Hosting a Game Server

[Spaceman_Wil]

I'm looking to learn a bit about server hosting and would like to host my Space Engineers Server locally. I don't know a whole lot about servers and I've been striking out when trying to find good resources online for learning more. With the game Space Engineers, when hosting from just a standard PC, CPU clock speed and RAM are extremely important. RAM I am not terribly concerned about, I've got that covered. The CPU's are where I have questions. Specifically, would I see a real benefit of having a server with multiple Quad-Core Xeon CPU's running at ~3.1ghz vs re-purposing a pc I have laying around with an 8-core AMD FX-8350 running at ~4.0ghz?

 

I'm trying to keep budget low so my Fiance doesn't fuss (:

[WereCatf]

Wouldn't it be easier to just try it on the FX and seeing what kind of load it puts on the CPU? If the cores are pegged at 100% load, you can then start to worry about upgrading, but worrying about upgrades prematurely doesn't seem that wise.

[BlackMamba]

I think that to host game servers and in general to host services, a basic (if not advanced) knowledge of networking is required. 

most of the issues you will have revolve around firewalls and port mapping. Firing up a server and expecting to make it work on first try is really out of the question.

 

That said when it comes to game servers usually RAM needs to scale simultaneously with the number of player you want to play with.

4x or 2x quad cores will always be better than the 8 core amd but it really depends on SE server and how well it scales across multiple threads and cpu's.

[Spaceman_Wil]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

Wouldn't it be easier to just try it on the FX and seeing what kind of load it puts on the CPU? If the cores are pegged at 100% load, you can then start to worry about upgrading, but worrying about upgrades prematurely doesn't seem that wise.

Well the motherboard in that system needs replaced so I can't just flip it on and see unfortunately, so either way I have to invest a bit, so I'd like to find out a bit more about servers to see if that is a viable option as well.

[Spaceman_Wil]

2 minutes ago, BlackMamba said:

I think that to host game servers and in general to host services, a basic (if not advanced) knowledge of networking is required. 

most of the issues you will have revolve around firewalls and port mapping. Firing up a server and expecting to make it work on first try is really out of the question.

 

That said when it comes to game servers usually RAM needs to scale simultaneously with the number of player you want to play with.

4x or 2x quad cores will always be better than the 8 core amd but it really depends on SE server and how well it scales across multiple threads and cpu's.

Networking isn't a concern, I've got enough networking experience in that regard for that to be covered.

[BlackMamba]

2 minutes ago, Spaceman_Wil said:

Well the motherboard in that system needs replaced so I can't just flip it on and see unfortunately, so either way I have to invest a bit, so I'd like to find out a bit more about servers to see if that is a viable option as well.

Is there any benchmark online? What are the minimum and recommended requirements for running a server ? 

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, Spaceman_Wil said:

Well the motherboard in that system needs replaced so I can't just flip it on and see unfortunately, so either way I have to invest a bit, so I'd like to find out a bit more about servers to see if that is a viable option as well.

Well, it's difficult to say much without knowing anything about how Space Engineers scales and how well it's optimized. I don't play that game. The AMD FX is a terrible CPU, but there really isn't saying if Space Engineers works better across multiple lower-clocked cores or fewer higher-clocked ones.

[BlackMamba]

If I remember correctly SE has a lot of physics involved which Im pretty sure are server side... the cpu is certainly relevant but I dont think you have to go the multiple quad cores way.

[Spaceman_Wil]

10 minutes ago, BlackMamba said:

Is there any benchmark online? What are the minimum and recommended requirements for running a server ? 

No benchmarks I can find, but here are the reqs

 

DS Minimum:
CPU 3.5GHz, 3 logical cores
6 GB RAM
5 Mbps bandwidth

DS Recommended:
CPU 4.5GHz, 3 logical cores
10 GB RAM
 

[Spaceman_Wil]

9 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Well, it's difficult to say much without knowing anything about how Space Engineers scales and how well it's optimized. I don't play that game. The AMD FX is a terrible CPU, but there really isn't saying if Space Engineers works better across multiple lower-clocked cores or fewer higher-clocked ones.

It is multithreaded, but I'm not much of an AMD guy, so I didn't realize the FX was terrible. Oops.

[WereCatf]

Just now, Spaceman_Wil said:

DS Minimum:

 

CPU 3.5GHz, 3 logical cores
6 GB RAM
5 Mbps bandwidth

DS Recommended:
CPU 4.5GHz, 3 logical cores
10 GB RAM
 

Sounds to me like it doesn't scale well to multiple cores, but really, I'm just making an educated guess.

[BlackMamba]

16 hours ago, WereCatf said:

Sounds to me like it doesn't scale well to multiple cores, but really, I'm just making an educated guess.

I second this.