Starting a new server

[uCruz]

Country: Brazil

Budget: Uncertain, maybe R$150($30) to R$200($40)

Parts: I3-3220 DDR3 Motherboard Asrock H61M-DGS with 4gb of ram

I've always had the plan to make a minecraft server to play with friends, and now an opportunity presented itself, I had to make an upgrade on my computer and with that had to buy lots of new parts, leaving pretty much another working computer just laying around, and the idea of transforming that computer in a dedicated server to run only the minecraft server appeared, if I'm going to be able to do it, still a question to be answered.

 

What I have here is a I3-3220 in an DDR3 Asrock H61M-DGS motherboard with DDR3 4gb of ram, since according to google this CPU uses 77w i'll buy an 200w power suply for around R$69($14), I'm still not sure if it's worth it buying a new power suply just to try this out but whatever, to save some money and not invest on something I'm not sure it's really going to work I was thinking of using an pendrive as the hard drive, I'll install Ubuntu Server on it and just try to get the thing rolling, If it does work, if needed I'm willing to invest on 8gb of ram and if the USB dosn't cut it, an SSD of 128gb or anything I find cheaper.

 

The thing I have more doubt on is, if it's going to work to use an pendrive as hard drive or it is a total bust and it's not going to work, that's why I'm here, to hear some ideas and feedback, if I'm crazy or if this has any chance of working.

 

(btw I have no Idea on how to work the Ubuntu Server, I'm going to use some youtube video to guide me) (Sorry for any spelling mistakes, as the currency suggests I'm from Brazil, so keep that in mind while reading... Well you already did)

Edited July 5, 2023 by uCruz
Adding more info

[Xiee]

I've setup personal minecraft servers before. Using a pendrive is a BAD idea. Even an old HDD will be better than that. Depending on how many players you are expecting to be on the server at any given time, and depending on what you're doing on your Minecraft server (mods, custom clients, etc), 4GB is enough for around 10-15 players online, though you may notice some stuttering if something really processor intensive starts to happen (like players discovering new areas on the map or if you have multiple redstone projects/builds going on). 

I was using an old Ryzen 1600 with 8GB DDR4 RAM on that thing and it was good enough for my buddies (11 of us online at the same time) and me doing lots of stuff on it. It ran on ArchLinux. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Country?

Budget?

Existing parts?

 

10 minutes ago, uCruz said:

i'll buy an 200w power suply for around R$69($14)

Thats problably a pile of trash and definitely a ripoff, you can find used 500-600w units around that price

 

Also just take a pic of the mobo if you dont know what specific model it is

 

Also ssds are really cheap nowadays, 120gb should be <10$

[uCruz]

11 minutes ago, Xiee said:

I've setup personal minecraft servers before. Using a pendrive is a BAD idea. Even an old HDD will be better than that. Depending on how many players you are expecting to be on the server at any given time, and depending on what you're doing on your Minecraft server (mods, custom clients, etc), 4GB is enough for around 10-15 players online, though you may notice some stuttering if something really processor intensive starts to happen (like players discovering new areas on the map or if you have multiple redstone projects/builds going on). 

I was using an old Ryzen 1600 with 8GB DDR4 RAM on that thing and it was good enough for my buddies (11 of us online at the same time) and me doing lots of stuff on it. It ran on ArchLinux. 

I plan on using the pendrive just to know if I can get the thing to work, after that I'll then surely get a SSD and see where things go.

[manikyath]

27 minutes ago, uCruz said:

I was thinking of using an pendrive as the hard drive

i am unable to express the amount of "dont" here...

[uCruz]

29 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Country?

Budget?

Existing parts?

 

Thats problably a pile of trash and definitely a ripoff, you can find used 500-600w units around that price

 

Also just take a pic of the mobo if you dont know what specific model it is

 

Also ssds are really cheap nowadays, 120gb should be <10$

As I said there, I'm from Brazil, I don't really have a limit budget, I just hope to spend the least amount on it possible, we can say around R$150($30) maybe R$200($40), what I have here is I3-3220 ddr3 4gb ram, motherboard is an Asrock H61M-DGS, If I were to get a power suply from a more reliable source, I could get it from Amazon 200w Fortrek for R$65(~$14), I don't think I would need more power than that, but I'm not really sure.

[Total Epicnessᴭᴺ]

Minecraft servers aren't really performance intensive IF you run unmodified/lightly modded and pre-generate chunks.  I managed to get a 24/7 minecraft server working with a RockPro64 4GB model that runs at a stable 20 TPS with 11 players online.

 

I'd recommend you get a decent SSD for the server since your CPU is already good enough. RAM shouldn't be an issue at 4GB as long as you have around 10 or so people. More than that and I'd recommend 6-8GB. Java is a language that fills up its available memory before running garbage collection cycles so don't worry about it hitting its max. More memory = less GC cycles = better performance.

 

This is also a good guide should you want to run it even more efficiently.

https://github.com/YouHaveTrouble/minecraft-optimization

 

[uCruz]

19 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i am unable to express the amount of "dont" here...

I figured it was going to be bad, in the video I saw, it was installing windowns, wich they said it took hours to update drivers, but since I was going to run only Ubuntu Server just to see If I even can get it to work and then change to something like an SSD for the final thing. I guess I could borrow and external drive just to get it to work and then switch for an SSD.

[thevictor390]

The pen drive will "work" if you want to use it as a proof of concept, it will just be slow. The other way to potentially use it is to set up the server in a RAM disk, I have done that a long time ago. Not sure if it is still viable. That server had 2 GB of RAM but you probably need more nowadays.

https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tutorials/Ramdisk_enabled_server

[uCruz]

11 minutes ago, thevictor390 said:

The pen drive will "work" if you want to use it as a proof of concept, it will just be slow. The other way to potentially use it is to set up the server in a RAM disk, I have done that a long time ago. Not sure if it is still viable. That server had 2 GB of RAM but you probably need more nowadays.

https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tutorials/Ramdisk_enabled_server

Very interesting, although I think it's light years beyond anything I can do lmao, I'll try to get everything set up and see if something works, if serves of anything, I'll keep this updated.

[Xiee]

1 hour ago, uCruz said:

Very interesting, although I think it's light years beyond anything I can do lmao, I'll try to get everything set up and see if something works, if serves of anything, I'll keep this updated.

Let us know how it goes. I'm curious as to how you'll be able to setup your server.

[The Hope]

14 hours ago, uCruz said:

Since according to google this CPU uses 77w i'll buy an 200w power suply for around R$69($14)

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/65693/intel-core-i33220-processor-3m-cache-3-30-ghz.html

TDP: 55 W

 

200w power suply  should be enough. Make sure it's at least gold certified if you plan to run the server 24/7.

 

14 hours ago, uCruz said:

If it does work, if needed I'm willing to invest on 8gb of ram.

To be quite honest, this is no longer 'an investment' for a long time.

I have almost the exact same CPU and I've been able to combine the following RAM with no problem:

Kingston ValueRAM 4 GB DDR3-1600

1,5 volt

Timings CL11 11-11-35

 

G.Skill 4 GB DDR3-1600

1,5 volt

Timings CL11 11-11-28

 

Like you, I only had 4GB of RAM available. But I was able to upgrade this RAM to 8GB for 8.5 EUR.

 

I can also say from experience that FreeBSD is a better system for servers (more reliable, faster and easier to maintain) than Ubuntu.

I would recommend it for building a Minecraft server:

https://freebsdfoundation.org/resource/easy-minecraft-server-on-freebsd/