Looking to build a gaming server

[Mylegit]

I'm looking to build a Gaming server for Minecraft, GMod, and other games (2 simultaneously if possible). It only needs to be able to handle up to about 25-30 people. I was also wondering if it would be wise to use it as a NAS while it's not running servers. My budget is around $800. I need recommendations for motherboard, CPU, and whether or not it would need a powerful GPU which I am almost sure it doesn't need to be that powerful.

Thank you.

[Clyne]

You don't need a powerful gpu, you would need a lot of ram, storage, fast internet connection to run a sever that can hold a lot of people. 

http://canihostaminecraftserver.com/

[connorpiper]

I have the 3570K and am able to run 3-4 minecraft servers with 15 people. I also can run a high-stress bukkit server with many plugins without an issue. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($227.38 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: MSI Z87M-G43 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($89.98 @ OutletPC) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($174.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($55.98 @ OutletPC) 

Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($98.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($19.98 @ OutletPC) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($89.98 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $807.26

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-13 21:25 EDT-0400

 

New price $807.26, OS and Optical Drive included. 

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

Any quad core cpu and around 16gig of ram (you may be able to get away with 8). Get something with on board grapics and you won't need to get a GPU at all.

You could in fact just buy an old desktop that has enough ram and a few slots for hdd's

minecraft the servers can eat ram depending on the amount of players so that's what you should be looking at is the amount of ram you can fit on the motherboard. If you can get 8gig sticks then you can allways early upgrade to 16,32,46,64 depending on the motherboard.

If your planing to do this from home then you need a good upload speed to be able to host that many people or they will just be lagging all over the place. I would test hosting that amount of people from your connection first before buying a pc to do it. Some times its cheaper and easier to to rent the slots from a company that host stuff in a data center.

[krass76]

for that many people unless you have a good internet connection (well above 20mbit/s UPstream and low latency, this is what you usually get with a symmetrical internet connection) don't even bother and instead rent some gaming server, they aren't that expensive anymore!

for a storage nas however, depending on your needs, buy the cheapest components that can run raid and invest in HDDs instead of CPUs and GPUs, maybe even a raid card so you can run raid5/ raid6.

[krass76]

also: ecc memory (4gb of 1333mhz is enough for storage needs) so your system runs stable!

 

EDIT: psu should also be from a reputable manufacturer! not high wattage or anyting but stable as should the motherboard be!

[Mylegit]

Any quad core cpu and around 16gig of ram (you may be able to get away with 8). Get something with on board grapics and you won't need to get a GPU at all.

You could in fact just buy an old desktop that has enough ram and a few slots for hdd's

minecraft the servers can eat ram depending on the amount of players so that's what you should be looking at is the amount of ram you can fit on the motherboard. If you can get 8gig sticks then you can allways early upgrade to 16,32,46,64 depending on the motherboard.

If your planing to do this from home then you need a good upload speed to be able to host that many people or they will just be lagging all over the place. I would test hosting that amount of people from your connection first before buying a pc to do it. Some times its cheaper and easier to to rent the slots from a company that host stuff in a data center.

I have 20Mb/s up and haven't had the best experience with rented servers.

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

I have 20Mb/s up and haven't had the best experience with rented servers.

20 up might be ok.  I cant recomened any hosts for you for a rented server as i host them myself but a popular game hosting provider would be your best bet.

I would be intrested in what issues you had with server providers though. thats if your willing to share