Gonna Build Me A Game Server

[rdytorave]

Hello,
I am thinking about building a server strictly to host games. The most I am willing to spend is $1,000. It will be a dedicated gaming rig. I won't be actually playing games on the server, I have my own rig for that. So, what CPU, Motherboard, Hardrive, Ram, etc, do you recommend?
Thanks
rdytorave

[toastedzergling]

Originally posted by rdytorave
Hello,
I am thinking about building a server strictly to host games. The most I am willing to spend is $1,000. It will be a dedicated gaming rig. I won't be actually playing games on the server, I have my own rig for that. So, what CPU, Motherboard, Hardrive, Ram, etc, do you recommend?
Thanks
rdytorave

Aha, for a game server $1000 is probably overkill.

CPU celly 1.1a
Mobo Abit ST6
Ram generic 512mb pc133
Hard-drive 40gig 7200rpm, IBM 120gxp has good server performance.

This will actually save energy cost!!!

[mayagrafix]

what is a game server? Duhhh!

Okey I know what a file server is, but what is the purpose and need for a game server?

[toastedzergling]

A game sever serves mulitplayer games, LOL, I think the most important thing is your upload speed, then the amount of ram, CPU speed, hard drive etc do not really matter much :)

[rdytorave]

Well assuming I have a T1 line and want to host large player games like 64 player Battlefield 1942 and 32 player Unreal Tournament 2003. What kinda specs do I need?

[ajrettke]

MSI K7D from newegg 160 (refurb)
2 XP1600+'s 105
1 gig PC2700 registered ECC 310
2 volcano 7's 40 bucks
A cheapo video card 25 bucks
80gb 8mb cache HD 117
case w/420watt PSU 80
NIC 10 bucks

That comes to around 850 bucks, you can upgrade CPU's if you like or maybe PSU whatever ya know that there is a high powered serving machine.

[tbirdkiri]

how bout some better heatsinks... and unless hes overclocking it i dont think he will need pc2700

[cmcquistion]

ATC9001 lists a really good rig.

My only change would be to get a really good Network Card. If you're talking about a T1 and 64 people connecting to it, don't skimp on the network card. Get yourself an Intel Pro1000MT. It is a 66MHz card, costs $50, and will give you lots of bandwidth at very low latency (since it uses the 66MHz PCI slots.) It is a 10/100/1000 card, autosensing, of course.

If you don't have to live next door to this computer, and don't care about noise, then get any old good, noisy heatsinks. The Speeze 5R265B1H3 that Joe reviewed a little while back is actually a really good heatsink for $8. I bought a pair, just to test them out. The noise level is much better than most heatsinks I have used they perform really well. I ran a pair of XP1600's overclocked to 1667 Mhz, and my temps never went over 110 at full load. For my own use, though, I prefer SVC GC68's with Panaflo L1A fans on them ($14 combo.) This combo is nearly silent. Not as good at cooling as the previously mentioned Speeze, but very, very quiet. I run my wife's dual XP1600's overclocked to 1533 MHz @ 1.525 Volts with these. Temps are grerat and I run three instances of Folding@Home 24/7. Can't overclock the machine as high as I could with noisier heatsinks, but for me, the performance is great, at a noise level we both can stand.

[Jkasmann]

ATC9001, that is very nice.

Still probably overkill, game servers dont really need much power. But if you wanna spend the money on something cool, then thats a pretty good call. A lot of times what you "need" isnt really important ;).

[cmcquistion]

It's not about needing it, it's about wanting it, and building it. EDIT... and running Folding@Home on it!

I love building and overclocking computers.

The only thing that is better is building and overclocking duals.:burn: :burn:

[RED Hot Machine]

Fast hard drive, lots of ram and good network bandwidth are very important for a game server.

Min ram = 512 ddr
Min Hd = 40gb

Daul cpu is a bonus if you want to run more than one game at a time on a machine.

Daul network cards is another idea you might want to look into.

[relic]

Originally posted by cmcquistion
ATC9001 lists a really good rig.

My only change would be to get a really good Network Card. If you're talking about a T1 and 64 people connecting to it, don't skimp on the network card. Get yourself an Intel Pro1000MT. It is a 66MHz card, costs $50, and will give you lots of bandwidth at very low latency (since it uses the 66MHz PCI slots.) It is a 10/100/1000 card, autosensing, of course.


Um...I think you went overboard there, Bro. A T1 has a maximum bandwidth of 1.5Mbps. I can't imagine why you would use a 1000Mbps card in that configuration. ;)

Now an OC-24, on the other hand..would make a great gaming pipe for that NIC.... ;)

[cmcquistion]

Actually, I just recommended it because it is a good quality 66Mhz capable Network card and it would allow some flexibility and speed if he ever decided to use it as a File Server.

The 33MHz PCI bus has some latency issues. For latency dependant applications, like online gaming, I would suggest using the 66 MHz bus.

[donny_paycheck]

LOTS of RAM - minimum of 512MB for a 16 player UT2003 server, 1GB for a sizeable BF1942 server Very fast connection, i.e. 768k SDSL or better. UT2003, SoF2, RtCW and other FPS games require 3 kilobytes/second per client, up and down. BF1942 requires 5kb/s. Hard drive only needs to be big enough for the OS and the game stuff. Processor needs to be up to snuff, but nothing fancy. Something that would run the game well as a client will also work well in a server. High quality NIC. If it's a single CPU system then you won't have 64/66 PCI slots. Anyway, you can still get a good NIC. Look for 3com, Intel, Xircom.

My clan has a SoF2 and UT2003 server hosted by ILAN game (www.ilangame.com) and they use dual AMD 2000+ with 1.5 gigs of RAM each, but they run about 4 games on each of these systems. They have dual OC48 and quad OC192 connections for their hosting sites, but that's for a HUGE amount of servers. I got this information a while ago from one of their techs when we were looking to build ourselves our own server.

[relic]

I figured that, CMC.

In all my years of working with WANs I've never seen a T1 or even many OC-x that didn't have 1000x more latency then any NIC. Remember that the client-side router connection is almost certainly going to be 10baseT, and even the internal latencies in the router will probably be higher than any PCI lag.

For a LAN server a Gigabit card on a 66MHz bus makes a lot of sense, for an internet connection even an old ISA card can usually keep up without much trouble.

Although I would recommend a PCI 3Com or Intel NIC because they'll usually blow if there's a surge rather then let it get to your Mobo.

(and I'm sure most of us with broadband have lost at least one nic to a storm)

However, for $50 it's probably a moot point...
It certainly won't hurt and it's cheap. Why the heck not? ;)

[{PMS}fishy]

Look around on E-bay for some used dual Intel stuff that is your best bet. I use Dual PIII 450's for my game server. 512mb of ram is good enough for up to 32 players. Im running an Intel Pro 10/100 nic, which I think is the best one out there, but there comes a price with it. I would opt for Dual Intel Pro 1000 nics, if I were building a new server. Two 10gig HDDs, which I back up Every night with. I would not want RAID, cause you want something from yesterday to fall back on, if you screw up some config files, or worst case, you get hacked.

[Wraith]

Ram isnt as important as Clock speed, i think. How can you say a server would be better with a p2 233 w 1 Gig of ram as aposed to a xp 2600+ with 128 megs. (nnon actualy said that its just an example)

corect me it im wrong

[{PMS}fishy]

Ram is much more important than clock speed. You do have to balance both.

[rdytorave]

Thanks for all your input fellas this really helps.

[madcow235]

over at one of the clans i used to belong to in bf1942 the server master guy said that the game actually ran worse on the dual processors because BF does not support multithreading. I would suggest looking into what games you want to host and if they even support the dualies

[{PMS}fishy]

The game does not need to be SMP capable. Having two cpus allows you to do more things at once. Trust me, duals are much smother.

[gtsimmo]

Originally posted by Wraith
Ram isnt as important as Clock speed, i think. How can you say a server would be better with a p2 233 w 1 Gig of ram as aposed to a xp 2600+ with 128 megs. (nnon actualy said that its just an example)

corect me it im wrong


Actually when hosting a game server, the speed and amount of RAM you have it perhaps the most importan aspect to look at. U do not really need a duali although that would be sweet just to have. Simply build a fast single CPU server and the money you save, use it to get awhole lot of memory. 512mb is considered like the absolute min. But I suggest 1GB of ram. The choice of Intel or AMD system is your choice, with AMDs being alittle cheaper and may save you some money. Also with single cpu rigs you wont need to get ECC ram and that may save you even more cash.
Another important thing is you upload speed. Call you ISP and find out what your upload speed is and how much it would cost to upgrade that if possible. You can also check on sites like www.dslreports.com to test your connection.

[Mr B]

Soooo..say I wanted to run my new duallie as a gaming server (which I had kind of been planning)... I was thinking of NASCAR 4 or 2002, possibly UT2K3 (whenever I can afford it...LOL) How does this stack up so far?

MSI K7D Master-L
2x XP1600+, unlocked, running 12.5 x 140 (1750 ea/3.5 GHz total)
2x 256MB PC2100 (512MB total)

GF2 MX200 or GF2 MX400 or GF4 MX440 (I'm thinking the 2nd of the three)

SB Live! value or Hercules Muse XL or onboard MSI ca-ca (was thinking the Herc.)

I'm currently using the onboard LAN (running FAH only, really), but have a couple different 10/100 NICs available...

ATM, it's running on an Antec 350W PSU (I do plan to get something a bit bigger after the holidays).

I've got a matched pair of Maxtor 30GB ATA100/7200 rpm drives...I was thinking of getting a PCI based RAID card...

My internet connection is thru cable.

I've got Win2K Pro...do I need the Server or Advanced Server for this?

Any suggestions would be great guys! TIA!

Cheers! :beer:

Brian

[Spec_Ops2087]

Mr.B

That sounds pretty good for a nice server....I WOULD however upgrade that RAM to 1GB to smooth out the game...also with that cable what are your caps at? That is normally where the servers are bottlenecked.

And win2k Pro Shoudl be fine...don't see why you would need all the little extra features for running a command prompt(game server)...BUT if you know a lot about linux I would say mos def go that....it is very stable and fast but you should know what you doing before you do that...otherwise should be a good server

O and if you plan on using it for matches and what not, won't be allowed 99% of the time...most leagues don't let you have a cable server since servers on cable is normally illegal(gotta hate them)




Spec

[donny_paycheck]

Yeah Mr. B...I'd up the RAM to a gig but otherwise you're good, provided your cable doesn't crap out during a match.

[valinos]

I guarantee you won't be running 32 players on a T1 connection. Max you'll be able to host is probably 24, but more likely 16 without the players lagging.

Also, you don't need some fancy NIC. Just get a regular Linksys or Dlink 10/100 NIC and you're set. The NIC will not be your bottleneck on a T1 connection. I'd also suggest going single processor if you plan on just running one game at a time on your box and not doing anything else. It'll save you money and time. Also, to help save more money go with regular PC133 SDRAM. You don't need major amounts of bandwidth and speed with a game server, just large amounts of memory. 1GB will be the max you need for a 16-24 player server.