Dedicated Web Server Hosting – Serverbeach Review

I’ve been on the hunt for dedicated web server hosting that is Linux based to replace my Microsoft IIS server and found the perfect home! I’ve done a LOT of research and what you are about to read and my review of Serverbeach is completely honest and from the heart!

AuditMyPC.com was raised on a dedicated server by Verio running IIS and did a fantastic job! Verio worked with me during a time when no one else would and offered great pricing, but that was almost 10 years ago and times have changed.

As I started new sites, I used a shared hosting solution running Apache; Verio couldn’t compete with the shared hosting plans out there, so the shared server was hosted at another company and worked well for small start ups.

It got to a point were all that was left on the Windows Server were large, high traffic sites that needed more than a shared server. Once again, I contacted Verio to see what they could do for me in the way of dedicated web server hosting with Linux rather than Microsoft.

The turnover rate is unbearable and every time I call, I have a different sales rep; anyway – I explained that I’ve been a customer for a long time and would like them to work with me on price. Turns out the only thing loyalty got me was sky high quotes and a lot of disappointment.

Fast forward past a lot of research, to present day and my Serverbeach Review, where I now have those sites hosted on ServerBeach.com. Moving to a new hosting company AND technology can be a very scary process, but fortunately my sales representative Richard Lopez was there for me every step of the way – I can not emphasize enough the importance of having Richard there to answer my questions!

Having used shared hosting, I was familiar with Cpanel and Plesk, but on dedicated web server hosting you get WHM / Cpanel and it was a lot to take in! Server Beach has a saying, “A beach party by geeks for geeks.” and they are not kidding, Richard has his own servers hosted there and was cool enough to walk me through the configuration and share his settings with me. When is the last time your sales rep could walk you through configuration using their own settings?

Here is a video with some of the staff saying goodbye to YouTube (they hosted YouTube until Google bought it).

http://www.auditmypc.com/videos/youtubefarewell.flv

Let me explain why having a geek for a sales rep is so important…

I had moved a number of sites to the new server and all was running well, until, I made a modification to one of my themes that ended up crashing my server during high traffic.

Panic! All the sites were unresponsive and it was completely my fault, but at the time I had no idea what had happened. Had this been IIS, I could find the problem, implement a fix and be on my way, but with Apache, I was at a loss!

I called Richard and he was there for me. He calmly walked my through everything and I moved from Panic mode to troubleshooting mode. Richard immediately pinned it down to a database issue (MySQL chewing up resources) and conferenced in tech support which confirmed that it was database related but exactly what was causing the problem remained a mystery; it was up to me to figure it out.

Richard could tell I was a bit stressed and offered the use of his personal server. Although I didn’t take him up on the offer, that gesture was way ABOVE and BEYOND the call of duty making the troubleshooting process a LOT less painful – A sales rep that not only understands your problem, but is like a good friend as well – how cool is that! (Cool enough to spend the time on this Serverbeach review).

FYI: The problem with the server turned out to be code I added to my sidebar to randomize posts on a popular WordPress site. During high traffic, the code would chew up all the resources and end up bringing everything down!

Having fixed the problem, my new dedicated server has been running like a charm. I’ve also moved some of the growing sites hosted on shared servers to this new server and the response time is just incredible (I highly recommend a dedicated server over shared, it makes a difference with everything!)

Server Beach dedicated web server hosting has been fantastic. I really do feel like I have a friend in Richard – there is a sense of security knowing that a live person who really cares is there for you when you need him.

If you are looking for a server backed by a bunch of geeks who know what they are doing, then you should definitely check out ServerBeach, I’m confident you’ll be as happy as I am!

Thanks Richard!

Comments

  1. Jim says:

    Great deal on dedicated web server hosting from Server Beach!

    END OF 2010 FIRE SALE!!!

    30% Off

    Offer ONLY valid from 12/30-12/31

    This coupon entitles you to 30% off our Dual Xeon 5520 MONDO server

    Jim

    Several customers with multiple servers have been able to consolidate the number of servers on their account by implementing our Storage Servers.

    This might be something you want to consider to reduce your administration overhead – or add to your account as a storage solution.

    * Configure up to 16 SATA or SAS disk drives.—up to 32 terabytes of data storage.
    * The Dual Xeon 5520 DQC for applications that require large amounts of computation resources to process your data.
    * Configure up to 48 GB of RAM for the Xeon 5520.
    * The Intel Xeon e5520 comes standard with a 100Mbit port and is upgradeable to 1000Mbit.

    5520 SATA Storage
    2 x Intel Xeon E5520 2.26 GHz Quad COre 8 Threads (wH/T)
    3Ware 16 port 9650E-16LP RAID Card
    3Ware Battery Backup Unit
    10 x 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA Drives
    12 GB DDR 3 13333 MHz RAM
    100 Mbit Port (Upgradeable to 1000 Mbit -Gig)
    Monthly is $1,054 (Your price is $790)

    w/10 x 2 TB SATA drives
    Monthly is $1,254 (Your price is $878)

    5520 SAS Storage
    2 x Intel Xeon E5520 2.26 GHz Quad COre 8 Threads (wH/T)
    LSI SAS 8401E 16 Port RAID Card
    LSI SAS Battery Backup Unit
    10 x 146 GB SAS 15k Drives
    12 GB DDR 3 13333 MHz RAM
    100 Mbit Port (Upgradeable to 1000 Mbit -Gig)
    Monthly is $1,104 (Your price is $828)

    w/10 x 300 GB 15K 3 Gb/s SAS
    Monthly is $1,154 (Your price is $808)

    If you are replacing a server with a Storage server, we will give 30 days free on the old server. This means both servers will stay online so you can take your time migrating. We will also pro-rate the old servers billing cycle and credit your account for that amount.

    If you order 3 or more Mondo Servers we can increase the free migration time for the old servers to 60 days.

    Cheers,
    Vanessa Acosta
    Business Development Consultant

  2. Jim says:

    I received these specials from Server Beach today for Dedicated Web Server Hosting and as you can see, they are some great deals!

    Hello Jim,

    During the last few days in November for the holidays, I was able to offer the Dual Xeon 5520 in an upgraded configuration at a further discounted price. I can still offer the 5520 along with the Q9400 in the following configurations even when not on promotion.

    You will be able to take advantage of promotional pricing and an additional discount on the RAID configuration; hard drive and RAM upgrade and increased monthly bandwidth.

    Dual Xeon 5520 DQC Dedicated Web Server

    2 x Intel Xeon 5520 QC 2.26 Ghz100 Mbit Connection
    100 Mbit Connection
    1 IP Address
    3 TB Monthly Bandiwdth
    3Ware 9650SE-2LP RAID Card (RAID 1 or 0)
    2 x 500 GB SATA
    6 GB RAM
    CentOS 5.x 64-bit or any other free OS (See pricing for Windows)

    Setup Price $0.00

    Your pricing is $350.00.00 per month.

    Core 2 Quad Q9400 Dedicated Web Server

    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 Ghz
    100 Mbit Connection
    1 IP Address
    2 TB Monthly Bandiwdth
    3Ware 9650SE-2LP RAID Card (RAID 1 or 0)
    2 x 500 GB SATA
    4 GB RAM
    CentOS 5.x 64-bit or any other free OS (See pricing for Windows)
    Setup Price $0.00
    Your pricing is $249.00.00 per month.

    * All added hardware will be sold at 20% off

    ANY SERVER OF YOUR CHOICE
    SATA/SAS HDDS
    FIREWALLS
    LOAD BALANCER
    RAM

    If you have been thinking of upgrading any old hardware, this would be an excellent time to do so. We will still offer 30 days free migration time on your old server.

    If you are interested, please let me know, as I will have to place the order for you in order for you to receive the additional discounts.

  3. Jim says:

    9/9/10 Now here is a sweet deal! Where can you get a dedicated server for $99 a month with 3.3 TB of bandwidth?

    Hello Jim!

    I wanted to let you know about a special that we’re running right now. This special is good only while supplies last.

    What this means to you:

    Built in Redundancy (OPTION 1 only)
    Double your infrastructure or upgrade your current server for as little as $99.00
    Backed by our SuperNetwork – A powerful network, built for customers like you who want maximum up time and faster connections
    Increase your Bandwidth allotment

    OPTION #1
    $99.00
    Dell 440 or Athlon X2 5000+ -or- Opteron 1218
    2 GB Memory
    2 x 160 GB SATA (RAID-1)
    3.3 TB/mo Bandwidth
    100 Mbit Port Speed

    OPTION #2
    $129.00
    Core 2 Quad Q6600 -or- Xeon 3320 SQC
    4 GB Memory
    2 x 250 GB SATA Drives
    3.3 TB/mo Bandwidth
    100 Mbit Port Speed

    Looking for Load Balancing?

    Ask us how you can utilize our Load Balancing offer in conjunction with our promo for as little as $99.00 per Load Balanced IP address.

    Thank you for your business – And as always, let me know if I can be of assistance.

  4. Jim says:

    Hi Amy,

    The code was:

    $rand_posts = get_posts(‘numberposts=35&orderby=rand’);
    foreach( $rand_posts as $post ) :
    loop to display the the_permalink() and the_title()
    endforeach;

    Yes, shared hosting is a lot cheaper, but you are sharing your server with a ton of other people. There might be thousands of websites on the same server and speed will not be the same as a dedicated server. Shared servers work fine for small sites, but with larger sites or sites you’re investing a lot of time and money in, speed is extremely important in doing well.

  5. Amy says:

    You mentioned you used shared hosting, was this less expensive? And may I ask, what exactly did the code look like that caused the crash?

  6. Jim says:

    More Dedicated Web Server configurations at Server Beach:

    5/19/10 Hello Jim,

    During the last few days in April, I was able to offer the Dual Xeon 5520 in an upgraded configuration at a further discounted price. I can still offer the 5520 along with the Q9400 in the following configurations while they are on promotion.

    You will be able to take advantage of promotional pricing and an additional discount on the RAID configuration; hard drive and RAM upgrade and increased monthly bandwidth.

    I can only offer these configurations while inventory last and while these servers are still on promotion.

    Dual Xeon 5520 DQC
    2 x Intel Xeon 5520 QC 2.26 Ghz100 Mbit Connection
    100 Mbit Connection
    1 IP Address
    3 TB Monthly Bandiwdth
    3Ware 9650SE-2LP RAID Card (RAID 1 or 0)
    2 x 500 GB SATA
    6 GB RAM
    CentOS 5.x 64-bit or any other free OS (See pricing for Windows)

    Monthly Price was $524.00 but now $324.00 with promotional pricing
    Setup Price $0.00
    Your pricing is $290.00 per month.

    Core 2 Quad Q9400
    Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 Ghz
    100 Mbit Connection
    1 IP Address
    2 TB Monthly Bandiwdth
    3Ware 9650SE-2LP RAID Card (RAID 1 or 0)
    2 x 500 GB SATA
    4 GB RAM
    CentOS 5.x 64-bit or any other free OS (See pricing for Windows)

    Monthly Price $274.00 $184.00 with promotional pricing
    Setup Price $124.00 $0.00

    Your pricing is $165.00 per month.

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