GriffinRUN Deal

[rizzuh]

The comments system was not designed for companies to duke it out. Of course you can use it to do so, but it's obviously not respectful of a company that supports the site you are posting on. Whether or not you think this is professional is your opinion, but I believe the most professional option would have been to stay away from the topic entirely as you clearly have a motivating interest in doing otherwise.



There's no reason to lock the topics. Many people have valid opinions on the subject and can even relay their experiences with this or other companies. However, you and Paladin posted as companies, not as people. I was merely giving advice. You can ignore it if you'd like.

[kyleb]

at least they did not pretend to be people relaying their experiences with other companies. personaly, were i interested such a service, i would be glad they took the time to present the busnesses as options in public forum such as this. heck, i am glad they did anyway simply becasue i hate to see people making uninformed purchases as it tends to drive up prices. more compitition means beter products, cheaper prices and more options, i doubt any of the readership here would want to see it otherwise.

[Serious Sam]

What I don't like is that companies don't offer dedicated servers.



Imagine having true 4+ ghz of computer power to yourself :drool =D



But then again that isn't a profitable buisiness model either ;D

[rizzuh]

kyleb wrote..

i doubt any of the readership here would want to see it otherwise.

Our readership probably wants the site to exist. Certain companies make this possible.

[Drakmare]

I dont know why server companies brag about what hardware they use and how fat their pipe is. All that means is the more servers they can run off 1 box without lag. Its not like they give you your very own Dual Xeon box with 100MB pipe, although for the price they charge they should give you that much.

[kyleb]

exactly Drakmare; and i am sure the readership wants the site to exist but i doubt anyone wants to get riped off to do it. besides more compitition means more advertising aswell.

[-:Nighthawk:-]

kyleb wrote..

what makes running a server with 5 games on a 2.8ghz machine any beter than running a server with 4 games on a 2.2ghz machine? answer: nothing.

Unfortunately you've oversimplified things a bit. If all games took exactly X number of MHz 24/7 with no varience, and same with disk access rates and amounts of RAM, then this would be true.



However, games can vary greatly in how much power they need from moment to moment. For instance, map changes often require much more CPU load, disk access, and bandwidth than you need while in the middle of a game.



Imagine for a moment you've got your 4 games on a 2.2GHz box, each needing 300MHz average by default, and 5 games on a 2.8GHz box, taking the same average cycles. You might do the math and conclude that, during normal play, only 1.2GHz of power is being used on the 2.2GHz box, and 1.5GHz on the 2.8GHz box. Either way, they both are getting all the power they need, and you're just wasting the extra cpu cycles, right?



But then one game hits a map change. In most games, a map change is done as quickly as the server can load and process the new information. So let's break down the two situations.

» With your 2.2GHz server, each of the other 3 games still needs its 300MHz, or 900MHz total, leaving 2.2GHz-900MHz=1.3GHz of processing power to achieving the fastest mapchange possible.



» With your 2.8GHz server, each of the other 4 games still needs its 300MHz, or 1.2GHz total, leaving 2.8GHz-1.2GHz=1.6GHz of processing power to achieving the fastest mapchange possible.

The difference between 1.3GHz and 1.6GHz of processing power may not be huge, but it does make a difference, and we're talking about which is the absolute best, not which is almost the best for less money. The ideas behind processing power excess margins also apply to extra bandwidth (that you don't usually need, but it makes it the fastest possible in all situations, not just most), and hard drive access/transfer rates.



If you look at what they claim:

Remember, if you want best-of-breed in low ping game servers then you'll find it at GriffinRUN.com.

You'll see that they don't claim it's the lowest priced solution, or even that most people need it. They simply say no one else provides better, faster servers. And it's true, nobody beats their service. If you want to be sure you have the best, they've got it, if a little less is fine, then shop around.



I'm probably biased toward GriffinRUN simply because they're willing to support this site, unlike some other providers. Regardless, it really irks me to see other businesses make personal attacks on them instead of doing their own legitimate advertising. A good reputation is important, and GriffinRUN has maintained one. I certainly hope the other businesses will notice this example and make sure their maturity level in conduct reflects the quality of their services.

Ewok from RUNArena, a popular 32-player that GriffinRUN hosts, asked me to mirror as_hunted, a CS conversion of the popular TFC map.

I do have one criticism here. While the conversion is certainly well done (minus a weird error at CT spawn), there's a few too many advertisements splurged all over everything in the map. I could understand having a couple, I suppose, but seeing the tops of crates and buildings and you name it, along some walls, etc... it is just over the top in my opinion, and repells me from playing it. I don't mind seeing some advertisements while I browse the web, but I don't want them ripping the "suspension of disbelief" out of my gameplay.

[Re-call]

Top of the line indeed, but unfornatly, people that dont need all that power might buy those servers thinking that they DO. (no offence to them, they are top-notch quality, but not everyone wants to pay for premium, call them cheap but its not always worth it.) Btw, on the rackshack comment, i know about 4 people that use the 100$/month server and they run irc/webserver/16 player cs server fine, so they're a good choice. :)

[Serious Sam]

So how long did that reply take to write ;P



Best points



"Regardless, it really irks me to see other businesses make personal attacks on them instead of doing their own legitimate advertising."



And



"You'll see that they don't claim it's the lowest priced solution, or even that most people need it. They simply say no one else provides better, faster servers. And it's true, nobody beats their service. If you want to be sure you have the best, they've got it, if a little less is fine, then shop around."



Well written rant.

Added @ [time="1039676716"]

csn down again? :\