NAS for games

[GlitchyB0i143]

I wanted to make a dedicated NAS for starting a minecraft server ( instead of paying for a realms subscription ) so I don't have a capped amount of players, except I don't know where to start. I am more geared toward general gaming pc hardware knowledge but servers, NAS and networking isn't exactly my forte, so parts lists and advice would be appreciated.

[whispous]

2 hours ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

I wanted to make a dedicated NAS for starting a minecraft server ( instead of paying for a realms subscription ) so I don't have a capped amount of players, except I don't know where to start. I am more geared toward general gaming pc hardware knowledge but servers, NAS and networking isn't exactly my forte, so parts lists and advice would be appreciated.

Good news! It can be easier than it looks!

What you're looking for is a server. NAS (network attached storage) is probably better thought of as a service you run on a server than the name of the whole thing.

 

All a server needs to be is a computer. Do you have any unused computers or are you looking to buy one?

Will you be running any mods? How many simultaneous users will you want logged into the minecraft world? And what's your upload speed to the internet?

[GlitchyB0i143]

5 hours ago, whispous said:

Do you have any unused computers or are you looking to buy one?

Will you be running any mods? How many simultaneous users will you want logged into the minecraft world? And what's your upload speed to the internet?

Looking to buy one.

 

I will be running a few mods to up the immersion of it, including the Serene seasons mod, Tough as nails mod, Fresh animations etc. I would like at least up to 12 users but 20+ would be nice. My current WiFi upload speed is an average of 374 but I imagine thats not very impressive in terms of how an NAS works.

[Bismut]

20 minutes ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

My current WiFi upload speed is an average of 374 but I imagine thats not very impressive in terms of how an NAS works.

I mean, that depends on how much minecraft actually needs, and 374MBit is nothing to scoff at. I would recommend something like an Intel i5-13400 to you (because intel still is single thread king, I think? Correct me if I am wrong please), paired with a cheap-ish µATX-board (no need to get fancy; less complicated boards are cheaper, will draw less power and any VRM should be able to handle the 13400, especially with the intel box cooler) and at least 32GB of RAM, ideally 64GB+.

For a case, I would go with the Fractal Design R5. It can hold 8 HDDs, two 5,25" drives (to rip movies/CDs) and is insulated, meaning that it should be reasonably quiet and living room friendly.
What is your budget, and what else are you planning to do with the server?

[GlitchyB0i143]

15 minutes ago, Bismut said:

What is your budget, and what else are you planning to do with the server?

My budget ( based on this info ) is around 1800 but I can be willing to go a little over.

Honestly just running this minecraft server is all it is going to be used for its lifespan, unless I find something other to use it on.

And will hard drives be enough to give a sufficient experience without experiencing (much) lag?

[whispous]

3 hours ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

My budget ( based on this info ) is around 1800 but I can be willing to go a little over.

Honestly just running this minecraft server is all it is going to be used for its lifespan, unless I find something other to use it on.

And will hard drives be enough to give a sufficient experience without experiencing (much) lag?

Assuming that's dollars, you're budgeted high for this. You're gonna get a brilliantly overpowered server for minecraft for 20 people.

 

Your upload of 300+ MB to the internet (I assume that's a speedtest of the internet, not your local network) is way beyond what you'd need too.

Next step: OS choice! You can use Windows, Linux or something inbetween that hosts one of them like TrueNAS or Unraid.

What else do you wanna do with the server?
IMO don't bother with hard drives at all if you don't want bulk storage - a couple of 1tb SSD for not much money out of the budget will be perfect.

[GlitchyB0i143]

1 hour ago, whispous said:

Assuming that's dollars, you're budgeted high for this. You're gonna get a brilliantly overpowered server for minecraft for 20 people.

 

Your upload of 300+ MB to the internet (I assume that's a speedtest of the internet, not your local network) is way beyond what you'd need too.

Next step: OS choice! You can use Windows, Linux or something inbetween that hosts one of them like TrueNAS or Unraid.

What else do you wanna do with the server?
IMO don't bother with hard drives at all if you don't want bulk storage - a couple of 1tb SSD for not much money out of the budget will be perfect.

I have some questions,

If this was you, what would be your ideal budget? I am just throwing out a number that would be the max amount.

Since the upkeep of the server would be its only choice what else would you do with it?

and honestly I have heard good things about TrueNAS so maybe that one.

[whispous]

12 minutes ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

I have some questions,

If this was you, what would be your ideal budget? I am just throwing out a number that would be the max amount.

Since the upkeep of the server would be its only choice what else would you do with it?

and honestly I have heard good things about TrueNAS so maybe that one.

I'd spend maybe $800 ish, and go with TrueNAS as i'm familiar with it.

Three SSDs:

One for the TrueNAS OS, and two for truenas to turn into a pool which I'd host the VMs on

[GlitchyB0i143]

13 minutes ago, whispous said:

I'd spend maybe $800 ish, and go with TrueNAS as i'm familiar with it.

Three SSDs:

One for the TrueNAS OS, and two for truenas to turn into a pool which I'd host the VMs on

So what parts would you recommend?

This was my original part list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black 55 CFM CPU Cooler  
Motherboard: Asus Prime X299-A II ATX LGA2066 Motherboard  
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 4 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 4 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive   
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case  
Power Supply: SeaSonic PRIME Ultra Platinum 750 750 W 80+ Platinum Modular ATX Power Supply  
Wired Network Adapter: Intel X540-T2 2 x 10 Gb/s Ethernet PCIe x8 Network Adapter  
Total: $1699.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

[whispous]

12 minutes ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

So what parts would you recommend?

This was my original part list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black 55 CFM CPU Cooler  
Motherboard: Asus Prime X299-A II ATX LGA2066 Motherboard  
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 4 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 4 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive   
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case  
Power Supply: SeaSonic PRIME Ultra Platinum 750 750 W 80+ Platinum Modular ATX Power Supply  
Wired Network Adapter: Intel X540-T2 2 x 10 Gb/s Ethernet PCIe x8 Network Adapter  
Total: $1699.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

That's an odd choice of potential CPU - it's now ancient (by tech standards) and very expensive, while not delivering any real benefit.

 

Maybe check out second hand 10th or 11th Gen i7+motherboard bundles? 128GB of RAM is almost certainly overkill, 64GB would be absolutely plenty with room to spare, and as said previously, i'm not sure what you would want spinning hard drives for exactly.

 

With CPU for Minecraft, multiple cores is still useful for some small aspects but really you want something with great single threaded performance, hence my recommendation of a newer i7 still.

[GlitchyB0i143]

By the way, I had a question on if I just buy some extra storage on my normal pc, is there a way it could be configured to run the server, or is it easier to just have them as 2 seperate machines?

[Bersella AI]

9 hours ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

So what parts would you recommend?

This was my original part list:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black 55 CFM CPU Cooler  
Motherboard: Asus Prime X299-A II ATX LGA2066 Motherboard  
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  
Storage: Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 4 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive  
Storage: Seagate IronWolf Pro NAS 4 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive   
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case  
Power Supply: SeaSonic PRIME Ultra Platinum 750 750 W 80+ Platinum Modular ATX Power Supply  
Wired Network Adapter: Intel X540-T2 2 x 10 Gb/s Ethernet PCIe x8 Network Adapter  
Total: $1699.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

The first attention is that performance of Minecraft relies on single-threaded performance of the processor. Such build was based on the fairly "ancient" Skylake microarchitecture, and you may spend too much for "ancient tech". RAM and the power supply would also seem to have been overkill.

Also, it is not advisable to implement Team Blue processors with both P- & E-cores, as they may behave weirdly in task scheduling without appropriate intervention (for example, disabling E-cores or allocating only P-cores manually).

 

Here are my suggestions:

• To begin with, the choice of processor may start from Zen 3-powered ones, like Ryzen 5600, which has decent single-threaded performance with a pretty affordable cost. Alternatives include Core i5-12400 (only having P-cores), and Ryzen 5700X, 7500F, 7700X, among others.
• With Ryzen 5000 series, you may grab stock DDR4-3200 memory kits. No need for shielded ones.
• As for the hard drives, single or dual WD Ultrastar/ Seagate Exos are recommended over IronWolf, as the latter taxes more in services (e.g. data recovery) that may never be used. However, if such services matter for you, then it's better to have them.
• Connectivity from outside depends on the uplink speed provided by your ISP. Since uplinks beyond 1Gbps are extremely scarce in ordinary services, the introduction of 10GbE network may not seem to be useful. Generally, 2.5GbE connectivity is sufficient enough in speed & latency, and most higher-tier B550/X570 motherboards (or above) have support for it.
• A lower-tier power supply starting from 350W & Bronze-certified would be sufficient enough for powering the whole system, and a few more drives in future.

[Bismut]

20 hours ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

My budget ( based on this info ) is around 1800 but I can be willing to go a little over.

At that price, a rented server might be worth it if you really only need it for a minecraft server. You have to factor power consumption in, as well as having to open your network to the internet (as I believe that port forwarding is still necessary?) and of course taking care of the hardware. Even at 800USD (not factoring in hardware/your own work), that is sixteen months of renting a server from creeperhost, and I am sure that there are others that might be cheaper.
I would only go for a dedicated server if you also wanted a NAS or have already rented one for at least the past year, because I have seen many servers get used less and less after the first six or so months.

 

 

If you do decide to build a server though:

4 hours ago, Bersella AI said:

Here are my suggestions:

• To begin with, the choice of processor may start from Zen 3-powered ones, like Ryzen 5600, which has decent single-threaded performance with a pretty affordable cost. Alternatives include Core i5-12400 (only having P-cores), and Ryzen 5700X, 7500F, 7700X, among others.
• With Ryzen 5000 series, you may grab stock DDR4-3200 memory kits. No need for shielded ones.
• As for the hard drives, single or dual WD Ultrastar/ Seagate Exos are recommended over IronWolf, as the latter taxes more in services (e.g. data recovery) that may never be used. However, if such services matter for you, then it's better to have them.
• Connectivity from outside depends on the uplink speed provided by your ISP. Since uplinks beyond 1Gbps are extremely scarce in ordinary services, the introduction of 10GbE network may not seem to be useful. Generally, 2.5GbE connectivity is sufficient enough in speed & latency, and most higher-tier B550/X570 motherboards (or above) have support for it.
• A lower-tier power supply starting from 350W & Bronze-certified would be sufficient enough for powering the whole system, and a few more drives in future.

I mostly agree, but grab a cheap-ish board that is simple, as it will allow you to draw less power. Make sure to buy a really efficient PSU if the server is indeed going to run 24/7. Unnecessary power usage means unnecessary cost, heat and therefore strain on your A/C if you live in the south or somewhere that generally gets warm. It can be a bonus in winter though, but I would avoid it still.

I would also get an SSD as the main drive and a regular old HDD as a backup of sorts, if you are not going to use the server for file storage. Have snapshots and everything else on the SSD, with a nightly backup being written to the HDD, it being spun down the rest of the time.

2.5GbE is a really good call, there should be no need for 10GbE (again, unless you also want to use the thing as a file server).

[GlitchyB0i143]

11 hours ago, Bersella AI said:

The first attention is that performance of Minecraft relies on single-threaded performance of the processor. Such build was based on the fairly "ancient" Skylake microarchitecture, and you may spend too much for "ancient tech". RAM and the power supply would also seem to have been overkill.

Also, it is not advisable to implement Team Blue processors with both P- & E-cores, as they may behave weirdly in task scheduling without appropriate intervention (for example, disabling E-cores or allocating only P-cores manually).

 

Here are my suggestions:

• To begin with, the choice of processor may start from Zen 3-powered ones, like Ryzen 5600, which has decent single-threaded performance with a pretty affordable cost. Alternatives include Core i5-12400 (only having P-cores), and Ryzen 5700X, 7500F, 7700X, among others.
• With Ryzen 5000 series, you may grab stock DDR4-3200 memory kits. No need for shielded ones.
• As for the hard drives, single or dual WD Ultrastar/ Seagate Exos are recommended over IronWolf, as the latter taxes more in services (e.g. data recovery) that may never be used. However, if such services matter for you, then it's better to have them.
• Connectivity from outside depends on the uplink speed provided by your ISP. Since uplinks beyond 1Gbps are extremely scarce in ordinary services, the introduction of 10GbE network may not seem to be useful. Generally, 2.5GbE connectivity is sufficient enough in speed & latency, and most higher-tier B550/X570 motherboards (or above) have support for it.
• A lower-tier power supply starting from 350W & Bronze-certified would be sufficient enough for powering the whole system, and a few more drives in future.

Last question,

How would I configure this so that it runs the server and what RAID config would you recommend?

[Bersella AI]

14 hours ago, GlitchyB0i143 said:

Last question,

How would I configure this so that it runs the server and what RAID config would you recommend?

AFAIK the Task Manager in Windows can be manually configured to allocate only a cluster of available cores to a specific process. I managed to run "ancient" benchmarking tools like Fritz Chess & wPrime on a Core i5-12500H processor (with 4P/8E) by disabling either all P-cores or all E-cores for their processes, otherwise the whole system would freeze once starting the benchmark.

In Linux, unfortunately, I have not been given a try on such type of processors.

Other systems having only P-cores are just fine and would not need manual intervention.

 

Whether or which type of RAID is used depends on how the data or service is critical. Since you're acquiring two 4TB drives, there are 3 options available: stripes, RAID 0 & RAID 1. Among these, RAID 0 should be avoided due to exponential increase in risks of data loss; RAID 1 is recommended for critical data and service availability; stripes would be preferred for non-critical, easily re-downloadable data such as media.