100GB drives (sorry correction there) for only £45 per month (+£50 setup), or £495 per year without a setup charge. This has chopped 25% off our previous lowest dedicated server price because it draws much lower power than our normal Athlon range: only 25 45 watts with drives, memory and power supply, so we burn a few less trees to keep it running.
No idea why, but I think we’re the first hosting company to be selling Atom servers, at least, says Google. I will bask in the glow of this fact for all of two minutes.
Anyway, who cares, the Atom 230 runs at 1.6GHz and hardware sites variously pitch it at the speed of a really fast Pentium 3 or low-end P4/Pentium M - while I can’t vouch for the figures in this chart, its positioning of the Atom 230 agrees with various hardware review sites’ opinion of its performance (at least the few I read). It might not do for your HDTV playback or gaming, but when it comes to pricing servers in the data centre, where electricity prices are still marching north, the Atom’s 6W board is king.
It becomes our lowest-cost dedicated server, and an easy upgrade from a virtual machine. You might want the Atom’s guaranteed performance, or just the generous memory allowance for running many different services (because memory is usually far more important a factor in server performance than CPU speed). You can still benefit from our easy upgrade policy - when you order any higher-powered sever as an upgrade, Bytemark move your system image, data and IP address to the new system as part of the installation (and here’s our value range from £60p.m.). Plus, you know, actual real telephone support from proper Linux geeks, free remote backup space, SMS alarms when anything goes bang, serial console, power cycling, all the usual fabulous benefits you get with Bytemark’s dedicated servers are now £15 cheaper.
If you’re already tempted, you can order one now subject to our usual delivery schedule - once the initial demand has passed, we’re intending to soon start stocking them for same day delivery. Will let you know when that happens of course.
These look very good.