A homebuilt server? Help.

[Vintaage]

Quick facts: 

• The plan is to move into a place with two other roommates.
• They have similar paychecks.
• The total monthly budget is 1800$~
• Once we move out, we'd all be able to get full time jobs, bringing the total income to 3600$~  
• We are all american.
• I've done the income math by using minimum wage (10$ an hr.) working 18-20 hrs. a week.
• Please correct me if I get any terms wrong.

 

So, I'm currently in the process of getting a *new* job, recently turned 16. And after doing the math, I'll be pulling in 600$~ after taxes. So me and two friends (They also earns 600$~) have decided to pool our paychecks in order to buy computer components quicker. Is it a feasible idea to make a server in order to run online games, and connect to it via ethernet? This way I'd be able to have the server up 24/7, seeing as most of my friends don't have similar schedules. So what would be the issues I'd have to get past (If this is, again feasible)? I'm not worried about the electricity the server would consume. What would the pros and cons of this be, and would it be a better idea to rent a server. The only reason I didn't just rent a server, is that I wouldn't be able to swap between games. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

What games? Does you home internet let you host server?

 

You can just rent a aws node and its a full system. ANd will do what ever you want.

 

Otherwise for basic game server something like a used optiplex for about 200 or a used r710(if you don't mind rack form factor and a bit more power usage) will do well.

[Jtalk4456]

I like your plan, sadly I don't know enough about gaming servers to tell you more than what you already know (power draw)

But it seems like a great idea to me and I look forward to reading the responses

[Serpius]

30 minutes ago, Vintaage said:

Quick facts: 

• The plan is to move into a place with two other roommates.
• They have similar paychecks.
• The total monthly budget is 1800$~
• Once we move out, we'd all be able to get full time jobs, bringing the total income to 3600$~  
• We are all american.
• I've done the income math by using minimum wage (10$ an hr.) working 18-20 hrs. a week.
• Please correct me if I get any terms wrong.

 

So, I'm currently in the process of getting a *new* job, recently turned 16. And after doing the math, I'll be pulling in 600$~ after taxes. So me and two friends (They also earns 600$~) have decided to pool our paychecks in order to buy computer components quicker. Is it a feasible idea to make a server in order to run online games, and connect to it via ethernet? This way I'd be able to have the server up 24/7, seeing as most of my friends don't have similar schedules. So what would be the issues I'd have to get past (If this is, again feasible)? I'm not worried about the electricity the server would consume. What would the pros and cons of this be, and would it be a better idea to rent a server. The only reason I didn't just rent a server, is that I wouldn't be able to swap between games. 

Get this workstation which can be converted into a suitable low-end server.

 

This would be a good starting point.

 

If you got this Workstation, you can add another hard drive to increase the storage space.

 

HP Z420 Workstation Xeon E5-1620

 

Then get a powerful Wi-Fi router such as this one...

 

Amped Wireless High Power 700mW Dual Band

 

At that point, all of the roommates would be able to connect to the Wi-Fi, which is connected to the workstation and you would be using the resources from that workstation to do your gaming.

[DauntlessFox]

I second getting an older workstation/server - much cheaper than trying to build a completely new system. Ive had good luck so far with my refurbished Dell Workstation and paid about $550 for it and used an old graphics card that I had.