How old is the hardware in a quad CPU dedicated server?

The three platforms Server Room runs span roughly 2012 to 2019. That is the reason the price is what it is. These are enterprise parts built for throughput rather than clock speed, with every erratum long since found and documented.

How much does a quad CPU dedicated server cost?

From $109.69 per month for four 8-core processors, 64 GB of registered ECC memory, two SATA 500 GB drives and a 500 Mbps unmetered uplink. Billed monthly in US dollars with no minimum term and no contract. The machine carries no setup charge; optional software adds a one-time $29.99 shown before you pay.

Do all four processors have to be identical?

Yes. Intel requires identical steppings and identical core counts across all sockets on these platforms; mixed processors will not train. This is also why no three-socket configuration exists.

Which operating systems can be installed on a quad CPU server?

Thirty-three, installed at build time: Ubuntu through 26.04, Debian 10 to 13, AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10, CentOS, and Windows Server from 2012 R2 through 2025. Proxmox VE 9 and VMware vSphere Hypervisor 7 and 8 are also on the list, so a virtualisation host arrives with the hypervisor already installed.

Is a quad CPU dedicated server managed?

Unmanaged by default — you get root access and the machine is yours to run. Hardware cover is included regardless: if a disk, DIMM or power supply fails, on-site staff replace it around the clock at no charge, and talking to support costs nothing.

Which hypervisors work well on a four-socket server?

Proxmox VE, KVM and XCP-ng charge nothing per socket or per core and handle four NUMA nodes cleanly. Hyper-V works if your Windows Server Datacenter core licensing allows it. VMware vSphere is licensed per core with a sixteen-core minimum per processor, so a four-socket machine bills at least 64 core licences regardless of its real core count.

How quickly is a quad CPU server delivered?

A machine built to your configuration is assembled, burned in and handed over within 24 hours. If a matching machine is already racked and powered on, root access arrives in minutes.

Quad CPU Dedicated Servers | Four Sockets

The solve

Cores needed 48

Snaps to core counts that exist. Four identical processors, so every total is four times a real per-socket count.

Memory needed 128GB

Registered ECC, spread across four memory controllers.

Fits in

four identical processors, 12 cores to a socket

— per month, including two 500 GB drives

Configure this build

Platform it lands on

D156 Xeon E5-4600 v1/v2DDR3 · the least expensive four sockets we run —

D157 Xeon E5-4600 v3/v4DDR4 · widest processor choice · all five sites —

D158 Xeon Gold ScalableDDR4 · densest sockets · room for many disks —

Every configuration is four identical processors — Intel will not train mixed steppings across sockets, which is also why nobody sells a three-socket machine. Worth knowing before you plan an upgrade: you replace all four or none.

The part that changes the answer

0core licences

Proxmox VE, KVM and XCP-ng cost nothing per socket or per core. The whole machine is yours — which is exactly why four-socket hardware became worth a second look once VMware renewals started arriving. Proxmox VE 9 is one of the operating systems we install for you at build time.

No per-core licence

Same capacity, three ways to buy it

One big machine, or several small ones

One quad-socket1 × chassis · 4 sockets

—

Dual-socket pair2 × chassis · 2 sockets each

—

Single-socket fleet4 × chassis · 1 socket each

—

Estimated from our own published per-part prices at the same total core and memory count. Note how close these are — raw price is not the argument for four sockets. The argument is that four separate machines cannot pool their memory into one address space, cannot be licensed as one host, and give you four operating systems to patch instead of one. They do give you four failure domains, which a single chassis does not.

What you get

The parts nobody itemises

Most of what makes a server pleasant to own has nothing to do with the processors in it. None of the following is an upgrade or a tier.

Bandwidth

Unmetered, always included
Egress charges none
Overage bills none
Faster uplinks available

Terms

Minimum term none
Setup on the machine none
Optional software setup $29.99 once
Longer term discounted

Control

Root / Administrator included
Out-of-band console included
Reimage, any time included
Linux or Windows your choice

When it breaks

24×7 hardware cover included
Someone on site 24/7
Failed parts replaced no charge
Talking to a human free

The machine is yours alone. No hypervisor underneath it, no neighbours competing for the memory bus, no per-IOP accounting and no metered egress. That is the difference people are usually surprised by — not the processors, but the absence of a meter.

Straight answer

Who this is actually for

Nobody buys a four-socket machine from this era for speed. They buy it because it does the work at a price current hardware cannot match — and because it is here rather than four to eight weeks away.

Buy this if you are

Someone whose renewal quote just doubledA VMware renewal, a cloud bill that grew quietly, an OEM refresh. You do not need more capacity than you had — you need the same capacity to stop costing what it now costs.
Someone who needs it this weekNew-server lead times ran four to eight weeks through 2026 and memory prices rose steeply. A machine that already exists sidesteps both problems at once.
Someone consolidating a lot of small thingsProxmox, KVM and XCP-ng charge nothing per socket, so putting many workloads on one machine you fully control costs less than spreading them over several with four sets of everything.
Someone whose work counts threads, not gigahertzBuild farms, CI runners, batch jobs, rendering, transcoding, virtualisation. If the job splits into parallel pieces, this is the least expensive place to run them.

Look elsewhere if you are

Chasing single-thread speedThese are enterprise parts built for throughput and they run at the clocks that implies. A game server or a latency-bound web tier will be happier — and cheaper — on a high-clock single-socket machine. We sell those too.
After the newest instruction setsIf your software needs what only current silicon offers, this is the wrong page — start at Xeon Scalable or AMD EPYC instead. Being honest about it costs us a sale and saves you a migration.
Licensing Oracle DatabaseStandard Edition 2 is capped at two occupied sockets, so it will not license on four-socket hardware at all, and Enterprise Edition counted per core gets expensive quickly.
Staying on VMwarevSphere bills per core with a sixteen-core floor on every processor. Bring Proxmox or Hyper-V, or take a dual-socket machine — there is a VMware page with the full picture.

How you get one

From this page to root access

No quote, no sales call unless you want one, no procurement dance.

Configure it

Pick processors, memory, disks, RAID and operating system in the configurator — the running total updates as you go. Or tell us what it has to run and we will spec it for you.

We build and burn it in

Assembled and memory-tested before you get the login, within twenty-four hours. If a matching machine is already on the floor, minutes.

You get the keys

Root or Administrator, plus an out-of-band console so you can reach the machine when the operating system will not boot. Reimage whenever you like.

Billed monthly

In US dollars. No minimum term and no contract — you leave at the end of a month, not the end of an agreement. Optional software adds a one-time $29.99, itemised before you pay.

2004Server Room has been running infrastructure since then.

SLANetwork uptime, backed in writing on every machine including these.

5Data centres across the US and Europe.

24/7Staffed on site, and support costs nothing to talk to.

Before you order

Four-socket servers, answered

Is a quad CPU server the same as a quad-core server?

No, and the distinction is worth being precise about, because the two terms get used interchangeably. A quad-core server has one processor with four cores. A quad CPU server — this page — has four separate processor packages in four physical sockets, each with its own memory controllers and its own bank of DIMM slots. The smallest quad CPU machine we run has 32 cores.

How old is this hardware, honestly?

The three platforms span roughly 2012 to 2019. We are not going to dress that up — it is the reason the price is what it is. What has not changed in that time is what these machines are good at: running a lot of things at once, reliably, with every erratum long since found and documented. If your workload needs current silicon, say so and we will point you at a different line.

How much memory can I have?

Tell us what the workload needs and we will quote it. We would rather do that than print a maximum, because the honest answer depends on the platform and on what is in the parts bins that week — and a number on a page is worth nothing if the DIMMs are not there. Every configuration is registered ECC memory, spread across four memory controllers.

Do all four processors have to match?

Yes. Intel requires identical steppings and identical core counts across sockets on these platforms — mixed processors will not train. Every configuration here is four of the same part, which is also why you cannot buy a three-socket machine.

Which operating systems can I have?

Thirty-three, installed for you at build time. Ubuntu through 26.04, Debian 10 to 13, AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10, CentOS, and Windows Server from 2012 R2 through 2025 in Standard, Essentials and Datacenter. Proxmox VE 9 and VMware vSphere Hypervisor 7 and 8 are on the same list — if you are building a virtualisation host, it arrives with the hypervisor already on it. Or take the machine bare and install your own.

Is it managed, or am I on my own?

Unmanaged by default — you get root and the machine is yours to run. What is included regardless is the hardware: if a disk, a DIMM or a power supply fails, somebody on site replaces it around the clock at no charge, and talking to us about it costs nothing. If you want us inside the operating system as well, say so and we will work out what that looks like.

What if nothing on the floor fits?

Then we build it. The list above is only whatever happens to be powered on at the moment you loaded the page — it turns over through the day and it is not the offer. A machine built to your configuration is assembled, burned in and handed over within twenty-four hours. Anything already racked is faster still: you get root in minutes.

Can I add memory or disks later?

Yes — memory and drives can be added to a running machine on a scheduled maintenance window, and the monthly figure changes to match. Processors are the exception: all four sockets must carry identical parts, so a processor change means replacing all four rather than adding to what is there.

How do I cancel?

You stop the service from the control panel and it ends at the close of the billing month. There is no notice period, no cancellation fee and nothing to negotiate — that is what no minimum term means in practice. It is also why we would rather tell you now if four sockets is the wrong answer for your workload.

Why not just take a newer dual-socket machine?

Sometimes you should, and we will tell you so. A newer two-socket machine wins on clock speed, on power draw and on instruction sets. Four sockets wins when you want a lot of things running at once on hardware nobody else is touching, for a monthly figure a current-generation machine will not reach. It is a trade, not an upgrade — and which side of it you want depends entirely on the workload. Start at enterprise dual-CPU servers if that sounds closer.

Four sockets is a calculation, not a preference.