Laptop as a private dedicated game server?

VORACITY · January 22

I have been paying for dedicated game servers through hosting sites on and off for a while now but i would like to set up an at home more personal solution to hosting 24/7 games. I only want to have maybe 8 people connect at a time and that is a high max. Is it ok for me to use a laptop as a server like this?

The system specs are

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5825U

RAM: 12GB (will be upgrading to 64GB before setting this up)

GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon Graphics

Storage: 512GB SSD

Most games I want to host are survival style games like minecraft, palworld, valheim, satisfactory etc.. one game at a time obviously.

Thank you all for your help!

da na · January 22

That would be more than enough.

VORACITY · January 22

I always hear that running a server from a computer will kill it quick, is that true? because I dont want that to happen either.

Eigenvektor · January 22

8 minutes ago, VORACITY said:

I always hear that running a server from a computer will kill it quick, is that true? because I dont want that to happen either.

A server generally runs 24/7, but that on its own is usually not that much of a concern. Turning hardware on/off can actually be worse than running constantly at a uniform temperature.

However, temperature is going to be a weak point for a laptop, because they tend to have much worse cooling than a desktop. Everything is small and cramped, so the fans might clog with dust much faster and are going to be much harder to clean. This is especially true if the notebook runs at 100% load for extended periods of time.

Overall, it really depends on how you expect to operate. Are you going to have it running 24/7, do you expect it to run at 100% load all of the time? Is the room it is in well ventilated, how much dust is there (clogging up the fans over time), are you going to clean it regularly etc.

QuantumRand · January 22

1 hour ago, VORACITY said:

I always hear that running a server from a computer will kill it quick, is that true? because I dont want that to happen either.

With the right percautions, running a laptop 24/7 shouldn't be too detrimental to its health. Some things to consider/keep in mind:

Cooling. Some laptops have cooling solutions that only work effectively if the lid is open.
Battery health. Consider unplugging the internal battery and/or enabling any battery health features that prevent the battery from charging to 100%.
Dust. As @Eigenvektor mentioned, you want the system running in a dust-free, well ventilated environment and/or make sure to clean it often.
Temperatures. Laptops are generally designed to turbo as much as they can until they max out on temperature. Keep an eye on this, especially if the server you're running is very demanding or pegs the CPU all the time. If the CPU is constantly running at 95+C, consider undervolting/down-clocking a bit. Occasional spikes to 95C are probably fine though.