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6 month review of Hetzner - cheap dedicated servers.
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6 month review of Hetzner - cheap dedicated servers.

myhkenmyhken Member
edited July 2015 in Reviews

6 months ago I decided that I would go away from cloud hosting for my main sites, and some of my backup sites, and got two servers @ Hetzner

WHAT?? are you thinking, but I wanted more control over my servers, and wanted to have more services on fewer hosts and servers.++

I found out about their server bidding, you can get decent servers there for cheap money, and there is no setup fee or contract. I’m using Windows Server 2012 R2 DC on my servers and use Hyper-V to run my VMs.

And this had now worked 100% for the last 6 months.

Link to my site...

Product/hardware/price

At Hetzner you can get it all, from several thousand euro per month servers, to €26/mo servers. And since I’m on a low budget I did find their serverbidding site, and found me a couple of good servers.

The servers sold on their serverbidding is mostly 2-3 years old. Core i7 2600/3770/3930 and Xeon E3/E5 is mostly what you find there. The auction works like this, the price drop on different servers at different times, if somebody grab the server before you, the price goes up again, and it will take hours up to days before the price is so good again. I had two servers, a Core i7 2600 with 16 GB RAM and a Core i7 3770 32 GB RAM both with 2 x 3 TB HDDs and 20 TB bandwidth @ 1 Gbps, then 10mbps the rest of the time (if you use up 20 TB with BW) And I paid only €26/mo for each server.

I have changed one server, mostly because people recommended it, but I think I regret it, but still, my setup now is:

**Server1:**
`XEON E3-1245v2, 32 GB EEC RAM, 2 x 3 TB Enterprise HDD, 20 TB BW, 9 extra IPs. Price: €59/mo`
**Server2:**
`Core i7 3770, 16 GB RAM, 2 x 3 TB HDD, 20 TB BW, 3 extra IPs: Price: €28.52/mo`

The reason why Server1 cost so much more then Server2 is because of two things: The CPU was €11/mo more expensive then a i7 3770. And then the IPs. I have three extra IPs (0.84 each) and a /29 subnet. (€6.72) And Hetzner force you to have something called a flexi pack when you want /29 /28 /27 subnets. At that costs €12.61 extra per month. Not happy for that, had gladly paid €6 extra for the IPs, but have to pay twice that just to add a subnet is not a good thing.

Some times you are lucky with the disks you get. On my i7 3770 server, the disks was brand new when I got the server. On my XEON server my disks is around two years old.

Still, you get allot for your money. If you are lucky to get a server at the right time, you can get a very good price, and lots of disk space etc.

Service/Support

Hetzer are a unmanaged host. They fix network and hardware issues, but thats it. All other support cost money. Still, I sent in some tickets in the start, just to see if they helped or not, and at the first I got fast and good help, but then they started to say that they only support Network and Hardware, and that you have to pay for all other support.

They also charge you for the most. Like the flexi pack, if you need to boot from a USB, you have ONE hard reset per month, then you have to pay (so don’t turn the server off)

Still, what can you expect from a company that sells you a Core i7 3770 32 GB RAM, 6 TB HDD, and 20 TB BW on 1 Gbps port for €26/mo?

Have not had any hardware issues at all the last 6 months, so I have not tested their real network/hardware support.

Benchmark

I have taken benchmark from one Linux server on each server, both using 4 cores, and 3 GB of RAM and here is the result:

First the Xeon E3-1245v2:

I tested with 8 cores on the server, but since the 4 last core is just threads, the resu

Then the Core i7 3770, actually this one got a little better result then the XEON.

Network/uptime

100% uptime on the network on both Data centers (16 and 19) I have my servers the last 6 months.

Conclusion

I did go from a real cloud service @ Iwstack.com to a dedicated server. Was sure that was a bad idea, but since I have my own fail over service, servers in two different DC, backups on Vultr and a good host like Hetzner, my switch was not so bad. My servers is much faster then the Iwstack system, and I can start, stop, create etc server much faster on my servers then at Iwstack. I can use Hyper-V so I can Live export my servers how often I want, no snapshot that only works in this and that way. Full snapshot, that can be imported back on the same server, or on another server with Hyper-V. Just change the IP, and you are up and running again.

No abuse on the server, just me. The network can be from 200 mbps to 1 gbps. I think that will have something to do with other servers on the same rack using BW.

Still, after 6 months, I don’t regret that I changed from Iwstack to my own dedicated servers. But of course, it cost more money. Before I paid less then I do today, but I have put several of my services in the two servers, saving money here and there. Still, it cost more then the cloud. Since I used so little RAM, HDD and CPU cores.

Edit:
This is LET, we normally talk about cheap VPS servers, but been here for over a year now, I have also seen that dedicated servers is a big part of this forum.
I looked at the guidelines, and companies can advertise here if their server cost less then $49/mo and at Hetzner you can get servers down to €26/mo = $44/mo.
So I'm not a host, but still, this is a valid review.

Please take a look at my Top20 benchmark list on my site.

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Comments

  • 4n0nx4n0nx Member
    edited July 2015

    would like to add 2 things:

    My Hetzner auction server had 2 new/fresh HDDs (so it's not exclusively old hardware sold in the auctions) in it and the bandwidth limit is only outgoing traffic, incoming is unmetered/free.

    edit: And once you use more outbound traffic than you are allowed, the bandwidth will be PERMANENTLY limited to 10 mbit/s ONCE. You can ticket support to change this. The next time it happens, you will have to agree to pay per TB overage.

    Thanked by 2myhken ucxo
  • ehabehab Member

    if only they drop the ID i would have tried. Thanks for your report thou.

    Thanked by 1myhken
  • 4n0nx4n0nx Member

    ehab said: if only they drop the ID i would have tried. Thanks for your report thou.

    Ask them what information you can censor. At least for Germans they only need proof of being 18 (means all information you have to give them in addition to your name is the YEAR (not date) of birth).

  • HTMLHTML Member

    I wish they had builtin ddos mitigation like ovh and online.net.

    How do you guys confirm that the HDD or the hardware they gave to you is old or new/fresh? Is it mentioned there?

  • ehabehab Member

    @4n0nx said:
    Ask them what information you can censor. At least for Germans they only need proof of being 18 (means all information you have to give them in addition to your name is the YEAR (not date) of birth).

    i never thought of that, wow, blur everything and just leave mei ohoto. :D

  • 4n0nx4n0nx Member

    HTML said: How do you guys confirm that the HDD or the hardware they gave to you is old or new/fresh? Is it mentioned there?

    i used smartctl or something like that :)

  • HTMLHTML Member

    @4n0nx said:
    i used smartctl or something like that :)

    smart :D

    Thanked by 14n0nx
  • 4n0nx4n0nx Member

    ehab said: i never thought of that, wow, blur everything and just leave mei ohoto. :D

    I blurred(=fill it up with colour, no blurring effect) EVERYTHING, including my photo, EXCEPT first and last name and year of birth. Maybe they have different requirements for non-Germans or credit card users, that's why I said ask them.

    If they had wanted the entire passport, I would not have done it.

    Thanked by 1ehab
  • myhkenmyhken Member

    @HTML said:
    I wish they had builtin ddos mitigation like ovh and online.net.

    How do you guys confirm that the HDD or the hardware they gave to you is old or new/fresh? Is it mentioned there?

    I uses Crystal Disk info and SMART, it show how many hours the disk has been running, divide on 24, divide on 365.

  • HTMLHTML Member

    @myhken said:
    I uses Crystal Disk info and SMART, it show how many hours the disk has been running, divide on 24, divide on 365.

    oh ok thanks for sharing!

    Thanked by 1myhken
  • myhkenmyhken Member

    Happy to share, good or bad, I will continue with sharing my reviews. But since I only review hosts I use, and that my reviews (except my 30 day review) is based on long term usage my site is not updated so often anymore.

  • HTMLHTML Member

    @myhken said:
    Happy to share, good or bad, I will continue with sharing my reviews. But since I only review hosts I use, and that my reviews (except my 30 day review) is based on long term usage my site is not updated so often anymore.

    Can you tell me if they have any anti ddos functionality like ovh or online.net? because i can't find it written on their site

  • karjajkarjaj Member

    No, there's no any ddos protection... :/

  • myhkenmyhken Member

    No DDoS protection no...

  • cassacassa Member

    Yep, Hetzner is awesome

  • Hetzner is amazing and we use them for our Nuremburg shared and reseller hosting. Very affordable servers with good connectivity. +1 for them

    Unfortunately IP prices are so high over there (not just Hetzner but EU in general) that offering VPS in their location is cost prohibitive.

  • I got also a Hetzner Core i7 3770, 16 GB RAM, 2 x 3 TB HDD, 20 TB BW for almost ~1 year now. The hardware is running great, no problems so far.
    The only thing is the network. Upload speed to a location in Frankfurt, Germany is almost always <~ 20 Mbps. If I do e.g. a multisegment download it is maxing out to ~200 Mbps.
    So maybe someone in the same rack is using alot of bandwidth, the connection of their RZ16 is crappy or they somehow try to limit the speeds.

  • @tehdartherer said:
    I got also a Hetzner Core i7 3770, 16 GB RAM, 2 x 3 TB HDD, 20 TB BW for almost ~1 year now. The hardware is running great, no problems so far.
    The only thing is the network. Upload speed to a location in Frankfurt, Germany is almost always <~ 20 Mbps. If I do e.g. a multisegment download it is maxing out to ~200 Mbps.
    So maybe someone in the same rack is using alot of bandwidth, the connection of their RZ16 is crappy or they somehow try to limit the speeds.

    Hello,

    I am sorry to bring this thread back up. I want to ask how is their network speed (latency) to Asia please?

    Thanks,
    TZ

  • @TheZealous said:
    how is their network speed (latency) to Asia please?

    Not bad but nothing great.

    Aruba Cloud's France has great connectivity to Asia... atleast for India as I tested and run a server for a client.

  • @TheZealous said:

    it's about par for what it should be, from germany. something like 8-12MB/s usually on a single ftp session to my leaseweb singapore stuff.

    this is some 6 month old thread, but i guess i'll reply to those benchmarks anyway.

    here's some serverbear results i got on hetzner,

    first is an i7-3770 from october 3rd, 2014,

    http://serverbear.com/benchmark/2014/10/03/Gi3zdh1w2Wp7tHJn

    second is an i7-4770 from september 13th, 2014,

    http://serverbear.com/benchmark/2014/09/13/mFoHKU12uQIi0DwW

    xeon e3-1245v2 will be slower than i7-3770 also. base, they're about the same, but i7-3770 has turbo mode also. (the difference shown on your results should have actually been greater)

    can click on 'network' tab to see the results i got to various places in asia

  • Thanks @zevus. So basically an i7-4770 is the best from these choices from the list. Which obviously I cannot find any on their auction website.

  • @TheZealous

    Benchmarks http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/search?q=i7+3770
    http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/search?q=i7+4770

    Seem to indicate almost the same results but the i7 4770 is slightly better single threaded

  • Thanks @TarZZ92. I guess Hetzner is not that bad of the provider. I am watching to see if they have any i7 4770 available :).

  • zevuszevus Member
    edited February 2016

    @TheZealous said:
    Thanks TarZZ92. I guess Hetzner is not that bad of the provider. I am watching to see if they have any i7 4770 available :).

    I've seen 2 or 3 4770's on their server bidding.... I don't recall the price, but they were high enough where I wasn't interested at all (vs buying one of their 40 euro + setup machines). Thinking it was something like 40-45 euros (w/o the setup fee ofc). I have one of the i7-6770's now..

    .... but as I recall, I started seeing them around when they announced the i7-6700 (edited, whoops, 6770, haha) with 64GB RAM & 1gbit dedicated connection etc..

    ed2: Hmm, just made me check their website.... looks like they're having a special now on the Haswells, 41 euro for the non-SSD one (if you don't have to pay VAT) w/ no setup fee. That's probably about what they went for on server bidding

  • Thank you for your full in-depth feedback. It will definitely help me A LOT! Thank you once again.

  • FalzoFalzo Member
    edited February 2016

    @Nexaly_RK said:

    not sure whom exactly you are thanking, but find it worth to mention, that you no longer need to book the 'flexi pack' for additional IPs which may make it even cheaper.

    (myself have been with hetzner since 2010 and very happy so far)

  • GeekoineGeekoine Member
    edited March 2016

    @myhken said:

    how did you manage to grab the i7 2600 at 26 euros?

  • FalzoFalzo Member

    @Geekoine said:
    how did you manage to grab the i7 2600 at 26 euros?

    average pricing increased remarkably on those boxes over the past 12-15 month.
    I used to had one at around 23,- € end of 2014 and wish I had not canceled it in the early 2015... nowadays it is very unlikely they drop under 28,50 €.

    Thanked by 1Geekoine
  • sadly.

  • lootloot Member

    I just log on in the middle of the night both in the US and in Germany and I've been able to do 25-26EUR for the i7-2600 in the past few weeks. The thing is I've also noticed that the price takes a dip so predictably during a few hours to the point where I'm not sure if it's a real Dutch auction or if it's rigged.

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