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BanditHost.com Multi AMD VPS Review & BF lure
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BanditHost.com Multi AMD VPS Review & BF lure

jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker
edited November 2019 in Reviews

I recently got access to three AMD based VPSs for benchmarking and reviewing from BanditHost.com. Thanks to @Delong who represents them here for providing test access!

Front-up: I didn't plan it that way, I just happened to conclude my benchmark series today - but as today is BF I'd like to ask BanditHost to "pay" me by offering a nice and tasty BF deal in the [https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/161665/black-friday-2019-official-deal-thread-k-pop-edition](official BF Mega-thread). To avoid misunderstandings: I do the benchmarking and reviewing for free (as always) but I'd like to lure BanditHost a bit.

First, the small one

System info:

Machine: amd64, Arch.: amd64, Model: AMD EPYC Processor (with IBPB)
OS, version: FreeBSD 12.1, Mem.: 1.985 GB
CPU - Cores: 2, Family/Model/Stepping: 23/1/2
Cache: 32K/64K L1d/L1i, 512K L2, 8M L3
Std. Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat
          pse36 cflsh mmx fxsr sse sse2 sse3 pclmulqdq ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1
          sse4_2 popcnt aes xsave osxsave avx f16c rdrnd hypervisor
Ext. Flags: fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb
          rdtscp lm lahf_lm cmp_legacy cr8_legacy lzcnt sse4a misalignsse
          3dnowprefetch osvw topoext perfctr_core

Yummy, an AMD Zen System! As you will see in the next section, this processor, an EPYC, is a lower clock/lower power consumption chip that is slower than the Ryzens some providers offer but it still offers quite good performance and it has all those useful flags available (and a nice fat L1i cache).

Processor & mem performance:

                        Avg              Low High Dlow Dhigh Span
Single core:    266.46  -   244.59  274.33  8.21    2.95    11.16
Multi core: 582.19  -   564.49  610.66  3.04    4.89    7.93

Not bad at all and quite stable/low span. For the sake of fairness it should be noted that they are in the process of upgrading the memory to faster sticks which with Zen will also mean higher processor performance. I expect to see even better performance then, about in the Xeon E-26xx v3 range.

Disk (25 GB):

Seq.Wr: 593.06  -   405.66  732.70  31.60   23.55   55.14
Rnd.Wr: 261.69  -   167.44  322.81  36.02   23.35   59.37
Seq.Rd: 1181.98 -   690.71  1467.00 41.56   24.11   65.68
Rnd.Rd: 1189.36 -   781.68  1394.00 34.28   17.21   51.48

A very nice SSD (Raid 10) or an NVMe.

Network:

GR_UNK:  26.43  -   24.70   28.10   6.56    6.31    12.86
US_SJC:  175.72 -   152.90  197.90  12.99   12.62   25.61
OK_LON:  31.55  -   30.00   33.90   4.93    7.43    12.36
DE_FRA:  29.26  -   26.90   32.00   8.06    9.37    17.43
BR_SAO:  25.28  -   22.80   26.50   9.81    4.83    14.64
FR_PAR:  30.14  -   27.70   32.80   8.09    8.83    16.92
US_WDC:  67.65  -   10.70   88.90   84.18   31.42   115.60
RO_BUC:  28.20  -   8.00    33.10   71.63   17.38   89.01
AU_MEL:  27.37  -   24.10   29.60   11.95   8.14    20.09
IT_MIL:  30.25  -   27.30   32.30   9.76    6.76    16.53
SG_SGP:  23.26  -   7.10    30.50   69.48   31.11   100.59
US_DAL:  96.20  -   84.10   102.60  12.57   6.66    19.23
RU_MOS: 28.43   -   25.10   29.40   11.72   3.40    15.12
JP_TOK:  40.03  -   36.60   44.40   8.58    10.91   19.48
NO_OSL:  28.29  -   26.50   30.00   6.33    6.04    12.37
IN_CHN:  20.05  -   18.30   21.50   8.75    7.21    15.96

I'd call that average and I'm a bit bewildered because BanditHost is in Virginia, yet their best connectivity is to the west coast while Dallas is still about 100 Mb/s but Washington which is very close to Virginia shows the poorest US connectivity, strange. Or maybe that node is at the west coast. I like the fact that their network is not really poor to anywhere but I would expect a bit better results to UK,Lon and DE, Fra.


The larger VPS

System Info: Same processor as above (7551P ) but with 4 cores and 8 GB memory.

Multi core result is obviously better with double the cores: 872 MB/s avg. Again, this is expected to significantly increase when the new faster memory is installed.

Disk (100 GB): About the same as the smaller system with one exception: random writing is consistently lower at about 200 MB/s avg. Probably due to a fuller node.

Network: About the same as above.


The small VPS with spindle (HDD).

Processor & mem: Again the same as above but with only 1 core.

Disk (250 GB):

Seq.Wr: 358.09  -       266.04  519.38  25.71   45.04   70.75
Rnd.Wr: 31.58   -       17.67   44.28   44.05   40.20   84.25
Seq.Rd: 1288.95 -       703.52  1401.00 45.42   8.69    54.11
RndRd:  1204.25 -       1059.00 1229.00 12.06   2.06    14.12

Now, that's a nice HDD config (a well done Raid array). Look at those read speeds! Don't be worried about the low random write speed, that's due to my somewhat brutal testing with truly random sectors and truly random (non cacheable) data that breaks through most caches.
Also, obviously random write speed is virtually irrelevant on a storage VPS because those are basically always written to sequentially and in large chunks.

Network: Same again.

Summary:

I'm looking forward to run my benchmark again once they have upgraded to faster memory. What I see is what I would call "Xeon 26xx performance without the intel problems and with the AMD goodies".
Now, of course everyone loves the Ryzen speed but frankly, most people simply don't need it.So, do not compare these VPSs to Ryzens but to nice Xeon E5 v3.

I mean it positive when I call those systems "average but solid". They are what I expect from a good low end VPS: Nice and sufficiently fast processor, nice clearly above average disks and a network that could need some love; but maybe I'm just pampered from Europe. Anyway enhancing their connectivity would push them from the low end to the mid range.
All in all not a race horse but a solid work horse - except for the storage box which surprised me very pleasantly with its really fast spindle array. A clear recommendation that storage box.

Also noteworthy: their support is sufficiently quick, friendly, and what I find particularly positive, honest.

I don't know their pricing though. If it's attractive then those VPS are a really attractive not racy but solid choice. Thanks, Delong.

Comments

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    I take the liberty to bump this thread up due to BF which (understandably) let to it being pushed down quickly. Maybe now after the BF "storm" some users want to see it. Note: I meant well when publishing it yesterday as a modest attempt to lure BanditHost into making an attractive special BF offer but unfortunately I failed. Sorry.

    Thanked by 1dahartigan
  • @jsg Thanks for the review and providing your results! It has certainly given us another perspective to see things from and what needs to be improved upon. Also, while the company is located in Virginia, this node is located in Utah. We'll be bringing up some nodes in the VA/D.C. area early next year though :)

    You haven't failed on BF offers. We decided to have a skeleton crew and instead enjoy time with our families during this holiday period. We'll get something out for you all later today so stay tuned!

  • I am also enjoying free VPS provided by Bandit Host @Delong

    Just need some time and then I will put it to some good use and then post review here. So far the VPS is working perfectly!

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    Btw, again, as it's important to keep reality in mind:

    I love the insanely fast Ryzen VPS I have from another provider - but I do not need that power. Seriously. It's clearly way too much for a low end and even a mid end VPS. I could easily run run the tasks done by multiple non-Ryzen VPSs on that beast.

    Looking realistically at it going the lower performance (due to lower clock) Epyc path is almost certainly the better choice for many if not most VPS users.
    Simple reason: Higher core density and lower power consumption per core -> lower cost -> lower price *but still damn enough performance.

    In fact I'm even looking forward to and interested in benchmarking VPS on nodes based on older Epyc generations. Those may be inferiror to intel E5-26xx in single core performance - but the vast majority of internet applications is about multi-core performance.

    Provided there are enough providers with different Zen nodes and different generations I'd love to benchmark and review the real-world VPS performance of all those Zens.

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