Choosing CPU and RAM for a dedicated server
CPU model, core count, memory capacity and your application design all matter. A workload that runs one busy thread has different needs from parallel build jobs or many independent virtual machines. Size from measurements rather than the largest number in a specification.
Collect useful sizing information
- Record typical and peak CPU use, busy periods, memory use and swap activity over a representative business cycle.
- Identify whether the application is limited by single-thread performance, parallel processing, storage latency or another dependency.
- Include memory for the operating system, caches, databases and planned growth. Check licence rules that depend on cores or sockets.
- Confirm the exact processor model and installed memory in the written quote, especially where a listing offers alternative components.
Send resource graphs and a description of your software with your request. Synthetic benchmark results can help compare machines, but a representative application test is a better acceptance check. Avoid reducing memory simply because average CPU utilisation is low.
