Building a Server Computer for Lan Parties

[TekkyTG]

Hey everyone, I'm interested in building a server computer for lan parties on CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege, a Minecraft server, as well as a few other very similar games. From the research I've seen online, it looks like I really don't need anything special from my GPU at all. My understanding is that I should look for 16-32gb of ram, at least 3000 speed, and a pretty good cpu. I'd like to build it for cheap. I don't plan to run any games on it at all, other than starting up CS:GO/Rainbow Six Siege just for the purpose of starting/hosting a lan game, and therefore don't need it to get a good framerate or anything of the type. I'm assuming that high cores will be more important than high GHz, and therefore am obviously looking at either AMD or maybe an Intel Xeon series cpu, but I thought I'd see what you guys had to say about it. I'll only have a few games on it, so actually I won't even add an HDD and will probably just rock a 240gb ssd.. If I need something more I can get HDD's pretty easy, and they're cheap. Again, going for cheap, but I want to make sure I won't have issues with lag on any of the connected computers.

 

Thanks!

[TekkyTG]

Depending on how important the speed of the CPU is, I'm actually thinking that the https://pcpartpicker.com/product/837wrH/intel-cpu-bx80621e52650 might be a good option.

[skimmilk5]

You'll want something relatively modern. Newer Core processors beat the snot out of old Xeons for these applications, even if the Xeon has the core advantage. Ryzen (Gen 1) or Intel Core (5th to 9th Gen) is probably where you want to aim. You not only want a good clock speed, but higher efficiency (a higher IPC), higher physical efficiency (how much performance you get per watt), and a good balance between cores. Any savings that you reap now by buying a cheap, old processor will just be lost down the line by your greater power bill. The gigahertz war ended in the early 2000's, and unfortunately, a 2.8GHz CPU from 2008 isn't the same as a 2.8GHz CPU from 2018.

Also consider that you have to get a motherboard to put your CPU into. It's much easier to find reliable, cheap modern boards than reliable X79 or C600 boards.

You should be looking for 32GiB of RAM at a minimum.

If budget is really tight, then you should look at expanding that budget. Ask your friends to pitch in for the server, since you'd be sharing it with them anyways. Save a little bit more money, and get something proper. Again, any savings that you make now will just get snipped away later when you have to replace or upgrade a bunk or slow part.

[TekkyTG]

1 minute ago, kimsejin5 said:

You'll want something relatively modern. Newer Core processors beat the snot out of old Xeons for these applications, even if the Xeon has the core advantage. Ryzen (Gen 1) or Intel Core (5th to 9th Gen) is probably where you want to aim. You not only want a good clock speed, but higher efficiency (a higher IPC), higher physical efficiency (how much performance you get per watt), and a good balance between cores. Any savings that you reap now by buying a cheap, old processor will just be lost down the line by your greater power bill. The gigahertz war ended in the early 2000's, and unfortunately, a 2.8GHz CPU from 2008 isn't the same as a 2.8GHz CPU from 2018.

Also consider that you have to get a motherboard to put your CPU into. It's much easier to find reliable, cheap modern boards than reliable X79 or C600 boards.

You should be looking for 32GiB of RAM at a minimum.

If budget is really tight, then you should look at expanding that budget. Ask your friends to pitch in for the server, since you'd be sharing it with them anyways. Save a little bit more money, and get something proper. Again, any savings that you make now will just get snipped away later when you have to replace or upgrade a bunk or slow part.

Good info. One more question, what would you recommend for the lowest GHz/Cores for the CPU? Kind of thinking about either the 3200G or maybe the 2600. If 3200G will cut it. I'll go for that. I only need enough power to handle maybe four people at once, 6 at the absolute maximum, and that's counting friends that don't have computers at the moment, lol. Ryzen 1st gen is at the point where it's actually cheaper to go 2nd or 3rd gen, with higher performance included.

For ram, looking at https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TvDJ7P/gskill-ripjaws-v-32gb-4-x-8gb-ddr4-3600-memory-f4-3600c19q-32gvrb or https://pcpartpicker.com/product/t7QG3C/crucial-ballistix-sport-at-32-gb-4-x-8-gb-ddr4-3200-memory-bls4k8g4d32aestk, depending on what the motherboard I choose can handle. Most of the budget boards offer 3200MHz or less, but if I go for the higher end I can pay like another dollar for the 3600MHz, and would be stupid not to go for it. If I didn't currently have a black/gray color scheme in my pc to keep the RGB so that I can change colors, I'd be getting this for myself, lol. It's a good deal.

[skimmilk5]

On any modern processor, you don't really need to worry about the clock speed. Again, it's all about the IPC count and improvements in the silicon transistor count and efficiency. That's why AMD having a 7nm processor while Intel is scraping by at 10nm on a good day, 14nm on a bad day, is such a big deal.

When you're talking about a standard server, memory speed goes out of the window, and memory reliability comes into play. Hell, my Intel Scalable processors are all running 2100MHz, and my Intel Xeons are running 1333MHz. BUT, on a gaming server, where it's not so mission critical, it's better to inch up your memory speed to 3000MHz+. Just get whatever's on sale and has your capacity.

[Slayer3032]

LGA2011 and even AM4 offer some pretty attractive multithreaded performance, and with LGA2011 you generally find the stability and features you'd want at a really low price when you mix in some used parts. The Ivy Bridge v2 stuff is often a solid bump in performance over Sandy Bridge. If you're looking for extremely low budget, LGA1356 is also an option but getting the 8 dimms of LGA2011 is really nice when you pack it full of cheap, used DDR3.

 

You likely won't need 32gb of memory unless you're running VM's on it or every server you install at once. Servers don't need a GPU, you'd be connecting to it via ssh or remote desktop anyways. Memory speed isn't going to matter one bit unless you're on a platform like Ryzen where it benefits cpu performance heavily. It's a server and unless you're planning on high player counts and heavy loads, you're going to want higher core/thread counts so you can run more servers at once rather than fewer at higher performance. Soon as you get a bunch of servers going on a quad core, you're going to notice it rather quick.

 

Ideally you'd also buy something like this with a plan for how to utilize it in other ways as well such as using it as a Plex/NAS, hosting some public gameservers, ect. Are you trying to go for portable? Does it need to move or do the lan parties come to it? LGA2011 wouldn't be the first platform I'd consider for something that could be at least micro atx.

[Jarsky]

1 hour ago, TechPrince said:

I don't plan to run any games on it at all, other than starting up CS:GO/Rainbow Six Siege just for the purpose of starting/hosting a lan game

 

Are you saying you're going to be running the actual game on this machine, or are you going to run dedicated servers?

 

CS:GO & Minecraft have dedicated server software you can use. 

Rainbow Six Siege has a Technical Test dedicated server you can run...

 

CS:GO & R6 Siege servers can both be managed by SteamCMD https://github.com/dgibbs64/SteamCMD-AppID-List-Servers

 

Im with the others though, i'd go for a more modern CPU for a game server. 

Memory speed isnt really a concern with game servers and DDR4, you dont need 3000mhz memory as you arent constantly reloading textures like you would playing the game. Memory swapping is far less other than changing maps. 

[TekkyTG]

On 3/3/2020 at 9:30 PM, kimsejin5 said:

On any modern processor, you don't really need to worry about the clock speed. Again, it's all about the IPC count and improvements in the silicon transistor count and efficiency. That's why AMD having a 7nm processor while Intel is scraping by at 10nm on a good day, 14nm on a bad day, is such a big deal.

When you're talking about a standard server, memory speed goes out of the window, and memory reliability comes into play. Hell, my Intel Scalable processors are all running 2100MHz, and my Intel Xeons are running 1333MHz. BUT, on a gaming server, where it's not so mission critical, it's better to inch up your memory speed to 3000MHz+. Just get whatever's on sale and has your capacity.

Good info.

[TekkyTG]

On 3/3/2020 at 9:32 PM, Slayer3032 said:

LGA2011 and even AM4 offer some pretty attractive multithreaded performance, and with LGA2011 you generally find the stability and features you'd want at a really low price when you mix in some used parts. The Ivy Bridge v2 stuff is often a solid bump in performance over Sandy Bridge. If you're looking for extremely low budget, LGA1356 is also an option but getting the 8 dimms of LGA2011 is really nice when you pack it full of cheap, used DDR3.

 

You likely won't need 32gb of memory unless you're running VM's on it or every server you install at once. Servers don't need a GPU, you'd be connecting to it via ssh or remote desktop anyways. Memory speed isn't going to matter one bit unless you're on a platform like Ryzen where it benefits cpu performance heavily. It's a server and unless you're planning on high player counts and heavy loads, you're going to want higher core/thread counts so you can run more servers at once rather than fewer at higher performance. Soon as you get a bunch of servers going on a quad core, you're going to notice it rather quick.

 

Ideally you'd also buy something like this with a plan for how to utilize it in other ways as well such as using it as a Plex/NAS, hosting some public gameservers, ect. Are you trying to go for portable? Does it need to move or do the lan parties come to it? LGA2011 wouldn't be the first platform I'd consider for something that could be at least micro atx.

Very helpful. I like it a lot. I plan on keeping it at my house, I have way better internet than any of my friends as well as way more room. If I do need to move it, the issue is actually more with my heavy gaming computer than the server computer itself. However, if I can fit it into my budget I'll probably try to fit it into a mini itx mobo with a much smaller case if I can.

[GDRRiley]

5 hours ago, TechPrince said:

Very helpful. I like it a lot. I plan on keeping it at my house, I have way better internet than any of my friends as well as way more room. If I do need to move it, the issue is actually more with my heavy gaming computer than the server computer itself. However, if I can fit it into my budget I'll probably try to fit it into a mini itx mobo with a much smaller case if I can.

mini ITX often sucks for server stuff.

micro ATX is the smallest I'd go.

[Zando_]

25 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

mini ITX often sucks for server stuff.

micro ATX is the smallest I'd go.

"Sucks" depends on what your budget is and what you need from the hardware. You can get 2011-3, 2066, and 3647 ITX mobos from ASRock in both their C-chipset and X-chipset variants. With quad channel memory (using SODIMMs) and everything. 

For a budget build then ATX is the lowest you could go with old server/HEDT hardware, if you're fine with mainstream (for running a gamer server you don't actually need server hardware lol) then mITX is pretty easy to get, the boards aren't massively expensive unless you're looking for Z-series boards. Even then you can score deals on those. 

[GDRRiley]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

"Sucks" depends on what your budget is and what you need from the hardware. You can get 2011-3, 2066, and 3647 ITX mobos from ASRock in both their C-chipset and X-chipset variants. With quad channel memory (using SODIMMs) and everything. 

For a budget build then ATX is the lowest you could go with old server/HEDT hardware, if you're fine with mainstream (for running a gamer server you don't actually need server hardware lol) then mITX is pretty easy to get, the boards aren't massively expensive unless you're looking for Z-series boards. Even then you can score deals on those. 

yes you can, but those boards are incredibly expensive.

you also lack expansion options from PCIE storage or more sata ports to faster networking.

 

for a game server it could be okay with a mini ITX board.

[Zando_]

Just now, GDRRiley said:

yes you can, but those boards are incredibly expensive.

you also lack expansion options from PCIE storage or more sata ports to faster networking.

Yes... As I said: '"Sucks" depends on what your budget is and what you need from the hardware.'

 

1 minute ago, GDRRiley said:

for a game server it could be okay with a mini ITX board.

... which is what this is... so why did you bother saying ITX sucked and mATX was the lowest OP should go? It's a game server for LAN parties, ITX is a damn good idea since the cases can be smaller and thus more portable. 

[GDRRiley]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

.. which is what this is... so why did you bother saying ITX sucked and mATX was the lowest OP should go? It's a game server for LAN parties, ITX is a damn good idea since the cases can be smaller and thus more portable. 

mATX are often just a tiny bit bigger and have much better expansion options.

you probably need 4 drives to do this right. 2 SSDs for servers maybe 3 or 4. I'd run raid 1 on a pair or 2 pairs. (mattering on how many you are trying to host at once. then a HDD or 2 in raid 1 for backup.

 

that would use up all the sata ports or more on a mini ITX board.

 

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

mATX are often just a tiny bit bigger and have much better expansion options.

you probably need 4 drives to do this right. 2 SSDs for servers maybe 3 or 4. I'd run raid 1 on a pair or 2 pairs. (mattering on how many you are trying to host at once. then a HDD or 2 in raid 1 for backup.

 

that would use up all the sata ports or more on a mini ITX board.

 

It's to host LAN games lol. You don't need multiple redundant SSDs and stuff like that, one large enough to install the games and OS to will be fine. OP doesn't need multiple GPUs or a RAM capacity so high that it cannot easily be had in a 2 DIMM config, so again, no need for an mATX board lol. mATX boards can be cheaper, but if OP can afford an ITX board they can, again, be much smaller. If you're moving the PC around, smaller = better, and for the OP's task there's basically no downsides. On a DDR3 platform getting 32GB on ITX would be hard/impossible, but with a B450 ITX board you can just run 2x16GB DDR4 which is easily obtainable. And that's only if OP decides they do need 32GB RAM. 

[TekkyTG]

5 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

It's to host LAN games lol. You don't need multiple redundant SSDs and stuff like that, one large enough to install the games and OS to will be fine. OP doesn't need multiple GPUs or a RAM capacity so high that it cannot easily be had in a 2 DIMM config, so again, no need for an mATX board lol. mATX boards can be cheaper, but if OP can afford an ITX board they can, again, be much smaller. If you're moving the PC around, smaller = better, and for the OP's task there's basically no downsides. On a DDR3 platform getting 32GB on ITX would be hard/impossible, but with a B450 ITX board you can just run 2x16GB DDR4 which is easily obtainable. And that's only if OP decides they do need 32GB RAM. 

 

10 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

mATX are often just a tiny bit bigger and have much better expansion options.

you probably need 4 drives to do this right. 2 SSDs for servers maybe 3 or 4. I'd run raid 1 on a pair or 2 pairs. (mattering on how many you are trying to host at once. then a HDD or 2 in raid 1 for backup.

 

that would use up all the sata ports or more on a mini ITX board.

 

Definitely interested in mITX at the moment. While it's true that it may make it more difficult to upgrade further down the line, the ability to move it around with ease, and for it to take up less space, will make things so much easier in the long run. I also don't plan on having multiple HDD's or RAID configurations, or even multiple SSD's. I do plan on having an SSD in it, because it's 2020 and there's no point in using an HDD anymore lol. I only plan on having three games downloaded, as well as Minecraft running a Vanilla server. If I do decide to add mods or plugins I will need just a bit more space of course, but the truth is, a 500gb ssd will be more than plenty to handle my needs. At the moment I don't plan to keep it as a media server or file server, but strictly for the games already mentioned. Also, I very rarely play CS:GO anymore, in fact the truth is I hate the game, and only played it because my friends were playing it. Now that I've gotten my other friends into R6, they don't really play it either. I'll definitely have MC installed of course, for testing and for an OP account aside from my main account to be able to access the server and fix any issues we come across, but the truth is, even 240gb wouldn't really be a stretch.

[GDRRiley]

8 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

It's to host LAN games lol. You don't need multiple redundant SSDs and stuff like that, one large enough to install the games and OS to will be fine. OP doesn't need multiple GPUs or a RAM capacity so high that it cannot easily be had in a 2 DIMM config, so again, no need for an mATX board lol. mATX boards can be cheaper, but if OP can afford an ITX board they can, again, be much smaller. If you're moving the PC around, smaller = better, and for the OP's task there's basically no downsides. On a DDR3 platform getting 32GB on ITX would be hard/impossible, but with a B450 ITX board you can just run 2x16GB DDR4 which is easily obtainable. And that's only if OP decides they do need 32GB RAM. 

most of this comes down to how many games at once. I'm recommending the correct or safest way not the cheap way.

running a single or maybe even 4 MC servers yeah a single SSD and 16hgb of ram will work.

 

[GDRRiley]

1 minute ago, TechPrince said:

 

Definitely interested in mITX at the moment. While it's true that it may make it more difficult to upgrade further down the line, the ability to move it around with ease, and for it to take up less space, will make things so much easier in the long run. I also don't plan on having multiple HDD's or RAID configurations, or even multiple SSD's. I do plan on having an SSD in it, because it's 2020 and there's no point in using an HDD anymore lol. I only plan on having three games downloaded, as well as Minecraft running a Vanilla server. If I do decide to add mods or plugins I will need just a bit more space of course, but the truth is, a 500gb ssd will be more than plenty to handle my needs. At the moment I don't plan to keep it as a media server or file server, but strictly for the games already mentioned. Also, I very rarely play CS:GO anymore, in fact the truth is I hate the game, and only played it because my friends were playing it. Now that I've gotten my other friends into R6, they don't really play it either. I'll definitely have MC installed of course, for testing and for an OP account aside from my main account to be able to access the server and fix any issues we come across, but the truth is, even 240gb wouldn't really be a stretch.

okay now you've given us a little more information.

get 2 500 or 250gb SSD in raid 1 for storage. its the easiest way to avoid losing any data.

maybe have an external drive for a weekly backup if you care a lot about these saves.

[TekkyTG]

Here is what I've got so far:

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WNjVf9

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($124.99 @ Walmart) 
Motherboard: Asus ASUS Prime A320I-K AM4 AMD A320 SATA 6Gb/s Mini ITX AMD Motherboard Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  ($92.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($62.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($38.99 @ Best Buy) 
Storage: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($38.99 @ Best Buy) 
Case: Silverstone SG05BB-450-USB3.0 (Black) Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($59.49 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GM 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply  ($77.79 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: ATI FirePro V4800 1 GB DVI/2DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $496.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-05 18:25 EST-0500

 

 

I liked the idea of running with a RAID configuration for my Minecraft server, So I added support for that with the two separate SSD's. The Ryzen 2600 has 6 cores starting out at 3.2GHz, and although the motherboard can't overclock, after speaking with you guys, that won't matter just an awful lot. Because of that, I went with the basic, low profile stock cooler instead of getting something better. My computer also does not need wifi, as it will have an ethernet connection, as well as the fact that it's only going to be used for LAN parties, which don't need internet, of course. The memory was in general just a solid choice, and is easily upgrade-able down the line if need be. The case has everything I need, and looks great. The PSU is enough to cover the power, as well as being Gold Certified, Fully Modular, and from EVGA, who I personally use is my own gaming rig. After plenty of research and talk with you guys on here, I decided I didn't need anything great for my GPU and went with one that I've got at my house, stored in an old 1050 TI box. It's basic, barely more than a display adapter, but it used to get me over 300 fps on MC with a much lesser cpu (of course, that was in like 1.9-1.11 lmao), so it should do the job just fine.

I'm thinking that this might actually be a bit overkill for what I need actually, so if you guys want to try to knock something off on the price, go right ahead. I don't plan to change the PSU up at all, or the memory. You can change around the mobo, cpu, and storage all you like, however. The case looks great and has all I need, so it will be difficult to get me to change it, telling you right now lmao.

[TekkyTG]

Truth is, I can easily spend about 200$ on a good GPU later on and make this into a pretty strong backpack pc too.

[Slayer3032]

Yeah it's sounding pretty overkill for what you're wanting to do, you're definitely not going to have any problems with the hardware you've picked out here. My only advice is that I generally try not to buy new hardware unless it has a purpose, if something is likely just going to sit around with very occasional use I always try to buy cheap and/or used. If you see yourself being able to use a spare small form factor build for a HTPC or something down the road, go for it though.

 

The $85 Ryzen 1600 AF that's just a lower clocked 12nm Ryzen 2600 seems to still be available, that would be a solid pick for something like this over a standard 2600.

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Processor-Wraith-Stealth-YD1600BBAFBOX/dp/B07XTQZJ28

 

You'd probably be perfectly fine with like a used Ivy Bridge/Haswell i7 small form factor prebuilt, mounting your ssds wherever they fit inside the case(if that's an issue) and sticking some extra DDR3 in it. Optiplex's generally come to mind here and sometimes you can find them crazy cheap locally. There's not really an upgrade path for the SFF prebuilts though.