Hosting spec sheets pile up acronyms. Some describe something measurable, others mean almost nothing. Here's how to read them.
vCores: the most misunderstood number
A vCore is a virtual execution thread assigned to your machine. Two common mistakes:
A vCore is not a physical core. Server processors expose two threads per core. "4 vCores" therefore often means two shared physical cores.
Count matters less than clock speed. Single-threaded software — Minecraft Java, a FiveM server, most PHP scripts — uses only one thread at a time. Giving it eight vCores at 2.2 GHz makes it slower than two vCores at 4 GHz.
NVMe, SSD, SATA: three different things
| Type | Typical throughput | Operations per second |
|---|---|---|
| Hard drive | 150 MB/s | ~100 |
| SATA SSD | 550 MB/s | ~80,000 |
| NVMe SSD | 3,500 MB/s and up | ~500,000 |
The gap that matters isn't throughput but operations per second. A database, a map load or a site with many small files spend their time doing short, scattered accesses — exactly what NVMe handles best.
Watch the vocabulary: "SSD" alone covers both SATA and NVMe. If the sheet doesn't say, assume SATA.
DDR4 ECC: a real guarantee
ECC stands for Error-Correcting Code: the memory detects and corrects bit errors on its own — errors that occur naturally on a machine running permanently.
Without ECC, an error goes unnoticed until it corrupts a database write or crashes a process for no apparent reason. It's rare, but on a server running for months on end, "rare" eventually happens.
A DDR4 ECC mention tells you the host uses server hardware, not recycled desktop parts.
"Unlimited": what it means
Nothing is unlimited. The word means "not metered", not "infinite".
- Unlimited bandwidth — you're not billed by volume. The link's throughput is still bounded.
- Unlimited domains — no quota on the number of domains, but they share the same disk space.
- Unlimited databases — no counter, but the machine's memory is still what it is.
Network: read the units
A "1 Gb/s" link means gigabits per second, about 125 megabytes per second. The factor of eight often surprises people.
For a game server, throughput matters far less than latency and stability: a few hundred kilobits per player is enough, but every packet has to arrive on time.
What a good spec sheet should let you do
An honest sheet lets you answer five questions without opening a ticket:
- Which processor model, at what clock speed?
- Is the storage NVMe, and how much?
- Is the memory ECC?
- Are resources guaranteed or shared?
- Where is the machine physically located?
If one of those answers is missing, it isn't necessarily a bad host — but it's a question to ask before ordering.
Our VPS plans state the exact processor model, clock speed and storage type on every tier.