Old server blade for Minecraft and other games?

[star_pilot475]

Hey guys, been a while since I’ve been on here. I’m not exactly fluent or experienced when it comes to enterprise servers. I’ve had old desktops running as servers for a long time, and know how to make them work, but I’d like to start experimenting with something that’s got a little more punch to it. I’m looking at purchasing an old server blade for Minecraft, maybe some NAS and some other miscellaneous game server hosting. Can I just buy an old Dell Poweredge with 16 cores of ancient Xeon, 64GB ram and have it run everything, or would it be a little too old for even these tasks? Thanks in advance! 

[Lord Szechenyi]

9 minutes ago, star_pilot475 said:

Hey guys, been a while since I’ve been on here. I’m not exactly fluent or experienced when it comes to enterprise servers. I’ve had old desktops running as servers for a long time, and know how to make them work, but I’d like to start experimenting with something that’s got a little more punch to it. I’m looking at purchasing an old server blade for Minecraft, maybe some NAS and some other miscellaneous game server hosting. Can I just buy an old Dell Poweredge with 16 cores of ancient Xeon, 64GB ram and have it run everything, or would it be a little too old for even these tasks? Thanks in advance! 

depends how old the processor, having 16 cores isn't everything.

 

I also don't know if you need specific things (random example, h265 encoding) which might not be supported by old processors.

 

Otherwise, should be good.

[star_pilot475]

6 minutes ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

depends how old the processor, having 16 cores isn't everything.

 

I also don't know if you need specific things (random example, h265 encoding) which might not be supported by old processors.

 

Otherwise, should be good.

CPU would be fairly old, the one I was looking at had 2 Xeon e5-2680s. 

[Lord Szechenyi]

1 minute ago, star_pilot475 said:

CPU would be fairly old, the one I was looking at had 2 Xeon e5-2680s. 

 

I think it should be fine.

[star_pilot475]

Just now, Lord Szechenyi said:

 

I think it should be fine.

Sweet, thanks man. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

what model blade server? Normally blade servers have a proprietary backplane and you need the 10u box to use the server at all.

[jaslion]

37 minutes ago, star_pilot475 said:

CPU would be fairly old, the one I was looking at had 2 Xeon e5-2680s. 

Pretty low end single core performance. How many players will you have?

 

What blade server is it? A lot of blade servers need other equipment to function too. So make sure you get a standalone. Keep in mind these things will be EXTREMELY loud and have to be otherwise they cook themselves.

 

Also how much is that server? Do not overpay. This is 12 year old hardware.

[manikyath]

for a minecraft server you *NEED* single core performance. yes, it'll run some stuff in multiple threads, but the main tick thread is very important for a smooth experience, and your ancient box can have a LOT of performance across it's 16 cores, but if the tick thread cant handle a load spike, it's gonna lag to shreds.

[Blue4130]

I think you mean rack mount, not blade. Blades are a proprietary server that slots into a chassis that holds the psu and occasionally networking and other stuff. If you do mean blade, don't buy it. Buy a 1u or 2u rack mount server like a dell r230 or r730, but be prepared for noise. 

[star_pilot475]

Well darn guys. I didn’t see these extra posts. Unit arrived today and I figured out that it’s not gonna work without Dell’s enclosure. 
 

 

edit: this is what happens when you’re not used to something and try to dive head first into it…

[Needfuldoer]

17 hours ago, star_pilot475 said:

Well darn guys. I didn’t see these extra posts. Unit arrived today and I figured out that it’s not gonna work without Dell’s enclosure. 
 

 

edit: this is what happens when you’re not used to something and try to dive head first into it…

Yeah, rack servers aren't "blade" servers. It's an easy mistake to make, but hopefully you'll only make it once!

 

The good news is the CPU and RAM from the blade can go into a barebones server from the same era. (PowerEdge R620 or 720, or a Precision 3600 tower. Don't get an R320, R420, or R520 though; they take E5-2400 CPUs which are on a different, short lived socket.) If you don't want to return the whole thing, that's an option.

[star_pilot475]

I returned the blade unit, and ordered a different one. Found a 1u rackmount with similar specs (a regular old power supply!) and ordered it. Only downside is it doesn’t have as much ram, but I’ll make it work.