How can I run a 24/7 server for cheap?

[iMonstaa]

Hello!

My name is iMonstaa - and I'm new around here lol

So, basically, my question is:
How can I run a 24/7 server (for a website, a discord bot, as a home storage system and a Minecraft server) for cheap (low power consumption also)?

I was thinking of getting a few Raspberry Pi's and making a Pi Cluster, but I think it would be better if I got one of those cheaper dual CPU motherboards on AliExpress, 24gb of DDR3 ram, 2x 6-core Xeons, a 600w PSU, 2x 2tb HDDs and a budget GPU.

So, may I get your thoughts on which idea is better?

 

[Bananasplit_00]

none of what you listed as a use for the server needs a GPU that powerful, get a GT 1030 instead and save on power and noise. Cant chime in much about the rest of the parts choice besides the fact that 12 cores 24 threads seems ultra overkill

[Bruno_A]

That would not be cheap to run. Although, it would meet your processing power needs.

[Bruno_A]

A good CPU to use, would be an E5-V2 Xeon. They're newer, and more efficient. https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/series/78582/intel-xeon-processor-e5-v2-family.html

[iMonstaa]

1 minute ago, bruny06 said:

That would not be cheap to run. Although, it would meet your processing power needs.

actually, yeah, not cheap at all.

 

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

none of what you listed as a use for the server needs a GPU that powerful, get a GT 1030 instead and save on power and noise. Cant chime in much about the rest of the parts choice besides the fact that 12 cores 24 threads seems ultra overkill

Any recommendations on whether I should just get one of these CPU's, a single-socket mobo, 16gb of ram, an RX460 2gb and a 400w PSU?
It will not only cut the cost of the electricity bill, but also be cheaper to get...

[Bruno_A]

1 minute ago, iMonstaa said:

actually, yeah, not cheap at all.

 

Any recommendations on whether I should just get one of these CPU's, a single-socket mobo, 16gb of ram, an RX460 2gb and a 400w PSU?
It will not only cut the cost of the electricity bill, but also be cheaper to get...

You don't need a graphics card at all. Maybe just to setup the OS, but then, you'd access it remotely.

[Akira Shimazu]

Just now, bruny06 said:

You don't need a graphics card at all. Maybe just to setup the OS, but then, you'd access it remotely.

just use intergrated graphic

[Dedayog]

What's wrong with a Ryzen 1600 or something?  They're very cheap now.

[iMonstaa]

Just now, bruny06 said:

You don't need a graphics card at all. Maybe just to setup the OS, but then, you'd access it remotely.

I would need the GPU. not sure why, but I'd still keep it in there as a backup plan in case of something (idk what)

[iMonstaa]

Just now, jstudrawa said:

What's wrong with a Ryzen 1600 or something?  They're very cheap now.

Not so cheap locally. An E5-2620 V2 xeon would come in handy since it's ~20$. 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Wolfycapt said:

just use intergrated graphic

As I said, I might need the GPU, so I'd get something weaker like an RX460

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, bruny06 said:

A good CPU to use, would be an E5-V2 Xeon. They're newer, and more efficient. https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/series/78582/intel-xeon-processor-e5-v2-family.html

^^^ Newer chips would be better for sure. LGA1366 era Xeons are excellent value and amazing chips overall, juuuuust they won't be the most power efficient. You wouldn't be OCing them though, so they might not eat that much, I haven't actually looked at power consumption when I wasn't pushing over 1.4v on the core for overclocks lol. 
 

2 minutes ago, iMonstaa said:

actually, yeah, not cheap at all.

 

Any recommendations on whether I should just get one of these CPU's, a single-socket mobo, 16gb of ram, an RX460 2gb and a 400w PSU?
It will not only cut the cost of the electricity bill, but also be cheaper to get...

Single CPU would probs be fine, get an X5670 or X5675 if you can, they're the best value: 

Key - base/boost (base/boost difference from the next option up) - price (prices are going off USD last time I snooped around eBay, may have changed a bit)
X5690 - 3.46Ghz/3.73Ghz (best in socket) - $60
X5680 - 3.33Ghz/3.60Ghz (-0.13Ghz/-0.13Ghzt) - $45
X5675 - 3.06Ghz/3.46Ghz (-0.27Ghz/-0.14Ghz) - $30
X5670 - 2.93Ghz/3.33Ghz (-0.13Ghz/-0.13Ghz) - $14-15
X5650 - 2.66Ghz/3.06Ghz (-0.27Ghz/-0.27Ghz) - $10

1 minute ago, Wolfycapt said:

just use intergrated graphic

On a Xeon? I don't know of any Xeons that even have them, lol. 
 

1 minute ago, jstudrawa said:

What's wrong with a Ryzen 1600 or something?  They're very cheap now.

^ Also a solid option, they're excellent CPUs. The X58 hexacores OCed to a finely tuned 4.2-4.5Ghz can aaaalmost reach stock R5 1600 performance, at stock they're a good bit behind. The R5 probably eats less power too. 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Just now, iMonstaa said:

I would need the GPU

Unless you plan to use the server for crypto mining or folding, there is literally nothing that it will need a GPU for once the basic setup is completed.

[Bruno_A]

1 minute ago, iMonstaa said:

I would need the GPU. not sure why, but I'd still keep it in there as a backup plan in case of something (idk what)

If you want a spare GPU for a rig, or something, that's absolutely fine, but it's not worth the cost to run (the added power consumption).

[Windows7ge]

Power consumption wise a lot of this older hardware isn't the way to go. Actually it uses the most power.

 

There are hardware solutions only a few years old now that would use a lot less power but the only one I can list will probably not be powerful enough for what you want it to do.

 

In comparison to what you've listed single socket LGA2011 w/ a E5-2670v1 would be better (less power).

[Bruno_A]

OP, where are you located? I was building a similar project, a while ago, that I never used. I would quite hapilly sell it to you. It's a dual socket LGA2011 with a 10-Core Xeon in it. It's low power and I'm confident it would meet your needs.

 

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/75270/intel-xeon-processor-e5-2650l-v2-25m-cache-1-70-ghz.html

 

EDIT: The CPU is an engineering sample.

[iMonstaa]

1 minute ago, bruny06 said:

OP, where are you located? I was building a similar project, a while ago, that I never used. I would quite hapilly sell it to you. It's a dual socket LGA2011 with a 10-Core Xeon in it. It's low power and I'm confident it would meet your needs.

 

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/75270/intel-xeon-processor-e5-2650l-v2-25m-cache-1-70-ghz.html

 

EDIT: The CPU is an engineering sample.

Sadly, not in US nor UK. The shipping and the local customs would REALLY kill the deal and make it not worth it, because I've seen cases of customs charging up to 200% of the item value!!!

[Zando_]

3 minutes ago, bruny06 said:

OP, where are you located? I was building a similar project, a while ago, that I never used. I would quite hapilly sell it to you. It's a dual socket LGA2011 with a 10-Core Xeon in it. It's low power and I'm confident it would meet your needs.

 

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/75270/intel-xeon-processor-e5-2650l-v2-25m-cache-1-70-ghz.html

 

EDIT: The CPU is an engineering sample.

Damn imagine having turbo boost 

I have an E5-4610 v3, same base clock and core/thread count but not turbo boost. Was the only non-ES I could find (I need to run it in an X99 board so I needed to be sure it wouldn't be funky with the BIOS or something, ES's often can throw fits with some boards). 

[Bruno_A]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Damn imagine having turbo boost 

I have an E5-4610 v3, same base clock and core/thread count but not turbo boost. Was the only non-ES I could find (I need to run it in an X99 board so I needed to be sure it wouldn't be funky with the BIOS or something, ES's often can throw fits with some boards). 

It does have turbo boost, as far as I am aware. I could be wrong, though. I believe it's a later version sample.

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, bruny06 said:

It does have turbo boost, as far as I am aware. I could be wrong, though. I believe it's a later version sample.

Spec sheet states it as boosting to 2.10GHz, if you've got it running and have a GPU you could just slap CPU-Z on it and see if it does boost. At the base 1.7Ghz they're beaten in multicore by some quad cores (from tests I've seen at least). Buuut, if you don't need higher single core performance and want low power consumption they should be excellent. I'm planning to use mine in a folding rig, it'll just need to feed a 1660 Ti and 1050 Ti, will probably devote 6-10 cores to folding as well for a teeny boost in PPD. 

Once I finally get it set up I'd be happy to run benches if people want them. 

[iMonstaa]

Okay, so here's the possible final decision:

CPU - Xeon X5670
CPU Cooler - either the Antec A30 or the Snowman

MoBo - Huananzhi X58

GPU - GeForce 210 (aka. The Worst GPU - according to some youtubers)

PSU - BeQuiet! System Power 9 400w 
Case - yet to be decided
RAM - Aliexpress ECC 32gb (2 modules, 16gb 1600mhz each)
Storage - 120gb BioStar s100 SSD (just for the OS)
Storage - 2x 2tb Seagate BarraCuda 7200RPM HDD, (for my PC's external storage for videos and other stuff)

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, iMonstaa said:

 

 

 

Okay, so here's the possible final decision:

CPU - Xeon X5670
CPU Cooler - either the Antec A30 or the Snowman

MoBo - Huananzhi X58

GPU - GeForce 210 (aka. The Worst GPU - according to some youtubers)

PSU - BeQuiet! System Power 9 400w 
Case - yet to be decided
RAM - Aliexpress ECC 32gb (2 modules, 16gb 1600mhz each)
Storage - 120gb BioStar s100 SSD (just for the OS)
Storage - 2x 2tb Seagate BarraCuda 7200RPM HDD, (for my PC's external storage for videos and other stuff)

If you can find an LGA1366 Intel stock cooler for cheap, those cool stock Xeons easily. My X5670 running at stock with the cooler off an i7 920 hasn't broken 60C. 

I'd be cautious with chinesium boards, I don't trust them. An Intel 5520 server board would be much better (avoid Dell and HP ones with proprietary connectors though), also supports ECC-Registered RAM (X58 does NOT, if you accidentally buy that it will not work, even with a Xeon), which is hella cheap. 

As for GPU, get literally the cheapest possible thing that supports a display out, like everyone else said you can just run it without a GPU once you get it set up.

Get 3x8GB RAM, 6x4GB, or 6x8GB. X58 and 5520 boards support triple channel DDR3, you'd be wise to take advantage of that for much better RAM bandwidth. 

Get at least a decent SSD, it's still running your OS so if it fails then you have to buy another one anyways and then set up your server all over again. 

[bowrilla]

For how many people should your Minecraft server be good and are you using plugins? How many people will be accessing your website? How are you going to solve the question of a dynamic IP? What about a domain for your website?

 

You can run a webserver easily on a Raspberry Pi, but it will only be good for a handfull of simultaneous requests and less complex server frameworks. Not to mention Minecraft. A Pi cluster is a pretty nice way - of burning money in your case.

 

For a small webserver and/or NAS an Atom or Celeron chip (ideally even a low power version soldered on to a mainboard) would be good and reasonably cheap - and even cheaper to run due to very low power consumption (TDP around or even below 10W). Depending on your OS of choice you could be good with 2-4GB of memory (8GB if your run FreeNas). 

 

Minecraft needs some dual core with decent single thread performance. You don't need a dedicated GPU for either of those applications, iGPU is sufficient.

 

Now, if both services should run parallel, you'd probably want a quad core with above 2GHz and something around 4 or even better 8GB of memory. At this point you're in 50W and above TDP territory and you're looking (new) at 200-ish (higher TDP, non-soldered combo) or even 400-ish (lower TDP, soldered CPU combo) bucks. Add in memory, a psu and your system drive and you're looking at something around 400-600 bucks. 

 

Then there are the costs of a domain, a dynDNS service for your (presumably) dynamic IP. 

 

It would probably be a lot cheaper and a lot more reliable to just pay a monthly fee for a vserver - or get used hardware. But then there are your running costs...