During the 2025 Black Friday season, RackNerd launched a highly attractive VPS promotion, especially with its free double bandwidth upgrade policy, making the plans even more cost-effective. In this review, we tested the second promotional VPS package deployed in the Dallas, Texas datacenter to comprehensively evaluate its system performance and network connectivity quality for users in Mainland China.
RackNerd Official Website: RackNerd – Introducing Infrastructure Stability
Other Review Articles:
- RackNerd 2025 Black Friday Seattle VPS Review: 6TB Monthly Traffic @ 1Gbps for $18.66/Year — Latency, Routing & Performance Test
- RackNerd 2025 Black Friday Toronto VPS Review: 6TB Monthly Traffic @ 1Gbps for $18.66/Year — Latency, Performance & Streaming Unlock Analysis
- RackNerd 2025 Black Friday Strasbourg France VPS Review: 4TB Monthly Traffic @ 1Gbps for $16.59/Year — Performance, China Routing & Streaming Unlock Analysis
- RackNerd $10.6/Year Black Friday VPS Review (Los Angeles DC-03): 4TB Monthly Traffic @ 1Gbps — Routing, Performance & Streaming Unlock Test
- RackNerd Black Friday 2025 Los Angeles DC02 VPS Review: 6TB Monthly Traffic @ 1Gbps for $18.66/Year — Return Routing, Latency, Bandwidth & I/O Analysis
- RackNerd Black Friday $10.6/Year VPS Deep Review: Ordered in San Jose, Deployed in Santa Clara! Full Routing & Streaming Unlock Test
Latest RackNerd 2025 Black Friday VPS Deals (Free Double Traffic Upgrade)
All plans below come with 1Gbps bandwidth, one IPv4 address, KVM virtualization, and do not require any coupon code. The second package is the one reviewed in this article. Traffic shown below already reflects the doubled bandwidth upgrade.
| CPU | RAM | Storage | Traffic | Price | Order Link |
| 1 Core | 1GB | 25GB SSD | 4TB | $10.6/year | Buy Now |
| 2 Cores | 2.5GB | 45GB SSD | 6TB | $18.66/year | Buy Now |
| 3 Cores | 4GB | 65GB SSD | 13TB | $29.98/year | Buy Now |
| 5 Cores | 6GB | 100GB SSD | 20TB | $44.98/year | Buy Now |
| 6 Cores | 8GB | 150GB SSD | 40TB | $62.49/year | Buy Now |
If you want to claim the free double traffic upgrade after purchasing, simply leave your order number in the official LET forum thread. Alternatively, you can leave your order number in the related YouTube or Bilibili video comments section from 国外VPS测评 for assistance.
1. Hardware Specifications & System Performance
The VPS reviewed here is the second Black Friday package with the traffic successfully doubled after application. Key specifications are as follows:
| Specification | Details |
| CPU | 2 vCPU @ Intel E5-2690 v4 (2.60GHz) |
| RAM | 2.4 GiB |
| Disk | 46.0 GiB SSD |
| Virtualization | KVM |
| IPv4/IPv6 | 1 IPv4 / IPv6 ❌ (Offline) |
| Location | Dallas, Texas, USA |
| ISP/ASN | HostPapa / AS36352 (ColoCrossing) |
| IP Type | Native IP |
1. Disk I/O Performance
The VPS delivers strong SSD I/O performance, especially for large block read/write operations:
- 4K mixed read/write: 127.97 MB/s (31.9k IOPS)
- 64K mixed read/write: 1.92 GB/s (30.0k IOPS)
- 1M mixed read/write: 2.73 GB/s (2.6k IOPS)
2. CPU Benchmark Performance
The Intel Xeon E5-2690 v4 CPU offers solid mid-to-high-end performance:
- Geekbench 5 Single-Core: 745
- Geekbench 5 Multi-Core: 1555
- SysBench CPU (2 threads): 2007 Scores
3. Memory & Network Performance
- SysBench memory benchmark: Read 20670 MB/s / Write 16380 MB/s, excellent performance.
- TCP congestion control: BBR enabled for improved network optimization.
- Streaming unlock capability: Native US IP successfully unlocks TikTok, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, and ChatGPT US region content (Disney+ blocked).
2. Network Latency & Connectivity Analysis
1. Mainland China Ping Latency
Latency tests across Mainland China show that the Dallas datacenter maintains acceptable latency levels, although naturally higher than West Coast US nodes due to geographic distance.
| Region / ISP | Lowest (ms) | Highest (ms) | Average (ms) |
| All Nodes | Hong Kong 174 | Lhasa Mobile 324 | 236 |
| China Telecom | 179 | 280 | 219 |
| China Unicom | 198 | 317 | 247 |
| China Mobile | 200 | 324 | 242 |
- Latency summary: China Telecom performs best overall with an average latency of 219ms, while China Mobile and China Unicom are slightly higher. Overall latency exceeding 200ms is expected for a Dallas-based node.
2. Overseas Latency Performance
As a central US node, the server delivers excellent connectivity to North America, with good latency performance toward Europe and South America.
- North America: Average 39ms (Los Angeles as low as 31ms, Seattle 53ms)
- Europe: Average 111ms (London 105ms, Frankfurt 118ms)
- Asia: Average 183ms (Turkey 150ms)
3. Mainland China Outbound Routing Analysis (Traceroute)
| Carrier | Main Route Analysis |
| China Telecom (ChinaNet) | Traffic exits via Chengdu and Guangzhou, reaches San Jose, California, then traverses Cogent backbone through Denver before arriving in Dallas. Medium-quality routing with indirect West Coast detour. |
| China Unicom (ChinaUnicom) | Traffic exits through Los Angeles via AS4837, then switches to Cogent backbone through Phoenix and El Paso before reaching Dallas. Medium-quality routing. |
| China Mobile (CMI) | Traffic exits through Guangzhou directly to San Jose via AS58453, then uses Cogent backbone through Denver before reaching Dallas. |
Summary: All three major Chinese ISPs route traffic through the US West Coast before forwarding internally across the United States toward Dallas, which explains the relatively higher latency.
4. Mainland China Return Routing Analysis
Return routing determines the actual user experience when data travels back from the VPS to Mainland China.
| Carrier | Main Return Route | Route Type | Evaluation |
| China Telecom | Dallas → Arelion (AS1299) → Los Angeles → China Telecom 163 Backbone → Mainland China | 163 Backbone | Reasonably clean route, though Arelion international quality impacts overall performance. |
| China Unicom | Dallas → Cogent/Arelion → Europe (Germany/Netherlands) → AS4837 → Mainland China | International Roaming | Significant Europe detour increases latency considerably for northern China users. |
| China Mobile | Dallas → Arelion/Cogent → Los Angeles/Seattle → CMI Backbone → Mainland China | CMI Backbone | Relatively stable overall, though still routed through the US West Coast. |
- China Telecom return routing mainly uses the 163 backbone with average performance.
- China Unicom experiences obvious Europe detours causing high latency.
- China Mobile relies on the CMI backbone but still traverses third-party international carriers before reaching China.
5. Mainland China Speed Test (TCP Large Packet)
Bandwidth tests demonstrate real-world transfer performance. Since this is a Dallas node, overall performance is moderate.
| Node | Upload (Mbps) | Latency (ms) | Download (Mbps) | Latency (ms) |
| Suzhou Telecom | 596 | 256 | 352 | 283 |
| Shanghai Unicom | 540 | 423 | 458 | 437 |
| Suzhou Mobile | 100 | 532 | 0 | 659 |
Summary: China Telecom and China Unicom achieve strong upload/download speeds exceeding 350Mbps. China Mobile performs very poorly with unstable connectivity and failed download testing.
3. Final Verdict & Buying Recommendation
Rating (Out of 5 Stars)
- Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Mainland China Connectivity: ⭐⭐⭐
Overall Conclusion
The RackNerd 2025 Black Friday Dallas VPS delivers excellent hardware performance. CPU capability, SSD speeds, and memory bandwidth are all impressive considering the extremely low annual price of $18.66. Combined with the upgraded 6TB traffic allowance, the overall value proposition is outstanding.
However, for Mainland China users, the Dallas location introduces several networking limitations:
- Higher overall latency: Average ping exceeds 200ms, making it less suitable for latency-sensitive applications such as gaming.
- Poor China Mobile connectivity: China Mobile users may experience very unstable performance and are generally not recommended to use this node.
- China Telecom & China Unicom: China Unicom suffers from occasional Europe detours, while China Telecom relies mainly on the 163 backbone with relatively stable but still high-latency routing.
Recommended For
- Users needing large traffic quotas on a tight budget.
- Overseas website hosting targeting non-China audiences.
- Backup storage, file transfer, or relay acceleration purposes.
- China Telecom and China Unicom users who are less sensitive to latency.
Not Recommended For
- China Mobile users.
- Latency-sensitive applications such as gaming acceleration.
- Websites primarily targeting Mainland China visitors.
If you can tolerate moderate latency while prioritizing strong hardware performance and extremely generous traffic allocation, this VPS remains one of the best-value Black Friday VPS deals available.
