What’s Inside a CreeperHost Server? (And Why It Matters)

Hi, Paul here, CEO of CreeperHost. People often ask us: “What hardware do you actually run on?” or “Do you oversell like everyone else?” So let’s talk openly about it. No vague “enterprise grade hardware” nonsense, just the real details.

Generation 7 Hardware (Our Latest Builds)

We’ve been rolling out Generation 7 of CreeperHost hardware for the last four months and we’re now about 75% complete. That’s why we kept quiet until now. When there was little chance of landing on one, it didn’t feel right to hype them up. But with most customers already running on Gen7, it’s finally time to talk about them.

These builds are centred on CPUs chosen for what actually matters to hosting. Cores, clocks, and cache.

• AMD EPYC CPUs
   • 16 cores
   • up to 5.7 GHz boost
   • 16 MB L2 + 128 MB L3 cache
• AMD Ryzen CPUs
   • 8 cores
   • up to 5.25 GHz boost
   • 8 MB L2 + 96 MB L3 cache
• Intel Ultra CPUs
   • 20 cores
   • Up to 5.5 GHz boost
   • 36 MB L2 + 30 MB L3 cache

Every Gen7 server is liquid cooled and built entirely on NVMe storage. No spinning rust here.

Cache note: L2 cache is nearly 10x faster than L3 in latency. That matters more than people think. In shared hosting (like multiple Minecraft servers on one node), a big fast L2 cache stops cache thrashing, which means smooth gameplay instead of lag spikes.

In the UK we go even further. We hand build the servers ourselves using CUDIMM memory and Crucial T705 NVMe SSDs (the fastest available when we locked the spec). Yes, I still personally wrench on servers. It’s not just a CEO title on paper.

The Hardware Generations

We’ve been through a lot of hardware since 2011 and we don’t just rip and replace everything overnight. Servers are expensive and supply chains aren’t smooth right now. So while Gen7 is nearly everywhere already, you may still find some Gen6 boxes in the mix. Gen5 only remains in New York and Seattle.

We also keep oddball test gear in service. That’s us experimenting with new CPUs and configs to see if they deliver real-world gains worth rolling out. Sometimes they graduate into the next generation, sometimes they don’t. It means we’re always moving forward.

Here’s the timeline so far:

• Gen1 (2011) – Xeon L5420, 24 GB RDIMM, 2× 300 GB WD Velociraptor (10k RPM drives!)
• Gen2 (2013) – Dual Xeon L5520, 32 GB RDIMM, hybrid magnetic + SSD block-level caching
• Gen3 (2015) – Xeon E3-1230v2 / i7-4771, 32 GB, Crucial MX500 SSD RAID10 setups
• Gen4 (2018) – Xeon E5-1620v2, 64 GB RDIMM, SATA SSD RAID1
• Gen5 (2021) – Xeon E-21xxG series, Ryzen 9 3950X, Core i9-10980XE. 128 GB RAM with NVMe RAID1. Now retired everywhere except New York & Seattle.
• Gen6 (2023) – Ryzen 7 7900, DDR5 builds
• Gen7 (2025) – EPYC, Ryzen, and Intel Ultra CPUs. Liquid cooled, NVMe only, cache tuned for modern hosting workloads

Do We Oversell?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: so does everyone else.
If a host tells you otherwise, they’re not being straight with you. It’s how game hosting costs less than a full dedicated box divided up.

Where we’re different:

• We keep real utilisation under 60%
• We run a Network Operations Centre with 8× 32" screens with dashboards showing CPU, RAM, swap, disk I/O, network activity and more across every machine
• Our staff are watching those dashboards at least 18 hours a day, catching weird usage patterns that automated systems miss

That’s why you don’t see CreeperHost servers crawling when someone spins up a TNT nightmare factory next door.

Do We Own Our Hardware (and Our Data Centre)?

Yes. Especially in the UK, where we don’t just own the servers… we run the whole data centre.

We rent the building itself, but everything inside it is ours:

• Raised floors
• CRAC units
• Backup generators
• UPS systems
• Custom-built cabinets
• Even our own cold aisle containment

I personally spec’d most of it and was there when it went up. From pulling cables to bolting cabs together. I even spent a week on the roof two years ago recoating the silicon covering myself. When we say we know our infrastructure inside out, we mean it literally.

With some of our key partners, I’ve been on a first name basis with their CEOs for years, decades even. These aren’t faceless vendor relationships. They’re personal partnerships that help us get hardware built to our spec, delivered, and supported properly.

Outside the UK we still own a lot of hardware. Where we lease, it’s only from partners who build to our exact spec. We don’t just grab whatever cheap prebuilt is lying around.

Our Network

It’s not just the servers. We’ve been upgrading the CreeperHost network too.

In the UK we’ve upgraded our presence in Telehouse North (THN), one of the most important internet hubs in Europe. We now operate our own cabinet with redundant switching and big pipes, giving us both capacity and resilience where it matters most.

• This is where we connect directly with our transit providers
• We now have over 300 Gbps of connectivity in THN, which we then backhaul to our UK datacentre

Outside the UK our latest Gen7 nodes come with dual 25 Gbps uplinks (LACP’d/Bonded), giving us serious headroom for international performance. Put simply: no matter where you host with us, your server isn’t going to choke because of the network.

And because we can’t resist a little extra brag, we’ve also started deploying our own local GPON fibre network. It’s small scale for now, but it shows how complete our team is. We’ve got Minecraft mod developers, trained hardware engineers, and even trained fibre engineers with our own fusion splicers. That means when something breaks, we don’t sit around waiting for a third-party contractor. We just fix it ourselves.

Where Are Our Servers?

We don’t hide behind “North America / Europe” labels. Our order form shows you the exact datacentre city plus live latency tests (via WebRTC), so you can see your ping before you buy.

Support, The CreeperHost Way

• 24/7/365 coverage (including Christmas and New Year’s Day, I’ve personally answered tickets while cooking a full Christmas dinner!)
• Discord support ~19 hours a day for private real time chat
• 1/3 of our team lives within 15 minutes of the UK servers, so when something physical needs doing, it gets done fast

We’ve been running since 2011 with mostly the same small indie crew. We’re not a faceless corporation.

Why We’re Different

• Indie, independent, community driven. Mostly the same team for over a decade
• Features because they’re useful, not because they squeeze profit
• Loyalty and referral rewards that actually give back
• We always send you your saves/worlds, even if you stop paying or chargeback. Your time is worth more than a billing dispute

TL;DR

We’ve been rolling out Gen7 hardware for months (now ~75% complete). EPYC, Ryzen, and Intel Ultra CPUs, all liquid cooled and NVMe powered. We keep utilisation sane, build and test our own kit, and even run our own UK datacentre. Down to the CRACs, cold aisle containment, and the silicon roof I recoated myself.

CreeperHost isn’t just “a host.” It’s our project, our community, our home. And we treat it that way.

- Paul (CEO, Founder, CreeperHost)