Dedicated MC server upgrade questions

[Blixed!]

I'm trying to upgrade a dedicated Minecraft server I made from Frankensteining two old ass pcs together. It works great, but it's running on minimum hardware and I'd like to have a small community (about 20 people at once max) able to play, so I'm trying to upgrade it. It currently has an i3 530, 6gb of ddr3 (frequency unknown 1333 max supported), and a TB hard drive (slow as molasses even for an HDD). I was thinking about an i7 860 since that's the max supported chip, but I would have to get a graphics card. I really have two questions. If I get the i7, what card should I get to output to my display that's not too pricy, but also won't choke while displaying? The other question, Should I just go for a weaker processor with integrated graphics?

 

This isn't really the topic but it would be helpful to have some advice:

-should I drop the money on an ssd or does it not matter for the server? I'm not using for anything other than the server, so I'm not worried about startup times and stuff like that.

-is the ram frequency going to matter that much for a MC server? it would be nice to spend the money on lower frequency ram and save a few bucks.

[Electronics Wizardy]

If this is just a minecraft server, single threaded speed is the big limit, and since the clock speed on those parts are simmilar, there won't big a big boos from upgrading.

 

Id probably try to just get a who newer system, like a used desktop with a 4th gen i5 or i7.

[Blixed!]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If this is just a minecraft server, single threaded speed is the big limit, and since the clock speed on those parts are simmilar, there won't big a big boos from upgrading.

 

Id probably try to just get a who newer system, like a used desktop with a 4th gen i5 or i7.

I haven't spent a dollar on the system so far, so I'm trying not to drop any big bucks on new parts. a whole new system isn't really in the question

[Electronics Wizardy]

13 minutes ago, Blixed! said:

I haven't spent a dollar on the system so far, so I'm trying not to drop any big bucks on new parts. a whole new system isn't really in the question

those used systems are less than a 100 dollars, so its really not much more than a upgrade to your current system. Once you add the gpu, upgrade to a i7 and make the ram better, your will be about the same money in for a worse system.

 

What does cpu usage look like in game? Is it near 100% or 400%?

[Blixed!]

we're just adding players until the thing starts to get a few ticks behind. 6 at most. I saw what you were saying, but i'm struggling to find something that won't break the bank on purchase. hopefully ddr3 since I already have some. 

[svmlegacy]

36 minutes ago, Blixed! said:

If I get the i7, what card should I get to output to my display that's not too pricy, but also won't choke while displaying?

Well... Are you planning to run this headless? If so, literally any PCIe card should do. For an MC server, you don't need graphics at all.

37 minutes ago, Blixed! said:

The other question, Should I just go for a weaker processor with integrated graphics?

Yes, you should. The i3-530 should be adequate for this. You'll have the same if not better single threaded performance on a i5-680 compared to the i7-860, while using much less power. MC server's are pretty much a single threaded workload. (The 680 turbo's all the way up to 3.867 GHz, while the 860 is limited to 3.467 GHz.). You also then will not need a GPU, provided your motherboard has video out.