Looking to pick up a cheap pc for dedicated games server.

[new boy]

Hi

I'm moving from my current broadband which is 18mbps down / 0.89mbps up, to 40mbps down / 20mbps up (I live really close to the exchange, so It will be pretty close)

As I am expecting a <20 fold increase in upload bandwidth, I feel like I should do somthing with it...

I was considering buying a 2nd hand pc and running it as a dedicated games / voip server.

I was initaly thinking cs:go + vent. But obviously things can change, maybe cs:go will bore me before long? so I'd like somthing that's a bit more flexable than somthing that can just about manage running those.

I was thinking about looking for a machine similar to the following.

any kind of C2D CPU
2mb ram. 4mb would be nice?

Thats it.

Should be easily acheiveable for £50 I recon.

Should I set my sights higher? Are any other components important (hdd?)

any advice would be really aprichated. I really have no idea about the server side of things. I dont know what I should be loking for at all. I'm looking forward to getting into it, but at the same time want to do it right.

I think I might keep my eyes open on local collection ebay adds.

PS, sorry if this isnt in the right place? I couldnt find a more relevent section.

EDIT - I should probably add I have thought verry little about this. Its just an idea thats poped into my head in the last 15 mins lol.

[mikeo01]

You could take a look at some Dell Poweredges over at eBay. A lot of businesses have redundant servers to throw out and they are built solidly usually can get them very cheap.

Few have some good old Xeons running in them. You could also look towards AMD Opterons, though less seem to be around on eBay.

Also depends how comfortable you are without a GUI.


Also understand that usually servers are not upgradable, you get what you get. They are usually proprietary parts (like in the Dell Poweredges), so you can't simply switch things over. Some can also be loud

Where would you store it? Are you looking for a rack or your bog standard tower design? If your tower design I am sure there are tons going on the bay.

[new boy]

I was more thinking buy a cheap consumer pc and install a server os onto it.

Loud would be bad.

Have I got the wrong idea? I cant imagine I would need the type of features that Xeon sockets provide? Maybe I'm wrong?

EDIT - lack of GUI? I had presumed a server OS's interface would be similar to a consumer interface? Storage would be chucked wedged into the corner full of junk next to the router lol

[mikeo01]

Not necessarily needing the feature side of things. Mainly due to their low cost and amount of threads. I assumed you'll want a chip that can handle multiple simultaneous threads for the connections.

So you are thinking of a installing say Windows Server or a Linux distro and setting everything up yourself? those Poweredges do support Win Server n Redhat etc though.


Unless you can find some cheapy grade PC and upgrade it yourself. It solely depends on what you think you'll be doing with a server over time. I can't imagine CS being taxing for a dedicated server, but then you mentioned flexibility in the future, so yeah depends what you want it for

[Agent]

You don't need a Poweredge for a home gaming server. 4GB certainly will help though if you're hosting a large number of people.

Even with a big upload though, it's all about the number of hops and latency. Dedicated in a telehouse is still much better, but if it's just for you and mates it'll be okay

[mikeo01]

I only mentioned Poweredge servers purely because the sheer amount of them on eBay usually going for £20 and up.

[Agent]

It's going to depend on the model, but they are usually big, power hungry and are rarely quiet. They're not really designed for home use.

[MrComputerSaint]

I was going to suggest an old poweredge server also. Although if loud is bad then just go with a standard PC. The 2850 I have is quite possibly one of the loudest thing in my server room at work.

On upgrading a server... The Poweredge 2850 I have can be upgraded with memory and CPU. The hard drives are upgradeable. I have 5 x 146GB HDD's in there. It's also a very heavy thing - 1 person CAN lift it but it's best with 2.

Yes, the parts are more expensive because I need to get buffered memory and a specific memory expansion module to put the memory in there for example. So it is more difficult to upgrade than say a standard PC, but it can be done. Ebay has memory and a module close to £200 to upgrade to 16GB of RAM! (although the way that'd be configured I'd have the current 8GB spare and could sell that for just under £100)

I've found that, with servers, You do need to do more research on the parts you can add in to it, comparing with a standard PC.

On a standard PC, maybe put an advert on gumtree wanted section for any PC people want to get rid of? I'd probably be looking for a quad core CPU.

[new boy]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply.

I’ve bitten the bullet and grabbed a dell Optiplex 760 on eBay for the princely sum of £57 posted.

It’s got an E8400 C2D CPU @ 3.00GHz (45nm wolfdale) and a whopping 4gb of ram. Its also got gigabit Ethernet which could be a bonus? Considering the current used value of 4gb ddr2 alone, I’m pretty happy.

Pretty sure these came with a quad core option, so could probs drop a quad in there if later in its life, I need it to do more. Not sure if there are any free ram slots though. Doubt it.

Only thing I don’t like is the size (it’s a “mini tower”). Should have probably picked up a lower spec USFF pc instead. Then again, maybe the bigger power supply and superior cooling of the bigger chassis is worth it anyway.

[abaxas]

Bugger, just spotted this.

Got a ml(something) quad core opteron tower..... It's sitting here unloved so would have been perfect.

[new boy]

Yeah man, that would have been cool. c'est la vie.

Really looking forward to getting my hands on this and playing now. cant decide whether to go linux or windows though I'm currently thinking windows 2008 r2 because I have never used any form of linux before, and to be honest, There is probably enough for me to learn with this project as it is.

Do we recon I could run a 14 slot cs:go server, and a 20 slot cs:s surf server and a VOIP server with the hardware and bandwidth I have avalible? or is that taking it to far? I could run VOIP on my gaming machine easy enough if it would be a problem on a hardware level.

[Agent]

Most game servers actually need very little. Same for VOIP stuff.

In almost all situations, it'll be your connection that limits you. Upload speed is important, the number of hops and latency much more so.

There is a reason co-located servers cost!

[new boy]

OK, I see where your coming from. I understand a datacenter has the proper infrastructure built around it and would have an advantage over my home internet connection.

I aint paying for that though lol. I'll just give it a bash and see what the state of play is. if its good, then great. I cant imagine it would be less than perfectly playable for people in the uk though? (ping wise)

[mikeo01]

Phone your ISP up see what they can provide otherwise. They do offer some "faster services" at a price; albeit depends on the physical infrastructure (fibre?) in your area and how far away from the exchange.

Although 5 MB/s downstream and 2.5MB/s upstream isn't exactly wild. So it does depend on the amount of simultaneous connections to your server. Just don't let anything hog your bandwidth.

I doubt there'd be much traffic being generated but then again as Agent mentioned latency is key. And that is something your ISP owns and controls.

[herulach]

I don't know if its possible (if its a nix host it should be) but couldn't you just throw it on EC2? For the time you have it running (assuming its just you & mates) I'd be amazed if you can get that kind of connection for cheaper (disclaimer, I've never run a server on EC2 and I've no idea what latency would end up like.)

[Agent]

I aint paying for that though lol. I'll just give it a bash and see what the state of play is. if its good, then great. I cant imagine it would be less than perfectly playable for people in the uk though? (ping wise)

I just use a hosted Windows Server 2012 VM instance. It's only a single core, 1GB thing, but it has tons of bandwidth and very low latency. It costs £12 a month.
If you can fit your server requirements into that, then once you factor in electricity, backups, maintenance...they can make a lot of sense.

It really depends on the game on if you need more cores / RAM, but most decently coded ones can get away with very little.

Take CS:Go for example: http://www.cstrike-planet.com/tutori...-Strike-Server - Check out the RAM requirments there.

You can fit a reasonable amount of players on that kind of spec, certainly if nothing else is running on the server.
I'd be tempted to pay the small amount it is for a TS / Vent server and have it managed externally, and keep the VM instance for the game server.

Always factor in the electricity cost. It mounts up quite quickly.