I have used VPS and shared hosting from different providers over the last few years. I have encountered most of them through one of the popular blogs – Lowendbox. Recently I came across Mevspace and found their offers quite interesting, considering they had data centers in Warsaw, Poland. Most of their dedicated servers had Ryzen 3600 or 3700X processors, which perform well. I usually prefer VPS due to the overhead in maintaining dedicated servers since you are responsible for checking hardware failures. Most providers get them replaced within no time, but you must keep an eye on hardware, for instance, failing disks.
I had an opportunity to grab one of the dedicated servers from Mevspace for a week, free of cost. To be precise, it costs about $0.01 to avoid fraudulent orders. They offered a server in exchange for honest feedback, to which I agreed.
Mevspace review (formerly Skynode)
Initial process: Sign up and account activation
I had signed up on their customer panel at panel.mevspace.com. They are not using WHMCS or Blesta panels which are popular among web hosts. They are using an in-house panel for user management, which is nice. Building something from scratch takes a lot of time and effort, so kudos to them for having a custom solution. I signed up for my account at around 9 PM. I am in the IST zone, by the way. The account was approved almost 14-15 hours later. Mevspace told me that they approved all accounts manually, hence the delay. Given the time zone differences, the wait was nominal.
Control panel
If you look at the control panel, it doesn’t have many features like other providers. It is simple and clutter-free, with the most minimal options. You can set an SSH key that can be used while rebuilding VPS. I have yet to use it, though. I just logged in using the password provided and set up the keys manually.
Server setup time
Once the account was set up, I placed an order and paid the following day. I had an order confirmation email sitting in my inbox instantly. After a few minutes, they asked me which OS I wanted to use with a dedicated server. They do not have IPMI, which is fine, but you can request for KVM connect. Once I had sent the desired OS, the server was ready within an hour maximum. I tried to ssh using the password, and voila, I was in!
Mevspace – Initial impressions
This is how the server looked once I ran the htop command on it. This dedicated server had a Ryzen 5950X processor with 16 cores and 32 threads. Each core is clocked at 3400 MHz. Ryzen 5950X is one of the best processors if you want to have maximum single-core performance. A higher single-core performance score is a game changer for software not supporting multi-threading. Each dedicated server comes with a single IPv4 and IPv6. You can request more IPv6 as well, although I am not 100% sure about that. A lot of providers are offering /64 subnets these days with IPv6.
Specs of the dedicated server
My dedicated server was based on a Ryzen 5950X processor and had 128 GB memory. There were 2 NVMe disks connected in a RAID-1 configuration. It was connected to a 1GBit port, and they do not have any bandwidth caps. The connection is unmetered so that you can use it 24 x 7 without any FUP or other issues. They offer DDoS protection with all their services, although I need to determine how much protection is included. You also get a single IPv4 and IPv6, as mentioned above.
Motherboard
The dedicated server uses the Asus TUF Gaming B450M-PRO II motherboard, which supports DDR4 memory up to 128 GB and even supports ECC-based memory. There are 2 M.2 and SATA slots as well.
Storage
There were two Samsung 980 drives connected in a RAID-1 configuration. Looking at the smart stats of these Samsung drives, these were brand new. They were powered on for the first time. They had mentioned ordering the new Ryzen 5950X for more recent builds, but they didn’t say there would also be new drives. This surprised me, and I was happy they were using top-notch hardware.
Memory
As I had mentioned earlier, this MOBO supported 4 x DDR4 memory. Most consumer processors these days support a maximum of 128 GB memory, either Intel or AMD. This dedicated server had 32GB DDR4 memory sticks hooked up in each of these slots, making total system memory 128 GB. I also run memory speed tests; you can check those later in the post.
Additional features offered by Mevspace (formerly Skynode)
As I mentioned, you get free Anti-DDoS protection with this provider. For their VPS line, they do offer a snapshot feature as well. Many budget providers lack snapshot functionality, which is handy for testing things. You can even create your own VPS configuration with the desired specifications. This comes in handy if you want high memory/ high CPU-based machines.
Billing
They support PayPal, which I prefer, followed by Stripe. In addition to this, you can even pay with crypto via BitPay and bank transfers. All the servers are prepaid; you can pay for a month, quarter, half year, or year. There are no discounts if you are paying for a year. The price will be the monthly price x 12.
Rebranding
Mevspace was initially known as Skynode, which was rebranded later. The original site – skynode.eu now redirects to Mevspace. With the new branding, new configurations of dedicated servers and backup services were introduced. There is no change to existing services or customer login or billing agreements. There were changes to support emails and notification emails address, which they highlighted. You can read more about the rebranding on the official documents portal of Mevspace here.
Support
I didn’t have to create a support ticket with them since everything was running smoothly. As I mentioned, I emailed them about the OS version, and they promptly replied. They have technical support available 24 x 7, in case you are facing any issues.
Mevspace Benchmarks
YABS – Yet another benchmark script
This comprehensive benchmark displays the network speed, disk speed, and Geekbench score. The scores give you a basic idea of how the VPS or dedicated server would perform. As you can see, the single core score is 1721, which is quite good.
root@n95ae92:~# wget -qO- yabs.sh | bash
# ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #
# Yet-Another-Bench-Script #
# v2022-06-11 #
# https://github.com/masonr/yet-another-bench-script #
# ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## #
Fri Jul 29 14:16:15 UTC 2022
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime : 0 days, 1 hours, 57 minutes
Processor : AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor
CPU cores : 32 @ 2181.716 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
RAM : 125.8 GiB
Swap : 15.3 GiB
Disk : 899.2 GiB
Distro : Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Kernel : 5.10.0-8-amd64
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50):
---------------------------------
Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 830.77 MB/s (207.6k) | 1.02 GB/s (16.0k)
Write | 832.96 MB/s (208.2k) | 1.02 GB/s (16.0k)
Total | 1.66 GB/s (415.9k) | 2.05 GB/s (32.0k)
| |
Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 1.15 GB/s (2.2k) | 1.12 GB/s (1.1k)
Write | 1.21 GB/s (2.3k) | 1.20 GB/s (1.1k)
Total | 2.36 GB/s (4.6k) | 2.33 GB/s (2.2k)
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
---------------------------------
Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed
| | |
Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 928 Mbits/sec | 809 Mbits/sec
Online.net | Paris, FR (10G) | busy | 762 Mbits/sec
Hybula | The Netherlands (40G) | 931 Mbits/sec | 858 Mbits/sec
Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 875 Mbits/sec | 349 Mbits/sec
Clouvider | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 878 Mbits/sec | 306 Mbits/sec
Clouvider | Dallas, TX, US (10G) | 850 Mbits/sec | 181 Mbits/sec
Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 830 Mbits/sec | 252 Mbits/sec
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv6):
---------------------------------
Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed
| | |
Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 916 Mbits/sec | 918 Mbits/sec
Online.net | Paris, FR (10G) | 915 Mbits/sec | 917 Mbits/sec
Hybula | The Netherlands (40G) | 919 Mbits/sec | 916 Mbits/sec
Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | 866 Mbits/sec | 542 Mbits/sec
Clouvider | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 870 Mbits/sec | 493 Mbits/sec
Clouvider | Dallas, TX, US (10G) | 838 Mbits/sec | 328 Mbits/sec
Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 810 Mbits/sec | 365 Mbits/sec
Geekbench 5 Benchmark Test:
---------------------------------
Test | Value
|
Single Core | 1721
Multi Core | 16314
Full Test | https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/16319345
Overall hardware info
I have grabbed the hardware information using the Linux command. You can check it below.
# Motherboard
root@n95ae92:~# dmidecode -t 2
# dmidecode 3.3
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.3.0 present.
Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
Product Name: TUF GAMING B450M-PRO II
Version: Rev X.0x
Serial Number: 20XXXXXXXXXXX55
Asset Tag: Default string
Features:
Board is a hosting board
Board is replaceable
Location In Chassis: Default string
Chassis Handle: 0x0003
Type: Motherboard
Contained Object Handles: 0
root@n95ae92:~# lshw -short
H/W path Device Class Description
======================================================
system System Product Name (SKU)
/0 bus TUF GAMING B450M-PRO II
/0/0 memory 64KiB BIOS
/0/2c memory 128GiB System Memory
/0/2c/0 memory 32GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 3200 MHz (0.3 ns)
/0/2c/1 memory 32GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 3200 MHz (0.3 ns)
/0/2c/2 memory 32GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 3200 MHz (0.3 ns)
/0/2c/3 memory 32GiB DIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 3200 MHz (0.3 ns)
/0/2f memory 1MiB L1 cache
/0/30 memory 8MiB L2 cache
/0/31 memory 64MiB L3 cache
/0/32 processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-Core Processor
/0/100 bridge Starship/Matisse Root Complex
/0/100/0.2 generic Starship/Matisse IOMMU
/0/100/1.1 bridge Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge
/0/100/1.1/0 storage Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
/0/100/1.3 bridge Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge
/0/100/1.3/0 bus 400 Series Chipset USB 3.1 XHCI Controller
/0/100/1.3/0/0 usb1 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/1.3/0/1 usb2 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/1.3/0.1 storage 400 Series Chipset SATA Controller
/0/100/1.3/0.2 bridge 400 Series Chipset PCIe Bridge
/0/100/1.3/0.2/0 bridge 400 Series Chipset PCIe Port
/0/100/1.3/0.2/1 bridge 400 Series Chipset PCIe Port
/0/100/1.3/0.2/1/0 eth0 network RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
/0/100/1.3/0.2/4 bridge 400 Series Chipset PCIe Port
/0/100/1.3/0.2/8 bridge 400 Series Chipset PCIe Port
/0/100/1.3/0.2/8/0 storage Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
/0/100/3.1 bridge Starship/Matisse GPP Bridge
/0/100/3.1/0 display G86 [Quadro NVS 290]
/0/100/7.1 bridge Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B]
/0/100/7.1/0 generic Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Function
/0/100/8.1 bridge Starship/Matisse Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to bus[E:B]
/0/100/8.1/0 generic Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP
/0/100/8.1/0.1 generic Starship/Matisse Cryptographic Coprocessor PSPCPP
/0/100/8.1/0.3 bus Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller
/0/100/8.1/0.3/0 usb3 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/8.1/0.3/1 usb4 bus xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/8.1/0.4 multimedia Starship/Matisse HD Audio Controller
/0/100/14 bus FCH SMBus Controller
/0/100/14.3 bridge FCH LPC Bridge
/0/101 bridge Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
/0/102 bridge Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
/0/103 bridge Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
/0/104 bridge Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
/0/105 bridge Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
/0/106 bridge Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
/0/107 bridge Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
/0/108 bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 0
/0/109 bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 1
/0/10a bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 2
/0/10b bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 3
/0/10c bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 4
/0/10d bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 5
/0/10e bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 6
/0/10f bridge Matisse Device 24: Function 7
/0/1 system PnP device PNP0c01
/0/2 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/3 system PnP device PNP0b00
/0/4 system PnP device PNP0c02
/0/5 communication PnP device PNP0501
/0/6 system PnP device PNP0c02
root@n95ae92:~#
Hard disk stats
As mentioned earlier, these were brand-new hard disks without any usage. I have attached SMART stats for these drives below.
root@n95ae92:/dev# smartctl -i /dev/nvme0n1p3
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.10.0-8-amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: Samsung SSD 980 1TB
Serial Number: SXXXXXXXXXXXXXY
Firmware Version: 2B4QFXO7
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x144d
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x002538
Total NVM Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity: 0
Controller ID: 5
NVMe Version: 1.4
Number of Namespaces: 1
Namespace 1 Size/Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Namespace 1 Utilization: 17,616,527,360 [17.6 GB]
Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size: 512
Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64: 002538
Local Time is: Mon Aug 1 16:27:41 2022 UTC
root@n95ae92:/dev# smartctl -i /dev/nvme0n1p4
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.10.0-8-amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: Samsung SSD 980 1TB
Serial Number: SXXXXXXXXXXXXXY
Firmware Version: 2B4QFXO7
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x144d
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x002538
Total NVM Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity: 0
Controller ID: 5
NVMe Version: 1.4
Number of Namespaces: 1
Namespace 1 Size/Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Namespace 1 Utilization: 17,616,527,360 [17.6 GB]
Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size: 512
Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64: 002538
Local Time is: Mon Aug 1 16:27:46 2022 UTC
root@n95ae92:/dev#
Conclusion: Should you consider it? (Yes!)
I recommend them if you are looking for dedicated servers within Poland. They use top-notch hardware and offer unmetered gigabit connections with all servers, which is a huge plus. They have recently added a lot of new hardware, which is modern hardware, not decade-old processors that many budget providers use these days. The only downside is there is no IPMI. If you can live with KVM connect, I’d suggest going with them. If you have any questions or want to know something, let us know in the comments below, and I will try to get back soon. You can also checkout our review of BuyVM, which is another premium provider.
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