Need help with server

[Cowboyk56]

I'm planning on building a server and getting my own modem/internet plan. I want to be able to run a Minecraft and ark server with pfsense. With a little wiggle room for home lab. I want opinions on software, hardware, what kind of internet plan I would need, if I would benefit from multiple smaller builds or do I need more ethernet ports? 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/96ctKp

 

I'm willing to give more information and would like help with this, should I get a switch for all of this, can you have different modems/internet plans in the same house. I have a gtx 1050 ti for video out if needed. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Is this just a single minecraft server and ark server?

 

29 minutes ago, Cowboyk56 said:

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/96ctKp

This doesn't seem like a great build here to me. Most of those servers want high clock speeds/single threaded perf. Id go with something like a 10850k if you can get cheap, or a 12th gen chip. Much higher singled threaded per, lower power, intergrated graphics, and cheaper.

 

Then Id run a hypervisor on the hardware, and run a vm/container for each server. Then you can easily make snapshots, take backups, and migrate to other servers. Im personally a fan of proxmox for this, but esxi, hyper-v and others will all work well.

 

 

Network wise, Id just use your main connection if it works. Many home isps will do 2 connections to one house, you can also try doing something like 1234 main st unit 2, so its a different address, but the same location. 

 

Internet plan wise, you want upload speeds and stability for this to work well. What speed options do you want. 

[Cowboyk56]

Wouldn't I want more cores for a home lab?

[wseaton]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Is this just a single minecraft server and ark server?

 

This doesn't seem like a great build here to me. Most of those servers want high clock speeds/single threaded perf. Id go with something like a 10850k if you can get cheap, or a 12th gen chip. Much higher singled threaded per, lower power, intergrated graphics, and cheaper.

 

 

 

This^^^^^^^^^^

 

Virtualization more than anything wants faster cores. More cores are nice, but AFTER you've bought into the fastest cores you can afford. Otherwise the fastest task you can run will be limited to the speed of your fastest core. You could have a thousand physical cores, and if they have a sysmark of 1500 no process or task will run faster than 2011 speeds....period.....unless you are doing something brain dead like compressing H265. Not an expert on Minecraft, but my understanding is it's not multi threaded very good and prefers high core efficacy.

 

A 1950x has a per core benchmark of 2290 and a total sysmark of 28,000.  An i5 12600k has a single threaded benchmark of 3974 and a total sysmark of 27,563, and actually costs a bit less.

 

The i5 has double the per core performance and almost the same benchmark for all cores running. This means any server or task virtual or otherwise is capable of getting done in half the time. This is a MASSIVE difference in not only future proofing your rig but bang per buck.If you insist on going AMD get a 5800x. Single core bench is 3450 so it's respectable and the same price as the 1950x.

[Cowboyk56]

I was gonna go with amd because 16 cores for 300 dollars, but now that im thinking about it, that cpu is cheaper and the motherboard is too. Longer longevity with the newer platform. Plus if im super worried about core count, I could down the road get the 24 core i9 that will come out later. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 hours ago, Cowboyk56 said:

I was gonna go with amd because 16 cores for 300 dollars, but now that im thinking about it, that cpu is cheaper and the motherboard is too. Longer longevity with the newer platform. Plus if im super worried about core count, I could down the road get the 24 core i9 that will come out later. 

Id probably get a 10850k, then you don't have the p cores and e cores. I feel like a hypervisor won't deal well with big little.

 

I think your really over estimating your need of cores. I have a server with 4 cores, and its running about 12 windows vms with no performance problems.

[Cowboyk56]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RDywk9 would this be a better system, and is there a big software difference with e and p cores?

[Cowboyk56]

On 7/17/2022 at 11:20 AM, Electronics Wizardy said:

Is this just a single minecraft server and ark server?

 

This doesn't seem like a great build here to me. Most of those servers want high clock speeds/single threaded perf. Id go with something like a 10850k if you can get cheap, or a 12th gen chip. Much higher singled threaded per, lower power, intergrated graphics, and cheaper.

 

Then Id run a hypervisor on the hardware, and run a vm/container for each server. Then you can easily make snapshots, take backups, and migrate to other servers. Im personally a fan of proxmox for this, but esxi, hyper-v and others will all work well.

 

 

Network wise, Id just use your main connection if it works. Many home isps will do 2 connections to one house, you can also try doing something like 1234 main st unit 2, so its a different address, but the same location. 

 

Internet plan wise, you want upload speeds and stability for this to work well. What speed options do you want. 

Most likely one at a time, but I want to be able to do two at a time just in case. My current internet doesn't have bad speeds when it works well. I can be going great and download games at high speeds and then have it drop to really slow speeds. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 hours ago, Cowboyk56 said:

Most likely one at a time, but I want to be able to do two at a time just in case. My current internet doesn't have bad speeds when it works well. I can be going great and download games at high speeds and then have it drop to really slow speeds. 

An 8 core chill will still be plenty with 2 of each servers. You really don't need an extreme amount of cores here.