diff --git a/api/id/id.go b/api/id/id.go
index 9f6d3a4b9..dc71ec3e6 100644
--- a/api/id/id.go
+++ b/api/id/id.go
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ type Id [16]byte
 
 var (
 	machineID uint64
-	counter   uint64
+	counter   uint32
 )
 
 // SetMachineId may only be called by one thread before any id generation
@@ -45,11 +45,15 @@ func SetMachineIdHost(addr net.IP, port uint16) {
 // Ids are sortable within (not between, thanks to clocks) each machine, with
 // a modified base32 encoding exposed for convenience in API usage.
 func New() Id {
-	var id Id
 	t := time.Now()
 	// NOTE compiler optimizes out division by constant for us
 	ms := uint64(t.Unix())*1000 + uint64(t.Nanosecond()/int(time.Millisecond))
-	count := atomic.AddUint64(&counter, 1)
+	count := atomic.AddUint32(&counter, 1)
+	return newID(ms, machineID, count)
+}
+
+func newID(ms, machineID uint64, count uint32) Id {
+	var id Id
 
 	id[0] = byte(ms >> 40)
 	id[1] = byte(ms >> 32)
@@ -58,14 +62,13 @@ func New() Id {
 	id[4] = byte(ms >> 8)
 	id[5] = byte(ms)
 
-	id[6] = byte(machineID >> 12)
-	id[7] = byte(machineID >> 4)
+	id[6] = byte(machineID >> 40)
+	id[7] = byte(machineID >> 32)
+	id[8] = byte(machineID >> 24)
+	id[9] = byte(machineID >> 16)
+	id[10] = byte(machineID >> 8)
+	id[11] = byte(machineID)
 
-	id[8] = byte(machineID<<4) | byte((count<<4)>>60)
-
-	id[9] = byte(count >> 48)
-	id[10] = byte(count >> 40)
-	id[11] = byte(count >> 32)
 	id[12] = byte(count >> 24)
 	id[13] = byte(count >> 16)
 	id[14] = byte(count >> 8)
diff --git a/api/id/id_test.go b/api/id/id_test.go
index a21f21cec..136b7ceb9 100644
--- a/api/id/id_test.go
+++ b/api/id/id_test.go
@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
 package id
 
 import (
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"fmt"
+	"math"
+	"net"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 )
 
 func BenchmarkGen(b *testing.B) {
@@ -28,3 +33,31 @@ func BenchmarkUnmarshalText(b *testing.B) {
 		_ = id
 	}
 }
+
+func TestIdRaw(t *testing.T) {
+	SetMachineIdHost(net.IP{127, 0, 0, 1}, 8080)
+
+	ts := time.Now()
+	ms := uint64(ts.Unix())*1000 + uint64(ts.Nanosecond()/int(time.Millisecond))
+	count := uint32(math.MaxUint32)
+	id := newID(ms, machineID, count)
+	fmt.Println(len(id), id)
+
+	var buf [8]byte
+	copy(buf[2:], id[:6])
+	idTime := binary.BigEndian.Uint64(buf[:])
+	if ms != idTime {
+		t.Fatal("id time doesn't not match time given", ms, idTime)
+	}
+
+	copy(buf[2:], id[6:12])
+	idMid := binary.BigEndian.Uint64(buf[:])
+	if idMid != machineID {
+		t.Fatal("machine id mismatch", idMid, machineID)
+	}
+
+	idCount := binary.BigEndian.Uint32(id[12:16])
+	if idCount != count {
+		t.Fatal("count mismatch", idCount, count)
+	}
+}