Website host/game server

[Snotrap | YT]

Hi!

 

I was hosting a game server and the little broken 2-in-1 laptop I was using broke and won’t  power on. 

 

Well I thought I’d jump on eBay/Gumtree to look for an older system. 

 

It it turns out my $20 isn’t really sufficient enough. I don’t have a job and I’m still a student so...

 

I looked around and just out of interest looked up ‘$10 computer’

 

Every page seemed to be filled with the Raspberry Pi Zero. 

 

In Australia I can get it for under $10. 

 

Not going to purchase one until I clarify a few things first. 

 

So... to the point. 

 

My my plan is to host my game server (Just a little CMD window that needs close to no resources) and maybe a website and many more of the same game servers. 

I want to code a website (HTML5, CSS) and host it from home. Expect maybe 50 visitors a month, do I need any beefy specs for hosting a website? (Have good internet so no need to worry)

 

Basically invest in an old eBay P4 Server, Rasberry Pi Zero or an older Pentium/Athlon system? (Maybe older dual socket Mac Pro that you can get pretty cheap?)

 

Budget: $100-150

(Don’t need a HDD or a Windows key either)

 

What would you choose and why?

Would appreciate every bit of help!

[SquintyG33Rs]

for just a website the PI can do it. the game server probably needs to run within windows and that won't work great with the PI. but if it's a very low power needed thing than you could probably find a full system for like 50$ with a core 2 duo or something like that and it would do all those things.

[ScratchCat]

23 minutes ago, Snotrap | YT said:

Maybe older dual socket Mac Pro that you can get pretty cheap?

I assume you mean the  PowerMac G5, most 2006 Mac Pros seem to cost >$100 for the basic model. Avoid these at all cost as they run on the PowerPC architecture which has very little support in consumer grade applications, probably hasn't seen a software update in 8 years resulting in a vulnerable server as well as consuming immense amounts of power (you need a special cable for certain models due to the power consumption).

 

The Pi Zero will be able to host websites quite easily if you are getting very little traffic.

 

If you are not adept with Linux (though it isn't hard to learn, it just may take some time) and prefer a known OS such as Windows then rather save up for a bit longer - it will cause less hassle.

 

Edit:

Why is your budget $100-150 if a $20 PC is too expensive?

[Snotrap | YT]

1 minute ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

for just a website the PI can do it. the game server probably needs to run within windows and that won't work great with the PI. but if it's a very low power needed thing than you could probably find a full system for like 50$ with a core 2 duo or something like that and it would do all those things.

If I cab host from the Zero, In theory I could use wine couldn’t I?

 

And how could I build a system under $50?! I found a completed system here: 

http://www.computerbank.org.au/

Just scroll a little bit. Will that suffice? Im not looking for a gaming system. I want to build one tho. Probs going to get an old optioned or something with an i5 and chuck a GPU in. 

[Snotrap | YT]

Just now, ScratchCat said:

I assume you mean the  PowerMac G5, most 2006 Mac Pros seem to cost >$100 for the basic model. Avoid these at all cost as they run on the PowerPC architecture which has very little support in consumer grade applications, probably hasn't seen a software update in 8 years resulting in a vulnerable server as well as consuming immense amounts of power (you need a special cable for certain models due to the power consumption).

 

The Pi Zero will be able to host websites quite easily if you are getting very little traffic.

 

If you are not adept with Linux (though it isn't hard to learn, it just may take some time) and prefer a known OS such as Windows then rather save up for a bit longer - it will cause less hassle.

Thanks for the information!

Im quite familiar with Linux and have my laptop triple booted with Windows 10 Home, fedora and kali Linux for...performing magic on my neighbors. 

 

I will steer away from the Mac Pros now. 

[Snotrap | YT]

Just now, Snotrap | YT said:

Thanks for the information!

Im quite familiar with Linux and have my laptop triple booted with Windows 10 Home, fedora and kali Linux for...performing magic on my neighbors. 

 

I will steer away from the Mac Pros now. 

I currently have $20. Will eventually have about $100. 

[SquintyG33Rs]

2 minutes ago, Snotrap | YT said:

If I cab host from the Zero, In theory I could use wine couldn’t I?

 

And how could I build a system under $50?! I found a completed system here: 

http://www.computerbank.org.au/

Just scroll a little bit. Will that suffice? Im not looking for a gaming system. I want to build one tho. Probs going to get an old optioned or something with an i5 and chuck a GPU in. 

yeah that's pretty much what i imagined.

 

Wine is great but it's emulation. i'm not sure how well that will work with untested unorthodox software.

 

If you're going to go for an old i5 i would strongly recommend try and hunt down something you can overclock. chips all the way back to ivybridge are great as long as you can clock them up. stock isn't very impressive.

[Snotrap | YT]

1 minute ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

yeah that's pretty much what i imagined.

 

Wine is great but it's emulation. i'm not sure how well that will work with untested unorthodox software.

 

If you're going to go for an old i5 i would strongly recommend try and hunt down something you can overclock. chips all the way back to ivybridge are great as long as you can clock them up. stock isn't very impressive.

As I said it could have a Celeron in it and it wouldn’t matter. 

Pretty much needs to run either Win 7 or 10. Doesn’t matter. What’s the difference between Windows Server and 7?

[AbsoluteFool]

I'm a bit qurious, what type of game server are you looking to host? How many people will be using it? Game servers normally require a decent speed on the CPU and a bit of memory. The web server you want is more or less just intrested in RAM. 

[SquintyG33Rs]

3 minutes ago, Snotrap | YT said:

As I said it could have a Celeron in it and it wouldn’t matter. 

Pretty much needs to run either Win 7 or 10. Doesn’t matter. What’s the difference between Windows Server and 7?

some stuff you won't care about XDD like how much maximum ram is supports, how the firewall is configured by default and you can remote access it (thought pro/ultimate can do this too i think) other stuff like that..... it's not relevant to your purpose.

[Snotrap | YT]

Just now, AbsoluteFool said:

I'm a bit qurious, what type of game server are you looking to host? How many people will be using it? Game servers normally require a decent speed on the CPU and a bit of memory. The web server you want is more or less just intrested in RAM. 

Thanks for your our response!

So...this games a little different on how’s the servers work. Let me explain. 

 

So I create my cfg file blah blah blah. Send the data to the Ganesh master server, it shows up on the list. The players computer has to have the power. The host really just relays data. 

And up to like 42 players. It’s a car game. 

[Snotrap | YT]

2 minutes ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

some stuff you won't care about XDD like how much maximum ram is supports, how the firewall is configured by default and you can remote access it (thought pro/ultimate can do this too i think) other stuff like that..... it's not relevant to your purpose.

Thanks 

[ScratchCat]

11 minutes ago, Snotrap | YT said:

 Probs going to get an old optioned or something with an i5 and chuck a GPU in. 

If you are not looking to game on this system you will not need a dedicated GPU, onboard graphics will be sufficient.

 

9 minutes ago, Snotrap | YT said:

I currently have $20. Will eventually have about $100. 

Something like an OEM SFF PC should be fine then: quite cheap, compact, power efficient and mostly easy to maintain even though non standard components are used. The following uses an Ivy Bridge i3 and is quite cheap (ignore postage, it is just an example) so should be much more powerful than the 2-in-1 used before.

[SquintyG33Rs]

Just now, Snotrap | YT said:

Thanks 

yeah just checked again, all the other extra features are about how many CPU cores it can handle and how many VM's it can run and all those big number things that only matter for BIG servers running LOADs of stuff

[Snotrap | YT]

3 minutes ago, ScratchCat said:

If you are not looking to game on this system you will not need a dedicated GPU, onboard graphics will be sufficient.

 

Something like an OEM SFF PC should be fine then: quite cheap, compact, power efficient and mostly easy to maintain even though non standard components are used. The following uses an Ivy Bridge i3 and is quite cheap (ignore postage, it is just an example) so should be much more powerful than the 2-in-1 used before.

Yeah that’s exactly what I was looking at. The 8100-8200 i5/i7 too. Pretty popular. Thanks for the help!

[AbsoluteFool]

3 minutes ago, Snotrap | YT said:

Thanks for your our response!

So...this games a little different on how’s the servers work. Let me explain. 

 

So I create my cfg file blah blah blah. Send the data to the Ganesh master server, it shows up on the list. The players computer has to have the power. The host really just relays data. 

And up to like 42 players. It’s a car game. 

So i'm right if i say it's kinda like a web based game? In that case i'd still get a fairly high speed on the CPU, something like the new celeron 4-6GB RAM maybe an SSD for the OS, optionally you can use two SSDs and use a RAID1 for a bit more redundancy on the system.

I would say a bet on the CPU speed from atleast 2Ghz - 3Ghz will serve you quite well here. My recomendation on RAM is not precise, but i normally recommend more that you need in any cenario.

[Snotrap | YT]

15 minutes ago, AbsoluteFool said:

So i'm right if i say it's kinda like a web based game? In that case i'd still get a fairly high speed on the CPU, something like the new celeron 4-6GB RAM maybe an SSD for the OS, optionally you can use two SSDs and use a RAID1 for a bit more redundancy on the system.

I would say a bet on the CPU speed from atleast 2Ghz - 3Ghz will serve you quite well here. My recomendation on RAM is not precise, but i normally recommend more that you need in any cenario.

True. This isn’t a gaming rig though. Although...I don’t have a computer. This would be my first one. Eh idk. Mum friend wants me to build him a pc. I’m great with PCs, pretty easy and he’s like can you do me one that can play Live For Speed? The min specs are nothing. Like less than a GB of RAM etc. he’s like budget is $200. I said $100 and I make a profit?. 

 

Im probably going to get an i7 optilex or something and get a used GPU and RAM. i7, 8GB of RAM, something with 2GB VRAM. fun.