{"rid":"compute/cstserver","card":{"rid":"compute/cstserver","eid":"cstserver","topic":"compute","slug":"cstserver","provider":"CSTServer","url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements","domain":"cstserver.com","category":"cloud VM","tier":null,"verdict":"paid-only","vorder":3,"grp":"paid","confidence":"documented","binding":"per-ip-shaping","identity_kind":"email","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":null,"egress_metered":1,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-22","stale_on":"2026-11-21","n_evidence":3,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"A sale posted 2026-08-20 lists E5 bare metal at USD 17.9 a month for an E5-2620 with 16 GB, in four locations at the same price with different ports: Frankfu...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":8},"record":{"topic":"compute","slug":"cstserver","provider":"CSTServer","url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements","category":"cloud VM","free_tier":{"stated":"A sale posted 2026-08-20 lists E5 bare metal at USD 17.9 a month for an E5-2620 with 16 GB, in four locations at the same price with different ports: Frankfurt 80 Mbps, Japan 50 Mbps, Los Angeles 30 Mbps, Hong Kong 30 Mbps. The ladder runs to a Dual E5-2680 at 40 cores with 32 GB for USD 89.9. A 60 percent code applies and a three-year prepay brings the entry machine to USD 9.8 a month.","unit":"GiB","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements","read_on":"2026-10-22","notes":"kind not stated"},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements","notes":null},"retention":{"stated":"not applicable","days":null,"source_url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements","notes":null},"egress":{"terms":"New record: nothing in dossier/compute covers this seller or the Chinese-market dedicated tier, where bandwidth is priced per Mbps of China route rather than per terabyte.","metered":true,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements"},"interface":["unknown"],"interface_detail":"inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed","tooling":"not stated","chaining":"This is the only lane found that sells a China-optimised route on a whole machine for under USD 20, and the route is what makes a Hong Kong box usable from the mainland side of a crawl; the port cap makes the same machine a poor choice for bulk transfer.","limits":[{"kind":"per-ip-shaping","value":"Bandwidth is sold as a port, not a volume: 30 Mbps in Hong Kong or Los Angeles is about 9.7 TB a month at line rate, and that is the first thing a serving workload exhausts.","source":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements"}],"limits_note":"Bandwidth is sold as a port, not a volume: 30 Mbps in Hong Kong or Los Angeles is about 9.7 TB a month at line rate, and that is the first thing a serving workload exhausts.","binding":"per-ip-shaping","binding_note":"Bandwidth is sold as a port, not a volume: 30 Mbps in Hong Kong or Los Angeles is about 9.7 TB a month at line rate, and that is the first thing a serving workload exhausts.","identity_cost":{"kind":"email","detail":null,"country":null},"reliability_note":"no reliability event recorded","confidence":"documented","evidence":[{"url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"announcement index states 'Bare Metal! 60% OFF discount code CSTOU4 Premium Network Bare Metal Monthly plans from $17.9, Flash Sale: 3-year plan only $9.8/month' with Hong Kong, Japan, Los Angeles and Frankfurt test IPs, dated 20th August 2026"},{"url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements/46/","date":"2026-08-20","proved":"table row 'E5-2620 (12C) | 16G | $17.9//month' with purchase links labelled 'Buy DE-120G SSD-80M', 'Buy LA-120G SSD-30M', 'Buy JP-120G SSD-50M', 'Buy HK-120G SSD-30M', 'Buy HK-1T SAS-30M'"},{"url":"https://cstserver.com/index.php?rp=/announcements/46/","date":"2026-08-20","proved":"the same table lists 'Dual E5-2680 (40C) | 32G | $89.9//month' and 'Dual E5-2650 (32C) | 32G | $79.9//month'"}],"verdict":"paid-only","verified_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"New record: nothing in dossier/compute covers this seller or the Chinese-market dedicated tier, where bandwidth is priced per Mbps of China route rather than per terabyte. Two label traps are worth carrying forward. The vendor writes '12C' for an E5-2620, which is the thread count of a 6-core, 12-thread part, so a core count taken from this table is double the real one; that reading is inferred from the model number and not measured. And the same USD 17.9 buys 80 Mbps in Frankfurt against 30 Mbps in Hong Kong, so the location column is part of the price. The sale prices are dated 2026-08-20 and the codes may have expired by the read date. Real-name requirements were not tested: no signup was started.","extras":{"wave2":{"class":"floor-price","free_tier_kind":null,"shape":{"cpu":"Intel Xeon E5-2620","vcpu":null,"threads":null,"ram_gib":16,"disk":"120 GB SSD","bandwidth_mbit":80,"traffic":null,"price_usd_month":17.9,"price_usd_month_3y_prepay":9.8,"setup_fee_usd":null,"gpu_class":null,"gpu_count":0}}}},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":16,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:per-ip-shaping","num":9.7,"unit":"TB","per":"month","currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[["$.identity_cost.detail","process"],["$.interface","interface-unknown"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.reliability_note","none-observed"],["$.retention.notes","process"],["$.retention.stated","not-applicable"],["$.tooling","not-stated"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}