a small game server

[Opcode]

Negative, ghost rider. 

No need to spam the thread, carry on.

[EricPont]

blah blah blah im definatly gonna read that

[MG2R]

Friend of mine is running a Minecraft server. He's running an i3 and about 6-8 gigs of RAM dedicated to the game (16GB of RAM total in the machine), this is for a map that 3.5 GB in size.

His biggest problem is his upload, but at 10 Mbps upload, you should be able to host 7-10 people without saturating your line.

[goosmaster]

First and foremost, this is where Intel takes a huge leap on AMD. As a game developer and programmer, let me tell you this much. Do not buy anything but a Intel based CPU for a game server. The reason is core performance and power consumption will catch up with you extremely fast. Trust me I have ran game servers for several MMORPG's. I would suggest going with a Xeon E3-1230 v3 or something instead. It is going to cost you more but you'll get the money back on your power bill. Secondly, you will need to stuff the machine with memory the second most important part of any server. Minecraft has one of the most memory hungry game servers that I know of. The reason for that is the server allocates so much memory for each connected socket (player). You will also need lots of hard drive space for backups, a 64 GB SSD isn't going to cut it (will fill up quick).

 

Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3

16 GB DDR3 1600 MHz

1 TB + HDD

400 Watt PSU

~

 

Anything less than that and you're looking at a mediocre server. I would also suggest when you buy the memory to get it in a 2 x 8GB kit. That way you have the option to upgrade to 32 GB later. People like to think FX chips are great for servers since they have up to eight cores, when in reality they are power hungry and offer horrible performance (they are crippled) during CPU intensive game server tasks. Of course this may be "overkill" for what you might think you need. Tho if you ever go public with any (or all) of your servers, you'll regret not having the hardware to do so. The most expensive parts for a server is the CPU and memory. I am speaking from years of experience doing what you are trying to do (just with more complex and larger game servers).

 

I think that 64gb of ssd is indeed a bit WAY to small, but an intel xeon E3-1230 v3 cpu is a bit overkill, I do not plan on hosting every server at the same time, 

when we play minecraft, i turn on the server and after 3 days or so, and we wanna play lets say Space Engineers then i turn that server online and stop the minecraft server

also if you look at the motherboard you can see there is only space for 2 memory slots (so max 16 gb)

budget wise I look to make this summer around €500,- (that is $680.35) I do not plan to spend it all on the game server, so I think around €300,- (that is $408,21) that i wanna use for the game server

 

Because remember, you don't have a graphics card on this machine, you will most likely need to do everything either through command line OR rip out a graphics card from somewhere and set up the server using that graphics card first before moving it back into its original place

 

I do have an old graphics card that's perfect for this job   

btw thanks for all the responses !

[Opcode]

I think that 64gb of ssd is indeed a bit WAY to small, but an intel xeon E3-1230 v3 cpu is a bit overkill, I do not plan on hosting every server at the same time, 

when we play minecraft, i turn on the server and after 3 days or so, and we wanna play lets say Space Engineers then i turn that server online and stop the minecraft server

also if you look at the motherboard you can see there is only space for 2 memory slots (so max 16 gb)

budget wise I look to make this summer around €500,- (that is $680.35) I do not plan to spend it all on the game server, so I think around €300,- (that is $408,21) that i wanna use for the game server

 

 

I do have an old graphics card that's perfect for this job   

btw thanks for all the responses !

If you plan on only running one game server at a time, then a i3-4130 will be more than enough. If you're running one game server at a time 8 GB should work fine as well. Tho I would stick to buying only a single 8GB stick so you can add more in the future if need be. Example of proposed home server build (what I would build).

 

Cooler Master Elite 130

Antec EarthWatts 380w

ASRock H81M-ITX

Crucial Ballistix 8GB

Intel i3-4130

Western Digital Black 500GB

 

Subtotal: $424.94

 

Tho components might be more expensive where you live. Tho it is possible to build a strong little server for roughly $430 in America. You also don't need a optical drive, you can install Windows/Linux from a USB pen drive if you have one laying around. That will help save you an extra $20 on something you will practically never use. This was a quick build, you can fine tune it and swap out components. It just serves as an example and I personally prefer the small form factor as the machine wont take up much space either.

[goosmaster]

If you plan on only running one game server at a time, then a i3-4130 will be more than enough. If you're running one game server at a time 8 GB should work fine as well. Tho I would stick to buying only a single 8GB stick so you can add more in the future if need be. Example of proposed home server build (what I would build).

 

Cooler Master Elite 130

Antec EarthWatts 380w

ASRock H81M-ITX

Crucial Ballistix 8GB

Intel i3-4130

Western Digital Black 500GB

 

Subtotal: $424.94

 

Tho components might be more expensive where you live. Tho it is possible to build a strong little server for roughly $430 in America. You also don't need a optical drive, you can install Windows/Linux from a USB pen drive if you have one laying around. That will help save you an extra $20 on something you will practically never use. This was a quick build, you can fine tune it and swap out components. It just serves as an example and I personally prefer the small form factor as the machine wont take up much space either.

 

thanks for the part selection and I could get it cheaper because I could just use my old 500 gb WD blue and I could use my old case so if I count everything up its €230 ( $312,96) 

but then there is no software so what software (or freeware) do you recommend for an small server pc (I've only used windows in my life so no experience with Linux)

[DoubleA7]

Get a Seagate 1TB SSHD - for your Hard disk, it has an SSD cache of 8GB which allows faster write / read speeds than a HDD, it's a good compromise because it's cheap.

[Opcode]

thanks for the part selection and I could get it cheaper because I could just use my old 500 gb WD blue and I could use my old case so if I count everything up its €230 ( $312,96) 

but then there is no software so what software (or freeware) do you recommend for an small server pc (I've only used windows in my life so no experience with Linux)

Linux is the way to go, CentOS is the distro that I would recommend. Not only is its one of the most widely used distro's out there but it is also quite easy to learn how to use. You first will want to make sure if all of the game servers are indeed Linux compatible. If they are you can download CentOS 6.5 and install it onto the machine. You can then start toying with the command line terminal from your main desktop machine with a SSH client such as Putty. Google can provide a lot of useful information and trying to get each server to run on the machine and it will be a nice learning experience for you. Also if you have your own case, don't bother with the ITX form factor motherboard. You will be better off with a micro or standard sized ATX board due to expansion capabilities.

[DeuS_CaNoN]

 

Linux is the way to go, CentOS is the distro that I would recommend. Not only is its one of the most widely used distro's out there but it is also quite easy to learn how to use. You first will want to make sure if all of the game servers are indeed Linux compatible. If they are you can download CentOS 6.5 and install it onto the machine. You can then start toying with the command line terminal from your main desktop machine with a SSH client such as Putty. Google can provide a lot of useful information and trying to get each server to run on the machine and it will be a nice learning experience for you. Also if you have your own case, don't bother with the ITX form factor motherboard. You will be better off with a micro or standard sized ATX board due to expansion capabilities.

 

 

I kinda want to argue with Opcode, I would say Ubuntu server would be better, while I do not know if CentOS's wide spreadness is a benefit I'm always of the mindset that since Ubuntu is so user orientated the documentation for Ubuntu is superb, I run my "play around" server on Ubuntu ssh server. But in the end we both will agree Linux is the best option, its just really nice for how unbloated it will be and how customizable the OS is.

 

Btw Opcode I have to ask this because of your avatar does Dark Flame Master or Unseen Horizon mean anything to you?

[Seed]

Are you planning on hosting the server on your ISP with your 7 friends connecting to it? If so your upload is their download. Not sure if 10Mbits is enough. Don't know what the requirements are in that direction.

[GaryLChew]

From experience, I know that your upload speed is crucial in hosting a server.  There is also no need for 16 GB of RAM unless you'll be running multiple at a time.   From previous Minecraft servers I've hosted, using low end hardware will host 10 people just fine.

[MG2R]

From previous Minecraft servers I've hosted, using low end hardware will host 10 people just fine.

Depends on the map and mods. As I've said above: a friend of mine runs a Minecraft server that has about 10 concurrent users, RAM usage is basically all-it-can-eat, with usually a max of 8 GB dedicated to the JVM heap size.