Minecraft Server Hardware Choices (Not sure where to post this)

[jsnotlout1]

I'm running two minecraft servers constantly. One on a raspberrypi4 4 GB the other on an orange pi. Recently, the two small computers have not been doing great with the heavy load as they weren't meant for this. Im not going to build a new computer for them, and I dont really have a big budget so I decided to look at old dell prebuilts on ebay. I found some choices but im not sure if they will work well for running 1, maybe two minecraft servers.

they both have 3 ghz and four cores at the least I just want to know what you guys think of these:

 

Choice One:

CPU - Core i5-6500

Ram -  8GB DDR4

Price: 59.99 USD

 

Choice Two:

CPU - Core i5-4570

Ram - 16GB DDR4

Price: 69.88 USD

 

Edit Third Choice:

I have an old AMD Phenom II X6 1090t with 8gb of DDR3 Laying around. It doesnt run at the full rated speed for some reason, possibly due to it never being cleaned, ever.

I don't know how it would run

 

I will be throwing an SSD in either one so that free performance

The server software comprises a Minecraft Paper or Fabric server running 24/7 with 4-5 players active at peak times. All running on Ubuntu Linux server

Honestly, I think either one is up to the task, but I think 16GB would be better if I run two servers.

If you know any other options feel free to tell me. I just want something better than my poor raspberry pi 4 4GB

(And for those asking, Yes I know I could use realms or a hosting site. But I love messing around with local hardware and enjoy the freedom I get with it)

[thekingofmonks]

I think option 2 would be the wisest choice given the amount of RAM, although I'm fairly certain that a 4570 does not support ddr4. You might even be able to add those 8GB you already have.

 

The 1090t might be good enough but it's just way too power hungry, even when undervolting.

Speaking of undervolting, you can undervolt the 4570 so that it runs at ~60W under load instead of 80W. Less heat and more efficient.

[jsnotlout1]

You are correct, the Core i5-4570 does not support DDR4. Seller error perhaps?

I'm not sure if I want the 8GB of DDR4 or the 16GB of DDR3. I think DDR3 is fast enough to run a minecraft server.

I do like the idea of being able to undervolt the 4570, That would keep yearly costs even lower.

Also, you know of any reason the 1090t isn't going above like 1.5 GHZ on windows 10?

Thanks for you help!

 

[NelizMastr]

The i5-6500 is significantly faster on single thread than a 4570, but both are kinda slow nowadays. 

Minecraft can't utilize a ton of cores very well and mostly wants fast cores. 

 

That 1090T is probably bottlenecked by a low end board without VRM cooling, some people think a $40 board and top end CPU go well together

That or throttling, AMD CPUs of that era throttled between 60-70 degrees already. 

 

8GB is plenty for a single vanilla server.

[jsnotlout1]

oh that makes sense. I'm pretty sure that the motherboard is lower end. And the CPU colling fan hasn't been cleaned in like 7 years. It was an old family PC that I kept, for, well I don't really know but I was hoping it would be helpful for something. 

 

Even though the i56500 is slow nowadays, I think it will be fine if I just use Ubuntu. That way most of the power is available for the server.

[jsnotlout1]

17 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

The i5-6500 is significantly faster on single thread than a 4570, but both are kinda slow nowadays. 

Minecraft can't utilize a ton of cores very well and mostly wants fast cores. 

 

That 1090T is probably bottlenecked by a low end board without VRM cooling, some people think a $40 board and top end CPU go well together

That or throttling, AMD CPUs of that era throttled between 60-70 degrees already. 

 

8GB is plenty for a single vanilla server.

Do you think the 6500 is too slow for what Im doing? It will only be running ubuntu linux and servers.

[MG2R]

It'll be heaps faster than your current solution for sure. Go with option one. If you do end up outgrowing the memory capacity: DDR4 is pretty cheap second hand.

 

I think if you shop around you'll be able to get option 1 with another 8 GB stick of RAM for the same price as option2, making it the clearly better solution.

[WoodenMarker]

On 6/25/2023 at 12:26 AM, jsnotlout1 said:

Also, you know of any reason the 1090t isn't going above like 1.5 GHZ on windows 10?

What are you using to check clock speeds?

[jsnotlout1]

On 6/28/2023 at 7:47 PM, WoodenMarker said:

What are you using to check clock speeds?

Sorry for late reply. I used task manager. And it performance was awful. Way worse than a 1090t should be

[WoodenMarker]

3 hours ago, jsnotlout1 said:

Sorry for late reply. I used task manager. And it performance was awful. Way worse than a 1090t should be

Task Manager doesn't give accurate output for cpu clock speed. Try something else like HWinfo. 

[Bersella AI]

On 6/25/2023 at 3:26 PM, jsnotlout1 said:

Also, you know of any reason the 1090t isn't going above like 1.5 GHZ on windows 10?

In idle, any modern processors will switch their frequencies to lower tiers (like 800 MHz spotted on my 16-year-old Athlon X2 4000+, which ran 2.1 G under full load).

 

The frequencies reported by the Windows Task Manager are estimated, they count the average of all values happened in a second, and not the real-world values.