Best CPU for a minecraft server

[pomtom44]

Hi all

I run a minecraft server for some friends, but we are running into problems with the server being overworked

at times getting alerts of being 200+ seconds behind, and often around 40-80 seconds

 

The Specs im running at the moment is a i3-4170 12GB ram (8 allocated to the server) SSD, ubuntu server 16 + java 8

I have had a look at what players are doing and it appears to be when a few players are loading new chunks quite quickly (running along the nether roof for example to get really far out)
The rest of the time the server is okay, but as more people come online and explore, the lag times get more frequent, often to the point where even I cant join and see whos causing the issues

I believe the CPU is my bottleneck here (although ram seems to be quite high as well during these peaks, and not sure if running a raid SSD will help with writing the new chunks when they are generated?)

Doing some reading online minecraft is really only a single threaded process, yes it runs multiple threads for certain things, but the main process is run on one thread which is why I got the i3-4170 originally
(cheap deal on a second hand site, and had a okay ish benchmark for single threaded performance)

I had tried on a i5-4570t but was getting the same problem
I also have a i7-3770 which I can re-use for this, but looking on cpu benchmark I wont get much of a single thread performance boost by swapping
And I dont know how much of a better experience ill get from the better multithread score on the server

(and id rather not go though the process of backing up the stuff I have running on the i7 machine, re-install the MC server, copy over the data, to just find its exactly the same
Then move everything back so I can keep using the i7 for what it was originally used for

Im looking at buying a new CPU to counteract this, but i have no idea what line of thought to go down
I dont have a very high budget, so I cant just go out and get a i9
But i keep bouncing around forums and deal sites without actually getting anywhere and im sure iv looked at the same benchmarks multiple times without realising just cos i was tired after a few hours of research

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by pomtom44
accidentally hit post too early

[Massyyy]

Minecraft runs one a per core basis, Your cores might not be the issue, have much ram do you have to the server, and is it ddr4 or ddr3?

[Fasauceome]

Minecraft servers run better on faster single threaded performance. Older CPUs with higher clocks are recommended, if you have the motherboard that was using the 4570T you might want to try a 4770, or a used Xeon, such as an E3-1231 v3

[pomtom44]

3 minutes ago, Massyyy said:

Minecraft runs one a per core basis, Your cores might not be the issue, have much ram do you have to the server, and is it ddr4 or ddr3?

Sorry hit post a little to early, go back and read my edit

[pomtom44]

3 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Minecraft servers run better on faster single threaded performance. Older CPUs with higher clocks are recommended, if you have the motherboard that was using the 4570T you might want to try a 4770, or a used Xeon, such as an E3-1231 v3

Sorry hit post a little to early, go back and read my edit

[Fasauceome]

Just now, pomtom44 said:

Sorry hit post a little to early, go back and read my edit

If you were looking to consider new hardware, the new Ryzen 3 3100 at $100 (available in a few days) has great single threaded performance and 4c/8t so it would make for a pretty decent server CPU on a tight budget.

[pomtom44]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

If you were looking to consider new hardware, the new Ryzen 3 3100 at $100 (available in a few days) has great single threaded performance and 4c/8t so it would make for a pretty decent server CPU on a tight budget.

Im in NZ where a cheap CPU for you is still upwards of a few hundred for me
and we probs wont get it for a few weeks knowing how behind we are on the market

[Massyyy]

4 minutes ago, pomtom44 said:

Sorry hit post a little to early, go back and read my edit

Its all good,

your best bet would be an used xeon or what fasauceome said a Ryzen would work too on a budget, but you may benefit if its the nether, preloading a large amount of the chunks, Ive ran mc networks in my time and sometimes its just something you cant avoid no matter the specs, just to avoid the issue of spending money all together is just to load the chunks with a chunk loading plugin, that might fix the lag issue

 

[Fasauceome]

4 minutes ago, pomtom44 said:

Im in NZ where a cheap CPU for you is still upwards of a few hundred for me
and we probs wont get it for a few weeks knowing how behind we are on the market

Well then anything cheap from the used market with a good frequency is something to consider. Friend of mine ran a 5960X while hosting the server and gaming at the same time, pretty comparable to 4770k in single threaded.

[pomtom44]

7 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Minecraft servers run better on faster single threaded performance. Older CPUs with higher clocks are recommended, if you have the motherboard that was using the 4570T you might want to try a 4770, or a used Xeon, such as an E3-1231 v3

No one around here is selling eithe of those new.... id have to look on second hand sites and hope I get a good deal / can find one
Is there a better option for the i3-4170 board?

Or any other better performance cpu's reguarless of budget so I know what i would be aiming for
(when i say low budget im still happy to go to like 7-900NZ)

[pomtom44]

5 minutes ago, Massyyy said:

Its all good,

your best bet would be an used xeon or what fasauceome said a Ryzen would work too on a budget, but you may benefit if its the nether, preloading a large amount of the chunks, Ive ran mc networks in my time and sometimes its just something you cant avoid no matter the specs, just to avoid the issue of spending money all together is just to load the chunks with a chunk loading plugin, that might fix the lag issue

 

I have a block around the common areas which is already loaded, is when a player decides they want to go out to 1million blocks out
I just dont have the disk space to pre-load all that area haha

[pomtom44]

2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Well then anything cheap from the used market with a good frequency is something to consider. Friend of mine ran a 5960X while hosting the server and gaming at the same time, pretty comparable to 4770k in single threaded.

but my understanding is correct of get like a 4 core but a high clock?
im currently comparing on cpubenchmark.net and looking at the single threaded performance to see whats better
Looking at their rankings for single threaded as well to see whats near the top that I can get here in NZ

Is that a good strategy? or wrong thought process?

[Fasauceome]

5 minutes ago, pomtom44 said:

No one around here is selling eithe of those new..

Because they're ancient. You'd never want to buy one of those new, it'd cost about $300. 

5 minutes ago, pomtom44 said:

Is there a better option for the i3-4170 board?

Any i5 or i7 without a T or S should be decent for a server. Also, are you using enough ram? 16GB of DDR3 should be cheap.

 

1 minute ago, pomtom44 said:

but my understanding is correct of get like a 4 core but a high clock?
im currently comparing on cpubenchmark.net

Don't use a ranking website for relative performance, their data is often quite flawed.

[Massyyy]

1 minute ago, pomtom44 said:

I have a block around the common areas which is already loaded, is when a player decides they want to go out to 1million blocks out
I just dont have the disk space to pre-load all that area haha

hm, seems strange, maybe just limit the world if they decide to go out that far 100kx100k would maybe work, just ask your players to not go out that far due to disk space, otherwise a new cpu will be your best bet, or if you dont want to spend a good amount on a new cpu right now you could get a hosting platform for pretty cheap, i know of some hosting thats 1$ to 1.50$ a gb. Its a cheaper alternative if you want to consider it that way. 

[pomtom44]

Just now, Massyyy said:

hm, seems strange, maybe just limit the world if they decide to go out that far 100kx100k would maybe work, just ask your players to not go out that far due to disk space, otherwise a new cpu will be your best bet, or if you dont want to spend a good amount on a new cpu right now you could get a hosting platform for pretty cheap, i know of some hosting thats 1$ to 1.50$ a gb. Its a cheaper alternative if you want to consider it that way. 

id rather spend the money and host myself, than use a shared host
id still have the same problems with a shared host unless i get a overpowered CPU + RAM combination from them, which would cost more than just getting the hardware in the first place

 

[pomtom44]

4 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Because they're ancient. You'd never want to buy one of those new, it'd cost about $300. 

Any i5 or i7 without a T or S should be decent for a server. Also, are you using enough ram? 16GB of DDR3 should be cheap.

 

Don't use a ranking website for relative performance, their data is often quite flawed.

but im looking for a high clock count as well?
So eg a i5-9400 at 2.9 wouldnt do better than a i3-9100 at 3.6?

Not the best at hardware ill admit haha

[Massyyy]

1 minute ago, pomtom44 said:

id rather spend the money and host myself, than use a shared host
id still have the same problems with a shared host unless i get a overpowered CPU + RAM combination from them, which would cost more than just getting the hardware in the first place

 

May as well get an 8 core xeon, you can find some good ones on ebay

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, pomtom44 said:

but im looking for a high clock count as well?
So eg a i5-9400 at 2.9 wouldnt do better than a i3-9100 at 3.6?

Not the best at hardware ill admit haha

those are both the base clocks, both of those CPUs will be operating at much higher clocks.

[pomtom44]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

those are both the base clocks, both of those CPUs will be operating at much higher clocks.

so i need to look at the turbo boost clock?
i3 @ na   i5 @ 4.1?

[Fasauceome]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:14 PM, pomtom44 said:

so i need to look at the turbo boost clock?
i3 @ na   i5 @ 4.1?

the i3 boosts to 4.2

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134870/intel-core-i3-9100-processor-6m-cache-up-to-4-20-ghz.html

That is the single core boost, all core boost will be a bit slower, probably around 4GHz or 3.9.

 

Here is the wikichip spec for the i5-9400:

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/core_i5/i5-9400

[pomtom44]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

the i3 boosts to 4.2

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134870/intel-core-i3-9100-processor-6m-cache-up-to-4-20-ghz.html

That is the single core boost, all core boost will be a bit slower, probably around 4GHz or 3.9.

 

Here is the wikichip spec for the i5-9400:

https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/core_i5/i5-9400

hmm ok so the site im looking at buying from has it listed as no boost haha

So im looking at cost vs boost
a i3-9100 at $220 boosting to 4.2  vs a i5-9600KF at $360 boosting to 4.6

Is it worth the extra $140 for that slightly higher boost?
 

[Fasauceome]

Just now, pomtom44 said:

Is it worth the extra $140 for that slightly higher boost?

for just a minecraft server with some friends, probably not.

 

any options on the used market for an 8400?

[pomtom44]

2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

for just a minecraft server with some friends, probably not.

 

any options on the used market for an 8400?

cheapest one i can find on our local markets is nearly $500
Unless i go ebay but those take about a month on average to ship out + we have delays due to our country being in lockdown so would be more like 6-8 weeks to get here

[Fasauceome]

Just now, pomtom44 said:

cheapest one i can find on our local markets is nearly $500
Unless i go ebay but those take about a month on average to ship out + we have delays due to our country being in lockdown so would be more like 6-8 weeks to get here

in which case, the i3 would not be a bad choice.

[pomtom44]

1 minute ago, Fasauceome said:

in which case, the i3 would not be a bad choice.

cool, 
Ram i have 16GB in mind, i guess it doesnt matter too much about what type? looking at 2666mhz?
Also my question about raided ssd's for write performance, would that help at all? or is that a bit too overpowered for what im expecting
I never did a test to see if they were a bottleneck or not