Turning a hp proliant dl380 g7 into a lan machine

[DS9Fireblade]

Hi all, I have been watching the LTT live stream recently and saw Linus do 6 gamers one CPU and thought about giving something similar ago myself just on a much smaller scale, ie two computers one chassis for a LAN event.

The unit I have was used in an industrial setting but they retired it earlier this year and I bought it for cheap to make into a home lab but I haven't the time or knowledge to make it a home lab server but I thought about using it when I go to LAN events. 

 Obviously the idea would be to run a virtual machine off the server and add in some external graphics cards for the display and gpu stuff needed.

 

Does anyone know if one this is even possible with a hp proliant dl380 g7 and two could I run more than one machine if this worked.

 

Thanks

 

 

[jaslion]

So fyi a vm triggers every anti cheat and often results in a ban or suspension

 

So only game with no anti cheat will work. Which are very few.

 

Its totally possible to do this but its actual functionallity is low, the maintenance to keep this going is high and its quite a pain to set up also often not cheaper than just 2 rigs due to added hardware needed

[DS9Fireblade]

4 minutes ago, jaslion said:

So fyi a vm triggers every anti cheat and often results in a ban or suspension

 

So only game with no anti cheat will work. Which are very few.

 

Its totally possible to do this but its actual functionallity is low, the maintenance to keep this going is high and its quite a pain to set up also often not cheaper than just 2 rigs due to added hardware needed

Ah ok, still learning about virtual machines and to what I understood that is how you made windows work on a server style computer and because it was dual CPU I thought maybe could run a machine on each CPU. Cost isn't an issue really as already have the machine and it's not a home rig, it'll be used every now and then to check drivers are updated but will live in a portable rack for events more than anything else.

[manikyath]

a G7 isnt gonna be a good gaming experience at all, but in theory if you find a way to shove two GPU's into it, it should work?

[Needfuldoer]

HP G7 servers are Core 2 based, I doubt they'd be a good gaming experience unless you're running Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 3 Arena, Saurbraten, or Bolo. That's also assuming you have enough (expensive registered ECC) DDR2 RAM to give each VM some breathing room, and the correct power supplies to handle dedicated graphics cards.

 

You'd be better off building a small LAN out of retired office desktops.

[mMontana]

Not enough juice, too much power.

It's a really reliable and interesting device, but IMO not suitable for the goal of the OP.

[DS9Fireblade]

Thanks for the help guys I appreciate all your feedback on this and will look into getting an old office unit or something to upgrade for LAN events, now I just need to find a use for the server because I very much doubt I'd be able to sell it for its value lol.

 

 

[DS9Fireblade]

Just wondering and again looking for people's expertise here but would the unit be good for a game library, er is it a steam cache server or something along those lines?

 

That way it could still be of use to a LAN event.

 

And yes I am trying to organize one but don't have a powerful machine just a naff windows 8.1 laptop hence why I was looking at converting the server