Written on February 14, 2008 by John Conner
Game Server Reviews: Velocity Servers
Filed Under Server Reviews
There are so many game server providers that sometimes we feel lost in the pile. Deciding between three million hosting providers isn’t fun, especially when they throw in the technical mumbo jumbo; XEON processors, Linux based operating systems, 1000FPS servers, 500FPS servers, and that’s just the start. We’re going to sort through all of this as we get to the bottom of what really makes a reliable, high performance game server.
Over the next couple of months I will be reviewing a series of GSP’s or Game Server Providers, at first I’ll start with the big guys, then work my way through some of the less known providers. Hopefully this will shed some light on the unknown, and enable you to choose the best provider. With that being said, join me as we tackle our first GSP - Velocity Servers.
Performance
The most important weapon to any Game Server Provider is the hardware, without top-notch servers the players will suffer. With GSP’s pushing the game to 1000FPS, it is critical that the overall FPS is steady and does not fluctuate.
After a quick scrim on the server it was apparent velocity did something right. The server was smooth, and very responsive. I never heard anyone complain about the lack of registry. A quick peek at the console confirmed that the ping times were low and the server FPS was consistent. There was no argument among my fellow players that this server was great. Even though I only tested their Counter-Strike:Source server, I’m sure the same performance characteristics carry over to all of the games Velocity hosts.
Overall I found Velocity to be a true contender among top game server providers.
Customer Service
I found working with Velocity Servers to be a pleasant experience. I had the impression that they were sincere about helping me - unlike many providers in the past that seemed almost annoyed to answer any questions. Although the support staff at Velocity was very nice, they did however take roughly 1 - 2 hours to respond to my requests on IRC. If your looking for a faster response I suggest submitting your question through their online support system.
Pricing
At $69.95 for a 500FPS Premium 12 slot server, velocity is on average $20-$30 more than most other game server providers. This does not surprise me - velocity has been around for 5 years now and has built a reputation in the gaming community for providing quality servers - and quite honestly a lot of the server providers I used in the comparison are relatively new and must maintain cheap prices in order to grab new customers.
Control Panel
I was quite surprised to find that velocity uses a very generic control panel - TCAdmin. This is a very popular control panel among many providers. There’s nothing wrong with TCAdmin, in fact, it offers a very user-friendly interface; unfortunately it lacks some features that I find useful - such as a direct link to customer support, or the ability to monitor your servers CPU, and memory usage. I would like to see velocity develop a custom control panel, but needless to say their current setup will suit most of your needs.
Main Menu
Config File Editor
File Management
Summary
I would highly recommend purchasing a velocity server. The performance is great, the support staff is very helpful, and their prices are reasonable. However I personally would like to see them implement a custom control panel to add more functionality.
Make sure you stick around next week when I review NuclearFallout.
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Very well done review - though I would like to make note of a couple things.
As mentioned in your article the best way to contact support is via support ticket, though IRC response time is varied due to several of our staff idle while a couple are just sales representatives and don’t provide support typically.
Beyond that we were one of the early adopters of TCAdmin which was (and still is) the best all around control panel for Windows based GSP’s. Granted it’s pretty “vanilla” in terms of features and functionality - it provides what you need to manage the server. I’ll be adding a direct link to our billing through TCAdmin shortly due to this review (thanks for bringing attention to it).
As for CPU / Memory usage on the server I’ll see how feasible this is on adding it to our current setup - though if you think your server isn’t performing due to CPU/RAM issues that is one of the first things we check upon receiving a complaint.
Beyond that thanks again for the good review - excellent job
yaaa velocity is not good and when u “scrimmed” on their server they prolly had it on a fresh box before they overload them..
Thanks Cody. No problem.
I’ll be updating the review as I learn what helps people the most.
Feel free to post your own review of Velocity Servers, I’m sure the community would love to hear your experience, whether it’s good or bad.
I have a chicago velocity and it is probably the worst server I have ever played on. I’d give the performance a 2 and the support a 1. For that high of a price they should be way better. terrible servers
Is it the 250FPS? There support was very helpful.
Well I agree with you on some things Performance I definitely agree that it is a 10/10…Support I believe is a 10/10 because like I mentioned in my post on your NFo review the NFo agents seemed very unhappy to help and one even insulted me amongst many other things where as at velocity they seem energetic and very happy to help you so I would give them a 10/10 for that as well. Control Panel I’d probably give it a 8 or 9/10 based in a general review because I guess it might lack some features but from a personal perspective it does the job just fine for me so I would personally give it a 10/10 and as for the price I’d say 9/10 because yes it is a bit expensive but I really feel that it is worth spending due to the superior performance.
Dan,
If you provide me with your information regarding your Velocity account, I’d love to look into your issues. We pride ourselves on constantly monitoring our machines, ensuring constant excellent performance. That’s why your claims confuse me, and require further investigation.
Good review :)!
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Velocity has good servers. My team has one right now (Super premium @ half price :D) and the registration is pretty good considering the fact that our team is in NW. The server is located in San Jose, we get about 30-40ping. The price is pretty good too but there are some companies that offer a better performance for a better price for some of their available ones. I’m really happy with Velocity, but unfortunately we will not be going back with them next month because we need a server that’s located in NW to get the best ping + registration. If Velocity opened up a NW (Seattle) location, my team would definitely jump all over that. I give performance 8.5/10, probably higher if I were a lot closer to San Jose, 9/10 Support and 8/10 pricing. Overall, it would be an 8.5/10. If you’re looking for a good server and you don’t want to empty out your wallet like you’d have to with Summit, NFO and Hi-Def and will get a good ping from their servers, get Velocity.
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