Free Minecraft Server Build

[WakelessFoil]

A collogue recently gifted me a Dell GX520 that was decommissioned from their office. I believe it has a later Intel Pentium 4 in a LGA 775 socket and probably 1 GB of RAM. I'd like to throw maybe $50 at it and make it a Minecraft bedrock server for maximum 4 players. I'm thinking a better CPU (core 2 quad), 4 GB (mobo max) of DDR2, and a free SSD from Micro Center. What is the most effective way to do this with this machine (I am expecting the "just do something completely different" responses).

 

Thanks,

Justin

[BondiBlue]

You'd be much better off by taking that $50 and putting it towards something newer. I get that this isn't what you want to do, but running a Pentium 4/D system as a server hasn't been a sensible option in years. The OptiPlex GX520 cannot run any Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad CPUs, and the Pentium 4 and Pentium D CPUs that are compatible with your system are horribly underpowered by modern standards. I would be hesitant to run one of those machines 24/7 for any purpose, even something that doesn't need much CPU horsepower. 

[Needfuldoer]

That potato isn't going to make a very fun Minecraft server. All the CPUs supported by the GX 520 are space heaters that moonlight as processors.

 

You're better off renting a server, or spinning up an instance on Oracle Cloud.

 

https://blogs.oracle.com/developers/post/how-to-set-up-and-run-a-really-powerful-free-minecraft-server-in-the-cloud

 

If you really want to buy hardware, get a Sandy Bridge or better office PC and turn that into a server. Even if it "only" has 8 gigs of RAM and an i5, it's going to run circles around a maxed-out GX 520.

[WakelessFoil]

1 hour ago, BondiBlue said:

You'd be much better off by taking that $50 and putting it towards something newer. I get that this isn't what you want to do, but running a Pentium 4/D system as a server hasn't been a sensible option in years. The OptiPlex GX520 cannot run any Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad CPUs, and the Pentium 4 and Pentium D CPUs that are compatible with your system are horribly underpowered by modern standards. I would be hesitant to run one of those machines 24/7 for any purpose, even something that doesn't need much CPU horsepower. 

I don't understand. Doesn't the LGA 775 socket support those CPUs? I just want to find something useful to do with this machine. What is keeping me from upgrading the CPU?

[BondiBlue]

9 minutes ago, WakelessFoil said:

I don't understand. Doesn't the LGA 775 socket support those CPUs? I just want to find something useful to do with this machine. What is keeping me from upgrading the CPU?

The socket supports the CPU, but that doesn't mean the rest of the computer supports it. The chipset in that old OptiPlex doesn't support Core 2 Duo and Quad chips. It just doesn't. There are no reasonable ways to turn that computer into a Minecraft server without it being a slow energy hog. I'm sorry to put it so bluntly, but that's where the Pentium 4 and Pentium D chips are these days. 

[Pasi123]

17 minutes ago, WakelessFoil said:

I don't understand. Doesn't the LGA 775 socket support those CPUs? I just want to find something useful to do with this machine. What is keeping me from upgrading the CPU?

Your PC was released before Core2 even existed, the VRM on the motherboard isn't compatible with any Core2 CPUs. Neither is the BIOS.

Some boards with the 945G chipset are compatible with early Core2 Duo's but not that one.

 

You can get a much newer and more powerful system for $50

[WakelessFoil]

47 minutes ago, Pasi123 said:

Your PC was released before Core2 even existed, the VRM on the motherboard isn't compatible with any Core2 CPUs. Neither is the BIOS.

Some boards with the 945G chipset are compatible with early Core2 Duo's but not that one.

 

You can get a much newer and more powerful system for $50

Ha! not where I am from! People are really charging $200 on marketplace and craigslist for 15 year old laptops.

 

I thought the core 2 duo came out before 2006. Maybe I am wrong.

[FuzzyLogic]

I don't think this would work very well, although it might be possible. Last year I ran a Minecraft server for 5 concurrent players using a system with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and 8GB of RAM. It was definitely playable, but it had latency issues pretty often. Moving to a more modern system made a night and day difference and the people playing on it had a much better time. My suggestion is to save the $50 and instead rent a server from a minecraft server hosting site.

 

Something like https://aternos.org/:en/ would probably work for this. My friends and I have used it before and it's free as well.

[Pasi123]

1 hour ago, WakelessFoil said:

Ha! not where I am from! People are really charging $200 on marketplace and craigslist for 15 year old laptops.

 

I thought the core 2 duo came out before 2006. Maybe I am wrong.

The Dell GX520 was released in 2005 and Core2 Duo in 2006. OptiPlex 745 was the first one with Core2 Duo support.

 

I ran a Minecraft 1.4.* server on an IBM ThinkCentre S50 with a Pentium 4 HT 3.0GHz a decade ago. It ran somewhat decently with 15-20 players but obviously Minecraft has changed a lot since then.

Minecraft Bedrock is a completely different game so I have no idea how that would run on a P4. Last time I ran a Bedrock server it was still called Pocket Edition and that was on a Core2 Duo E8400 which is much faster than anything the GX520 supports

[jaslion]

The gx520 uses a chipset that does NOT support any intel core series cpu. It only supports certain p4's and celerons.

 

Even if you got a core 2 in there the most youd at most want to go as far as 4 players on mc 1.7 as after that it got A LOT harder to run and simply forget about using it past 1.13 to host a server. I tried and even alone its basically a constant "server can't keep up skipped x miliseconds" perpetually. 4gb of ram is also just not enough for any modern mc version.

 

A p4 was barely enough to run 1.7 server it is not going to work.

 

Its why I retired my core 2 q6600 game server 5 years ago. It quite literally couldnt run a mc server with 3 people active without skipping. This was vanilla mc even.

 

Since this one is limited to pentium 4s its basically a lost cause. That and these things are VERY INNEFICIENT. Likr it will be pinned to 100% nearly all the time and you are going to seriously feel that on the power bill.