Minecraft Tekkit Server Pentium 4 HT

[TimboSlice]

I'm trying to set up a Tekkit server for myself and 3 friends (4 players total usually). I have an old Dell Tower (Dimension E510):

 

CPU: Pentium 4 HT @ 3.20 / 3.19 ghz (single core / hyper threaded?)

RAM: 3GB

OS: Windows XP SP3

HDD: 80GB

Java 7u67 (32 bit I assume because XP is 32bit)

 

Connecting via wired Ethernet which I assume is not a bottleneck because I can serve fine on my laptop, I just can't leave it running all the time.

 

While playing there is massive lag when placing and removing blocks as well as picking up dropped items. You can run around fine but fall damage lags a bit.

 

I'm not sure what the bottleneck is because the GUI seems to show plenty of open memory, just high tick times. (~70ms). Am I running into hard drive issues where it can't load all the chunks into RAM? I can't see the CPU failing because it usually is running at about 50% per core and 3.2ghz seems like plenty when my laptop only hits 3.4 turboed. I also wondered if a 64bit distro of linux plus 64 bit java would allow more of the 3gb of ram to be used for the server. I don't think internet speed is an issue; granted, it is a large network but my laptop never hit that bottleneck and it should be the same gigabit Ethernet standard.

 

In testing I ended explorer.exe to get as little load as I could. This is the bat file to start the server:

 

java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -jar Tekkit.jar

pause

 

Thanks for your help!

[Profquast]

That CPU is just too slow, a 3.2 GHz P4 is not equal to a 3.2 GHz modern CPU due to architecture. A modern CPU has way more IPC or instructions per cycle.

[Freaky_spider]

CPU and RAM bottleneck if you ever plan on getting more then 2 players

[TimboSlice]

Profquast: That makes a lot of sense, at the same time I can't figure out why the CPU won't max out. Task manager will often not show more than a 75% load on both cores / threads.

 

DEcobra11: Do you have experience with the J1800 for tekkit servers? It's a nice price and I could steal the PSU from the Dell. I found a Gigabyte J1800 and an ASRock J1900 for ~$70. I could scour old laptops for 2 or 4 gig ram sticks

 

Gigabyte J1800   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128688

 

ASRock J19000   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157513

 

The J1900 appears to be a quad core (x64 for better memory / java interface) but has a slightly lower clock speed (more cores per area -> higher thermals -> lower clock). I'll have to do some more research into the Celeron line; I don't want to spend money and get another underpowered computer.

 

Thanks