game server Game server CPU: Intel NUC w/ i5-8259U / i7-8559U or custom build w/ Ryzen 5 3600?

[Visual Vincent]

Hi LTT community!

 

I am looking to build a dedicated server to host a couple of game servers, probably something around the lines of:

• 1 vanilla or modded Minecraft server || Player count: 6-10
• 1-2 Garry's Mod servers || Player count: 8-12 combined
• 1-2 Zandronum servers (classic DOOM online) || Player count: 8-20 combined (NOTE: the least CPU-intensive server of the three)

If possible I'd like to keep the build small, low-power and low-noise (to the extent possible), but since I at the same time want to have decent performance I have been looking at various options for either/or. Right now I'm deciding between the following:

1. An Intel NUC Bean Canyon with an i5-8259U CPU (4 cores, 8 threads @ 2.3 GHz) -- A small, low-power and low-noise choice.
2. An Intel NUC Bean Canyon with an i7-8559U CPU (4 cores, 8 threads @ 2.7 GHz) -- Another small, low-power and low-noise choice.
3. A custom build with a Ryzen 5 3600 (6 cores, 12 threads @ 3.6 GHz) -- The good performance choice.

Someone said that for most game servers, having a CPU with good Single Thread Performance is important. I get that, so I started comparing the three. The Ryzen is of course superior in every way (links below), so my question to you is:

 

Is the Bean Canyon with an i5-8259U / i7-8559U enough, or should I go for a custom build with a Ryzen 5 3600?

 

Additional information:

• Planned OS: Some kind of Linux distribution, 64-bit.
• Planned RAM: DDR4 16-32 GB
• Planned storage: 240 GB SSD (for now)
• Budget: $650-$750
• Planned uptime: 24/7

 

CPU Comparisons:

1. Comparison of all three: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-3600-vs-Intel-i5-8259U-vs-Intel-i7-8559U/3481vs3299vs3302
2. i5-8259U vs I7-8559U: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8259U-vs-Intel-Core-i7-8559U/m543736vsm543591
3. i5-8259U vs Ryzen 5 3600: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8259U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-3600/m543736vs4040
4. i7-8559U vs Ryzen 5 3600: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-8559U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-3600/m543591vs4040

As seen in the first link, the i7-8559U and the Ryzen 5 3600 has quite similar single thread performance.

[Salv8 (sam)]

minecraft and garrys mod are very CPU intensive, the more cores the better, the ryzen would be best.

but you are running multiple game servers at the same time...

and if all game servers hit the system with a big load, it's going to suffer.

i would recommend keeping the minecraft and garrys mod servers separate so if they are hit with a load, they won't affect the other.

if you are going to do this get the i7 NUC's, they should be ok running the servers.

if you can't afford this (understandable a lot of people don't have a lot of money for this type of thing), then you will need to run them when the other isn't running cause both minecraft and garrys mod will want the CPUs power.

you should never run 2 CPU heavy apps at the same time, i should know i've done it, it's pain...just pain...

but if you and your end users don't mind some lag in minecraft and garrys mod, then go with the ryzen, it will be able to handle it better then the intel

for classic DOOM online, should be fine so long as there is some CPU power left for it

if you don't mine going with a higher end ryzen, the 8 core ryzen 7 might be able to handle both at the same time so long as both partys don't hit the server with a big load, (tnt in minecraft/explosions in garrys mod etc)

[Visual Vincent]

Thank you for your reply, @Salv8 (sam).

 

As I understand it most game servers ever only utilize one CPU core and one or two threads, so shouldn't dedicating one core for each server help spread out the load and keep the servers somewhat separate? (I'm assuming that's what you meant when you said separate) For instance if I set the MC server to only run on the first core and the GMOD server only on the second?

 

As stated my budget is somewhere around $650-$750, and I've managed to find an Intel NUC build with an i7 for around $670 and a custom build with the Ryzen for about $780 (the extra $30 is not a problem).

 

With the help of your reply I'm thinking of choosing the NUC as it is relatively small and low-power. Just hoping that that won't be a problem (e.g. throttling) and that the CPU is as good as it seems.

[Salv8 (sam)]

1 hour ago, Visual Vincent said:

As I understand it most game servers ever only utilize one CPU core and one or two threads

in the case of minecraft and garrys mod this is completely incorrect.

game servers are processing multiple players at the same time, not to mention psychics calculation and other crap such as plugins.

more cores is the better option for those two...

1 hour ago, Visual Vincent said:

so shouldn't dedicating one core for each server help spread out the load and keep the servers somewhat separate?

you are dedicating one core to an application that benefits from having a a lot of cores.

do that math.

1 hour ago, Visual Vincent said:

(I'm assuming that's what you meant when you said separate)

yea i should of phrased that better, i meant separate machines. trying to run two heavy loads on a system is like trying to run two games at once, it's not a good idea.

 

1 hour ago, Visual Vincent said:

As stated my budget is somewhere around $650-$750, and I've managed to find an Intel NUC build with an i7 for around $670 and a custom build with the Ryzen for about $780 (the extra $30 is not a problem)

dude, if you are really serious about this, get two NUC's, if the servers are for friends get them to pool in to help pay for the NUC's.

 

1 hour ago, Visual Vincent said:

ith the help of your reply I'm thinking of choosing the NUC as it is relatively small and low-power. Just hoping that that won't be a problem (e.g. throttling)

you can mod a bigger heatsink to it if you want, ask on the case modding and other mods subforum for help with that as it's out of my experience but they will help you: https://linustechtips.com/main/forum/14-case-modding-and-other-mods/

[Visual Vincent]

@Salv8 (sam)

2 hours ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

in the case of minecraft and garrys mod this is completely incorrect.

game servers are processing multiple players at the same time, not to mention psychics calculation and other crap such as plugins.

more cores is the better option for those two...

Au contraire, from my experience games (or at least game servers) are pretty bad at utilizing multiple cores, not to mention multiple threads. For instance, here is a guide on how to enable a more multithreaded setup for GMOD - it supports it, but it's not enabled by default: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=693814244

 

And I've modded a bit for Minecraft and can confirm after seeing the source code that the server uses a couple of threads but not an extreme amount, meaning it might benefit from, say, two cores.

 

1.14 apparently changed a lot in an attempt to improve multithreading however, so I don't know what that'll require.

[xreaperx22]

sever aside the next best thing you can get is a decent internet provider something with static ip and plenty of upload speeds,download speeds wont be the factor really just upload so something like a 1 gigabyte up and down would be a good start 10 would be better lol

[Visual Vincent]

@xreaperx22 Thanks for your reply!

Where I live 1 Gbps is somewhat expensive. I've got 100 Mbps both up and down right now, and so far that hasn't been a bottleneck so I won't be upgrading until I notice any.

[xreaperx22]

Just now, Visual Vincent said:

@xreaperx22 Thanks for your reply!

Where I live 1 Gbps is somewhat expensive. I've got 100 Mbps both up and down right now, and so far that hasn't been a bottleneck so I won't be upgrading until I notice any.

oh cool thats better than what they offer here also,yeah you shouldnt have any issues with that then,maybe if you had like 100 or more players.

[Visual Vincent]

@xreaperx22 Just to be clear: 1 gigabyte like you said is 8 Gbps (gigabit per second -- but I assume that is what you actually meant), but I have 100 Mbps (megabit per second) which is only about 12.5 megabytes per second. Though it's still a fast connection and should not be a problem for the numbers I anticipate.