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Running a VPS on older hardware
I’ve been exploring Hetzner’s VPS offerings on older hardware. Until now, I’ve tried to use ARM / aarch64 processors for most low-medium sites since they’re typically much more power efficient overall. There are other economies of scale involved – as I understand it, the rack servers can be much more densely-packed, and cooling is less of a concern. Accordingly, these ARM servers are usually at a lower price point compared to their AMD or intel x64 cousins.
Not every VPS provider does ARM servers. There are some quirks to navigate with some providers, but I’ve had a few years of practice at this so it’s effectively a handful of solved problems for me. Hetzner Cloud (affiliate link; proceeds go to Textpattern) is a provider who have a limited supply of ARM servers across their EU server farms, and they work really well. Recently, Hetzner juggled their non-dedicated server offerings and they currently supply x64 servers on current or ‘older’ hardware.
The pull quote: The older hardware x64 are very good value for money. I’m running an 8x CPU / 16GB RAM / 160GB SSD server for €11 a month.
The benchmarks are pretty impressive:
$ curl -sL yabs.sh | bash
# ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #
# Yet-Another-Bench-Script #
# v2025-04-20 #
# https://github.com/masonr/yet-another-bench-script #
# ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #
Wed Nov 19 05:15:20 PM UTC 2025
Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime : 0 days, 3 hours, 38 minutes
Processor : AMD EPYC-Rome Processor
CPU cores : 8 @ 2445.406 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ❌ Disabled
RAM : 15.2 GiB
Swap : 8.0 GiB
Disk : 150.2 GiB
Distro : Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Kernel : 6.12.57+deb13-cloud-amd64
VM Type : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✔ Online / ✔ Online
IPv6 Network Information:
---------------------------------
ISP : Hetzner Online GmbH
ASN : AS24940 Hetzner Online GmbH
Host : Hetzner Online GmbH
Location : Nuremberg, Bavaria (BY)
Country : Germany
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition /dev/sda1):
---------------------------------
Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 103.21 MB/s (25.8k) | 1.08 GB/s (16.9k)
Write | 103.48 MB/s (25.8k) | 1.09 GB/s (17.0k)
Total | 206.69 MB/s (51.6k) | 2.17 GB/s (34.0k)
| |
Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 1.65 GB/s (3.2k) | 1.92 GB/s (1.8k)
Write | 1.74 GB/s (3.4k) | 2.05 GB/s (2.0k)
Total | 3.39 GB/s (6.6k) | 3.98 GB/s (3.8k)
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
---------------------------------
Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping
----- | ----- | ---- | ---- | ----
Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 7.13 Gbits/sec | 7.08 Gbits/sec | 18.9 ms
Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 11.5 Gbits/sec | 4.24 Gbits/sec | 9.35 ms
Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 8.36 Gbits/sec | 2.07 Gbits/sec | 96.2 ms
Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 3.00 Gbits/sec | 3.86 Gbits/sec | 171 ms
Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 1.03 Gbits/sec | 1.31 Gbits/sec | 166 ms
Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 6.67 Gbits/sec | 8.60 Gbits/sec | 96.8 ms
Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 2.08 Gbits/sec | 5.54 Gbits/sec | 216 ms
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv6):
---------------------------------
Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping
----- | ----- | ---- | ---- | ----
Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 5.20 Gbits/sec | 6.75 Gbits/sec | 18.5 ms
Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 11.9 Gbits/sec | 4.61 Gbits/sec | 9.36 ms
Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 7.28 Gbits/sec | 1.47 Gbits/sec | 95.7 ms
Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 3.67 Gbits/sec | 6.09 Gbits/sec | 168 ms
Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 1.05 Gbits/sec | 1.26 Gbits/sec | 165 ms
Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 4.35 Gbits/sec | 6.22 Gbits/sec | 96.8 ms
Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 2.45 Gbits/sec | 44.9 Mbits/sec | 216 ms
Geekbench 6 Benchmark Test:
---------------------------------
Test | Value
|
Single Core | 1485
Multi Core | 7837
Full Test | https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/15124818
YABS completed in 13 min 10 secThat’s an older x64 system outperforming a new ARM box for less money. The trade off is the server power use is higher, but the technology is still being used and kept away from recycling / e-waste…so there’s an embodied carbon aspect to it, too.
Here’s the pricing for the aarch64 boxes:
…and the ‘older’ x64 boxes for comparison:
…and the current (‘new’) x64 boxes:
It’s really quite fun watching source code compile really quickly and knowing there’s still cost-effectiveness going on.
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Re: Running a VPS on older hardware
I’ve just run a comparison ARM benchmark on an 8x CPU / 16GB RAM / 160GB SSD server. Still Hetzner, the same server farm, and a fresh install of Debian 13.2.
Caveat: the benchmark script is experimental on ARM.
Here are the details:
$ curl -sL yabs.sh | bash
# ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #
# Yet-Another-Bench-Script #
# v2025-04-20 #
# https://github.com/masonr/yet-another-bench-script #
# ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #
Wed Nov 19 06:03:45 PM UTC 2025
ARM compatibility is considered *experimental*
Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime : 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes
Processor : Neoverse-N1
CPU cores : 8 @ ??? MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ❌ Disabled
RAM : 15.2 GiB
Swap : 8.0 GiB
Disk : 150.2 GiB
Distro : Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Kernel : 6.12.57+deb13-arm64
VM Type : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✔ Online / ✔ Online
IPv6 Network Information:
---------------------------------
ISP : Hetzner Online GmbH
ASN : AS24940 Hetzner Online GmbH
Host : Hetzner Online GmbH
Location : Nuremberg, Bavaria (BY)
Country : Germany
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition /dev/sda1):
---------------------------------
Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 126.65 MB/s (31.6k) | 1.26 GB/s (19.7k)
Write | 126.56 MB/s (31.6k) | 1.30 GB/s (20.3k)
Total | 253.21 MB/s (63.3k) | 2.57 GB/s (40.1k)
| |
Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 1.93 GB/s (3.7k) | 1.93 GB/s (1.8k)
Write | 2.09 GB/s (4.1k) | 2.16 GB/s (2.1k)
Total | 4.03 GB/s (7.8k) | 4.09 GB/s (3.9k)
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
---------------------------------
Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping
----- | ----- | ---- | ---- | ----
Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 5.90 Gbits/sec | 4.35 Gbits/sec | 18.9 ms
Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 15.5 Gbits/sec | 4.96 Gbits/sec | 10.0 ms
Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 3.43 Gbits/sec | 1.10 Gbits/sec | 96.1 ms
Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 1.04 Gbits/sec | busy | 170 ms
Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 1.02 Gbits/sec | 1.25 Gbits/sec | 161 ms
Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 3.39 Gbits/sec | 3.26 Gbits/sec | 96.7 ms
Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 1.18 Gbits/sec | 1.48 Gbits/sec | 225 ms
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv6):
---------------------------------
Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping
----- | ----- | ---- | ---- | ----
Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 5.38 Gbits/sec | 6.59 Gbits/sec | 21.4 ms
Eranium | Amsterdam, NL (100G) | 16.7 Gbits/sec | 4.82 Gbits/sec | 12.6 ms
Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 3.39 Gbits/sec | 1.52 Gbits/sec | 96.2 ms
Leaseweb | Singapore, SG (10G) | 1.75 Gbits/sec | 1.80 Gbits/sec | 168 ms
Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 1.03 Gbits/sec | 1.29 Gbits/sec | 161 ms
Leaseweb | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 3.27 Gbits/sec | 3.25 Gbits/sec | 96.9 ms
Edgoo | Sao Paulo, BR (1G) | 1.24 Gbits/sec | 1.32 Gbits/sec | 227 ms
Geekbench 6 Benchmark Test:
---------------------------------
Test | Value
|
Single Core | 1075
Multi Core | 5933
Full Test | https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/15125556
YABS completed in 13 min 2 secThe Neoverse-N1 processor (if that’s correct, see above re: experimental) is already a few years old. Here are the details on WikiChips: en.wikichip.org/wiki/arm_holdings/microarchitectures/neoverse_n1
It’s not clear which AMD EPYC Rome CPU is at play here. I could hazard a guess at a 2.4gHz model, but that could be affected by the virtualisation setup.
Edit: Geekbench comparison: browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/15124818?baseline=15125556
Last edited by gaekwad (Yesterday 18:21:07)
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