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Simple question, I'm shopping for a virtual dedicated server, and the standard amount of ram seems to be 1GB, upgrading it to 2,3 or 4gb is usually extortionate.

Any particular reason? Is it super special ram? I can buy 16GB of ram for my PC for hardly anything compared to these rates.

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Is that a virtual server or a dedicated server? A server can't be both virtual and dedicated at the same time... – Majenko Mar 24 '11 at 17:45
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@Matt: I think "virtual dedicated server" is the term used for a VPS in some countries. – grawity Mar 24 '11 at 17:51

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2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

I would have to say it is because a lot servers use ECC RAM (Error Correction Code) which is less common then standard desktop RAM. From Wikipedia:

the higher cost of ECC memory (each bank is 9 memory chips compared to 8 for non-ECC memory, and more importantly there is more volume for non-ECC. In some cases the price ratio reduces to 9/8, as an example, on 2008/11/30, on Crucial.com, an ECC CL=5 unbuffered 2GB DDR2-667 DIMM cost $30 while the corresponding non-ECC part cost $28, a difference of 1/15, however some ECC modules cost twice as much as their non-ECC equivalents [Crucial CT12872Z40B and CT12864Z40B, Jan 2009]);

Although it's not always the case the majority of the time ECC RAM costs 2-3X as much as regular non-ECC chips. A good example is this stick of 4GB ECC 1333mhz cost $102 and this 4GB stick of non-ECC 1333mhz with a cost of 39.99. Also this could be due to gouging by the provider, but since I am not your vendor this is the best guess I can make.

Keep in mind hosting providers don't generally buy RAM from Tiger Direct they get it through Vendors who further jack the price and qualify the RAM as: HP/Dell/whoever certfied. For example $4500 of RAM from Dell= enter image description here Where as that same speed/type of RAM from Tiger Direct only costs about $2400.

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The reason that Virtual Private Servers (VPS) charge so much for RAM is two fold. One is explained in Kyle's post - the sheer cost of ECC parity RAM, but the other is provisioning. When you buy a VPS you are buying a 'slice' of RAM, CPU, and hard drive space. If the provider has these resources divided in to 10 slots, then doubling your RAM requirement effectively reduces the amount of slots they can sell out of that server to 9, so to keep the ROI up, they charge people more money for more resources. Often, the tiers are designed to force customers to use the least amount of resources or upgrade to a dedicated server.

I recommend RapidXen (I use), Wiredtree (I use), or SliceHost (comes highly recommended to me) for VPS, unless you're not familiar with the command line. Honestly, if you need more than 1GB or RAM, you need a dedicated server. You could always get a hybrid from WiredTree, they are pretty good.

I have purchased 16GB of DDR2 ECC RAM for about $300 for my HP servers, which isn't too expensive. DDR3 is a little more.

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