Personal server build

[suchamoneypit]

Im curious of what it would take to build a personal server. This server would be used for doing things such as hosting a public Arma 3 server, team-speak, any various other things.

 

I have no personal experience in this area, I have several questions, for one, what would be my options as far as hardware. What would be a cheaper option, and what would its capabilities be($400). What about a medium range($400-750)? And what would a expensive $750-1000 build be like? What would benefit me along these price ranges, and what type of case would I use? What about an OS, what would I want to use? What requirements would I need as far as internet bandwidth for an enjoyable experience for friends, especially considering it would be on residential internet, would this mean big slowdowns for the rest of the house's internet?

 

The other big question is what exactly can I set up. I pretty sure I can host teamspeak/Arma 3 servers with some educated googling, but would I be able to host something like a Halo:Combat evolved server to play on? What types of tasks could be offloaded onto the server? How would I go about doing this?

 

Like I said, im pretty experience as far as building a personal rig for gaming/editing and familiar with the setup of stuff on those, but I imagine servers are different beast (in mostly software/setup) and its something Im interested in. Is this doable or a far-fetched idea?

[AverageHardware]

Go for the best processor/most amount of RAM that you can. I'd say 16GB would be a good start. You could use Windows 10, Server 2012, or Linux. Anything really. As far as internet, you want a decent upload speed. For your application I'd say 5-10Mbps. Although, with 5Mbps, uploads may be slow for everyone else. Make sure you don't have a data cap with your Internet, because you will blow through that. Also make sure your ISP allows you to host servers on residential internet plans, some are stingy about it.

 

EDIT: The more expensive you go, the more performance you get, obviously. I doubt you'll need anything above a 600$ PC for your uses. Also, you can use a normal ATX case, or go rackmount if you have a rack.

[suchamoneypit]

Go for the best processor/most amount of RAM that you can. I'd say 16GB would be a good start. You could use Windows 10, Server 2012, or Linux. Anything really. As far as internet, you want a decent upload speed. For your application I'd say 5-10Mbps. Although, with 5Mbps, uploads may be slow for everyone else. Make sure you don't have a data cap with your Internet, because you will blow through that. Also make sure your ISP allows you to host servers on residential internet plans, some are stingy about it.

 

EDIT: The more expensive you go, the more performance you get, obviously. I doubt you'll need anything above a 600$ PC for your uses. Also, you can use a normal ATX case, or go rackmount if you have a rack.

would I want to go with something like Xeons (and the respective motherboards, would I want a duel socket?)? Im looking particularly about something like a used one thats 8 cores and around $200 (I saw something about them on the PCMR subreddit a while back).

[suchamoneypit]

Also, my big question is on the software ends of things, I dont want to purchase and build this, and only be able to set up an Arma 3 server and a TS, as that itself is not worth a $600 build.

[AverageHardware]

would I want to go with something like Xeons (and the respective motherboards, would I want a duel socket?)? Im looking particularly about something like a used one thats 8 cores and around $200 (I saw something about them on the PCMR subreddit a while back).

A Xeon would be great, especially if you are going to use it strictly as a server. That allows you to use ECC RAM too. I highly doubt you'll need a duel socket/CPU setup for an Arma server. How many people will be playing on it?

[suchamoneypit]

A Xeon would be great, especially if you are going to use it strictly as a server. That allows you to use ECC RAM too. I highly doubt you'll need a duel socket/CPU setup for an Arma server. How many people will be playing on it?

well just with my friends, at least 5, with the possibility of 6 or 7,but It would be nice to make it public to allow other players to join with us so the number could fluctuate greatly.. Also, on something like a Teamspeak, there could be dozens of friends on at any given time.

[suchamoneypit]

I would disagree that 16gb is a good start, 8gb is sufficient for Arma and TeamSpeak, depending on what else you have. Unless you can get Windows Server at some discounted price (Dreamspark if you're a student) Linux is really your only option. People may have had good experiences with /r/microsoftsoftwareswap,  but unless you have I don't recommend using it. I would also recommend at least 1 mb/s upload per user, download doesn't matter as much.

just any linux? something like ubuntu? or are there specific linux server distributions.

[AverageHardware]

Also, my big question is on the software ends of things, I dont want to purchase and build this, and only be able to set up an Arma 3 server and a TS, as that itself is not worth a $600 build.

Take a gander at this: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/152969-recommended-server-specs/

[AverageHardware]

I would disagree that 16gb is a good start, 8gb is sufficient for Arma and TeamSpeak, depending on what else you have. Unless you can get Windows Server at some discounted price (Dreamspark if you're a student) Linux is really your only option. People may have had good experiences with /r/microsoftsoftwareswap,  but unless you have I don't recommend using it. I would also recommend at least 1 mb/s upload per user, download doesn't matter as much.

Arma 3 gets pretty resource intensive depending on which instance you are running. Even worse with mods.

[boarder2k7]

I would look into an HP Z800 series workstation. They have a dual socket Xeon motherboard, tons of ECC RAM slots, and are available on ebay for as low as $500 or so. Adding the second processor is cheap ($50 each for a X5667 3.06GHz Quad core Xeon) and with that many slots, you can chuck a bunch of 4 GB RDIMMS in it for not a lot of money.

 

There is also a LTT video about using a server mobo in a budget build (might have even been the Z800 one) but I couldn't find the video in my brief searching.