Gaming Server Build

[aselwyn1]

im looking at building a gaming server thats relatively low power odd thing is im kinda hoping it can be a used rack mount  to try and keep cost down but not required. looking to run servers for games like csgo and arma (20 players) possibly a few other games any ideas looking to keep it around the $500 Cad. was thinking maybe running it on unraid so i could maybe use docker for future features. but windows as the main server for gaming i don't need to buy a license for windows i also have a few mixed hard drives i can use so drives are not a issue

 

thanks 

[tt2468]

1 minute ago, aselwyn1 said:

im looking at building a gaming server thats relatively low power odd thing is im kinda hoping it can be a used rack mount  to try and keep cost down but not required. looking to run servers for games like csgo and arma (20 players) possibly a few other games any ideas looking to keep it around the $500 Cad. was thinking maybe running it on unraid so i could maybe use docker for future features. but windows as the main server for gaming i don't need to buy a license for windows i also have a few mixed hard drives i can use so drives are not a issue

 

thanks 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R210-II-Xeon-E3-1240-3-3ghz-Quad-Core-16gb-1tb-/232137984043

 

I chose this server because 

1. It's a real server. Just don't bother building your own. You can get way better performance and reliability with used server hardware.

2. The price is really good for what you get.

3. Having the e3 is actually better than something like an r610, as high clock speed is REALLY important for source engine games like csgo etc.

 

You should run proxmox. It's free and is a ton better for virtualization than unraid is. Both use kvm as a hypervisor, but proxmox is actually designed around kvm, so it has a ton more features. You can run 1 ubuntu vm for docker, and one vm for windows servers. 

[waterjug]

you could also try renting out a remote server, like https://aws.amazon.com/ and running it on there, it might be about the same price, maybe even less. Also a lot of the times ISPs hate it when you run servers from a residential zone, and people could locate your ip address.  Also it can take a toll on the power bill too.  

[aselwyn1]

33 minutes ago, wii8cookies said:

you could also try renting out a remote server, like https://aws.amazon.com/ and running it on there, it might be about the same price, maybe even less. Also a lot of the times ISPs hate it when you run servers from a residential zone, and people could locate your ip address.  Also it can take a toll on the power bill too.  

i would prefer my own, locating my ip is not a concern and power not so much of a issue as long as it stays below 500 watts 

[aselwyn1]

1 hour ago, tt2468 said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Poweredge-R210-II-Xeon-E3-1240-3-3ghz-Quad-Core-16gb-1tb-/232137984043

 

I chose this server because 

1. It's a real server. Just don't bother building your own. You can get way better performance and reliability with used server hardware.

2. The price is really good for what you get.

3. Having the e3 is actually better than something like an r610, as high clock speed is REALLY important for source engine games like csgo etc.

 

You should run proxmox. It's free and is a ton better for virtualization than unraid is. Both use kvm as a hypervisor, but proxmox is actually designed around kvm, so it has a ton more features. You can run 1 ubuntu vm for docker, and one vm for windows servers. 

ya that one looks really good sadly they don't ship to canada. looking at all of the similar ones to this what CPU's should i be staying away from? like anything over 5 years old its kind of hard to tell with Xeon's crazy naming scheme 

[kerradeph]

If you look for CPUs that start with L then those are the low power ones. They don't run as fast but it's easier on your energy bill to leave them running.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that the 210 is a 1U server so it will be a little noisy. You could look at one of the entry level HP gen 6 or gen 7 servers. Those will have similar stats but there are 2U versions which will be a bit quieter and the noise they do make will be less annoying. 

[tt2468]

29 minutes ago, kerradeph said:

If you look for CPUs that start with L then those are the low power ones. They don't run as fast but it's easier on your energy bill to leave them running.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that the 210 is a 1U server so it will be a little noisy. You could look at one of the entry level HP gen 6 or gen 7 servers. Those will have similar stats but there are 2U versions which will be a bit quieter and the noise they do make will be less annoying. 

Like I said in my original post, clock speed is a MUST. lga 1366 cpus don't really have that.

32 minutes ago, aselwyn1 said:

ya that one looks really good sadly they don't ship to canada. looking at all of the similar ones to this what CPU's should i be staying away from? like anything over 5 years old its kind of hard to tell with Xeon's crazy naming scheme 

Anything with a clock speed of over 3.4 Ghz should work fine.

[aselwyn1]

12 hours ago, kerradeph said:

If you look for CPUs that start with L then those are the low power ones. They don't run as fast but it's easier on your energy bill to leave them running.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that the 210 is a 1U server so it will be a little noisy. You could look at one of the entry level HP gen 6 or gen 7 servers. Those will have similar stats but there are 2U versions which will be a bit quieter and the noise they do make will be less annoying. 

actually have a Dell R210 II at work it's in our lab which it alone seems quite quiet with a i3 2100 running at 3.1 ghz so a higher power one of those would not be a bad idea

[NTDaws]

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zJjrPs
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zJjrPs/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($90.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($41.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Mushkin Essentials 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($44.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($74.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($37.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($68.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $359.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-23 14:03 EST-0500

[cameroncoats]

19 minutes ago, aselwyn1 said:

actually have a Dell R210 II at work it's in our lab which it alone seems quite quiet with a i3 2100 running at 3.1 ghz so a higher power one of those would not be a bad idea

R210s (and most of the recent Dell 1Us) are loud under load but pretty quiet at idle.

Generally, don't go for anything older than gen 11 (r210, 310 410 etc) as the power consumption and idle noise are significantly worse.

It's worth noting that supermicro have a lot of similar offerings, but stay away from HP unless you can get firmware downloads through work; they're locked down to a support contract.

 

Finally, check out xenserver for virtualisation, it's free and paired with XOA it's actually a really nice virtualisation solution.

[aselwyn1]

9 hours ago, cameroncoats said:

R210s (and most of the recent Dell 1Us) are loud under load but pretty quiet at idle.

Generally, don't go for anything older than gen 11 (r210, 310 410 etc) as the power consumption and idle noise are significantly worse.

It's worth noting that supermicro have a lot of similar offerings, but stay away from HP unless you can get firmware downloads through work; they're locked down to a support contract.

 

Finally, check out xenserver for virtualisation, it's free and paired with XOA it's actually a really nice virtualisation solution.

ya that would make sense but works for me but thinking i may want to get a dual xeon server instead with at least 3ghz after looking at some of the arma forums with 16gb of ram 

 

looking at possibly doing this for the arma server https://gameservermanagers.com/lgsm/arma3server/ what do you guys think? ya xenserver i guess would work there site seems kinda not helpful showing me its features and stuff 

 

definitely going to need to go for like the 1000-750 price