How PSX Extreme Improved Site Speed Scalability and Server Load by Moving a Two Decade Old Gaming Media Library to Infinite Uploads

by Blake Whittle | Dec 4, 2025 | Case Studies

PSX Extreme has been online since 1999 and is one of the oldest PlayStation focused news and review sites on the internet. Owned and operated by Tyler Harvey the publication has produced daily content for more than two decades and built an enormous archive of screenshots review images press assets and video content. This long history created a large and growing media library that made performance optimization increasingly difficult.

PSX Extreme launched in 1999 and remains one of the web’s longest running publications for PlayStation news reviews and commentary. The site has published content daily across more than two decades and accumulated a massive archive of images screenshots video thumbnails and press assets. Tyler Harvey the owner and editor in chief manages the evolving needs of the site as it continues to grow.

Challenges Caused by a Large Self Hosted Media Library

For many years PSX Extreme stored every image and video locally on the same server that powered WordPress. This created several operational issues as the library expanded. Images often appeared in Google Images which produced heavy bursts of traffic directly to the server. These requests consumed bandwidth and CPU resources that should have been dedicated to the website itself. The result was unnecessary strain on hosting resources and a constant need to monitor the impact of media traffic on site stability.

These issues are common for sites with long publishing histories where years of accumulated files begin to affect resource consumption.

How PSX Extreme Found and Chose Infinite Uploads

While researching new media delivery options for WordPress, Tyler found Infinite Uploads. Other CDNs had been tested but were either too limited or too expensive for the value provided. Infinite Uploads offered a straightforward way to offload a very large media library and serve it all through a CDN. The combination of predictable pricing and a WordPress focused workflow made it a natural fit.

A Custom CDN Domain That Keeps PSX Extreme Fully Branded

One of the benefits available to PSX Extreme through Infinite Uploads is the use of a custom CDN domain for media delivery. Instead of serving screenshots and images from the WordPress uploads directory the site now delivers all media through a dedicated CDN subdomain that PSX Extreme owns and controls.

We compared the original WordPress upload URL with the new custom CDN domain to show how PSX Extreme now serves media through a cleaner and more maintainable structure.

Before Infinite Uploads
https://psxextreme.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/filename.jpg

After Infinite Uploads
https://cdn.psxe.net/2023/05/filename.jpg

This change provides several operational and long term advantages.

  • The CDN domain is fully controlled by PSX Extreme which keeps media delivery under their own namespace
  • The media path is cleaner and no longer tied to the WordPress file system
  • Future hosting migrations are simpler because the public facing URLs stay the same and only the backend storage changes
  • Separating media from the core site improves long term organization and makes media management easier

This structure gives PSX Extreme a stable foundation for future growth while keeping complete control over how their media is published and accessed.

The Migration Experience and Support Provided by Infinite Uploads

Migrating more than twenty years of images and videos is a complex task. During onboarding there were plugin conflicts and legacy media paths that caused issues. The Infinite Uploads support team invested nearly a week reviewing the site and building custom fixes to ensure every piece of media could be seamlessly offloaded into cloud storage without breaking historical posts and their complex setup.

Once completed the migration moved all media assets to the Infinite Uploads cloud library and began serving them through the CDN and custom domain.

How a CDN Benefits PSX Extreme Beyond Performance

Even without discussing speed improvements a CDN offers several advantages for a content heavy site like PSX Extreme.

• Heavy image traffic is removed from the main hosting account which protects hosting resources
• The origin server is shielded from large bursts of attention when reviews or news stories go viral
• Media traffic no longer interferes with WordPress level tasks such as publishing backups and database operations
• The entire media archive is stored in a system designed for long term file handling rather than in the same disk environment as plugins themes and core files

For a site that continues to grow every day these benefits improve workflow stability and reduce operational risk.

Saving Money on Hosting by Offloading Storage

PSX Extreme initially ran on managed WordPress hosting, but as the site’s archive and traffic grew, stability became a concern. Media volume and request spikes regularly pushed hosting plans to their limits, leading to performance and reliability issues.

To regain control and reduce costs, the site moved first to a VPS hosted by OVH. As requirements continued to evolve, PSX Extreme ultimately migrated to its own infrastructure on DoRoyal, using the Realm plan. This plan provides 6 CPU cores, 16 GB of RAM, and 80 MB per second of disk IO, giving the site the raw compute resources needed for a high-traffic publication.

Making Web Hosting Migrations Easier with Infinite Uploads

Migrating the site wasn’t necessarily simpler, but it was much faster and far more convenient.

PSX Extreme runs hourly backups using ManageWP, with additional redundancy in place. ManageWP also supports cloning and restores, which makes it possible to move the site to a new destination with very little manual effort.

With WordPress, the amount of data you have is what really determines how long a migration takes. The more files involved, the longer the process becomes, whether you are using automated tools or doing a manual MySQL export and transferring the entire uploads directory.

By offloading the bulk of the media library to Infinite Uploads, there was far less data to move during the migration. That shortened the overall transfer window and removed much of the friction that typically comes with moving large, long-running WordPress sites, especially when speeding up WordPress migrations is a priority.

The Results for PSX Extreme After Moving to Infinite Uploads

Once the media library was fully offloaded PSX Extreme experienced immediate benefits.

  • Server load dropped significantly during periods of high activity
  • Bandwidth usage decreased because media traffic no longer touched the origin
  • Storage concerns were eliminated which removed a major operational worry
  • Future hosting migrations became simpler because media URLs are controlled through the custom CDN domain

Tyler described the cloud library as one of the biggest improvements because it removed the fear of running out of space and allowed the team to focus on creating content.

“Infinite Uploads has made a huge difference for PSX Extreme. Moving our entire media library into the cloud removed the stress on our server and stopped us from outgrowing our hosting storage. The custom CDN domain keeps everything fully branded and it feels like a natural part of our site. We can focus on creating content instead of worrying about resources. Anyone running a large WordPress site should give Infinite Uploads a try.”
— Tyler Harvey, Owner and Editor in Chief of PSX Extreme

Better Reader Experience Through Reliable Delivery of Visual Content

Visitors primarily want pages to load consistently. With Infinite Uploads serving images and videos through a dedicated CDN under a custom PSX Extreme domain readers receive content reliably and without friction. This supports better engagement and keeps attention on the editorial content rather than technical delays.

Why PSX Extreme Recommends Infinite Uploads

Tyler encourages any content heavy WordPress site to consider Infinite Uploads especially those on shared or mid tier hosting plans. Offloading media reduces server strain simplifies hosting management and removes storage barriers. It also provides a long term scalable library for images and videos that frees site owners from future hosting upgrades.

PSX Extreme has already seen major reductions in server load and a more stable operational environment and expects those benefits to compound over time.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Post

Newsletters

Written By: Blake Whittle

Owner of ClikIT, Blake has been involved in WordPress since 2014. Once designer & developer, now he manages the team at ClikIT and provides project management & strategic vision to their clients. Now, he's leading the change at ClikIT to become a plugin company.

Create Your Account And Start Exploring

Try the Infinite Uploads plugin and discover all its benefits. By registering, you’ll gain access to technical support, receive updates, and enjoy exclusive content. Don’t wait any longer and join us today!