Gaming Server for $1000?

[KillaKilla]

A club I go to after school has weekly LAN parties. Unfortunately, our server is identical to the other computers. So we've collected $978 and I would like to know what setup would work best for a LAN gaming server. It would be running a dedicated, Windows XP (64 if applicable) server for games:
Halo 2
Battlefield vietnam
UT 2004/2005
Halflife 2

We already have:
Monitor
Case
mouse/keyboard
CDdrive, floppy and zip drive
HDD

 

[Wahsapa]

i was always told a rule of thumb for a good server is dual cpus and ecc ram...but u might not have that kind of budget so i dont know, sorry

maybe a p4 and i875? find a board with the intel csa gigabit eithernet and i think that should run a server with thoes games (dunno about halo2 or hl2 tho) fine

 

[RussianSoldier]

I don't think dual cpu's would work out too well for games. Most games don't take advantage of dual cpus, but that's as client-side.

The servers I work with host Citrix, allowing users to connect to a windows 2000 environment from really crappy computers, and those servers have (I think) dual P4, 2.8ghz, and about 2500mb ram and each server can handle about 50 users. But of course they're not gaming or using any sort of multimedia...

 

[RS3RS]

Game serving software takes advantage of dual CPU's. Plus, even if it didn't, that only matters if you're going to only be serving one type of game at a time. It sounds like he'll be serving more than one at a time, so dual processors would be great for that.

And there's no such thing as dual P4's

 

[Matthias99]

I would think a lower-end dual Opteron rig would be perfect, but cost considerations might force you to use Athlon MPs if you go dual. Of course, a single, fast workstation (like an A643200+ or P43.2C with 1GB+ of RAM) would also probably work well. It also depends on how many players you need to support -- you should be able to find recommended server specs (at least for BF:V and UT2K4, and I can't imagine HL2 would be THAT much worse) somewhere in the documentation that comes with your games.

 

[Cygni]

MSI K8T Master2-FAR Dual 940 Mobo - $220
2x AMD Opteron 242 (1.6ghz) - $207x2 - $414
2x Samsung 512mb PC2700 ECC/Reg - 2x$129 - $258
80 gig Samsung SATA 7.2k drive - $79
-----------------------
Total = $971

But this may be overkill in some ways. The dual Optys will probably be not exactly 2 x 1.6, because they are sharing the ram and dualy setups never offer true double the perfornamce. The SATA drive may be hit pretty hard, too, but im not sure how much HD game servers use (never operated one myself). Another option that may have better performance:

TYAN Tomcat K8S Single 940 - $195
Opteron 148 (2.2ghz) - $404
2x Samsung 512mb PC2700 ECC/Reg - 2x$129 - $258
36.7gb WD Raptor 10k - $111
--------------------
Total - $968

 

[dmw16]

Seems like dual anything is WAY overkill. There is no need for dual CPUs. Unless you wanted to run more than one game server at a time. Most server programs won't really make use of the duals, and certainly wouldn't be worth the money. I run a game server on far less of a machine with no trouble at all.

First off, how many players are you planning on? Even if it was 30 or so try this...

Athlon64 2800+ retail ~ $180
3x 512MB Corsair PC3200 ~ $255
Motherboard (depending on features) ~ $100
SATA hard drive ~ $80-$115 (depending on what you want)

Now if you dont have good networking gear, you may wanna spend some on that.

I found a netgear 24port 10/100 swtich for ~$100 on pricegrabber. So get two and stack them.

that puts the grand total at $850.

Spend the rest of the money on pizza and soda/beer or whatever.

-doug

 

[charloscarlies]

Well it really depends on how many people will be playing. I used to run CS servers, and I could run about 5-6 16 slot public servers off of a P4 1.8 w/ a gig of ram no problem. I would think a P4 2.8 w/ a gig of ram would be more than enough.

 

[dudeman007]

Originally posted by: charloscarlies
Well it really depends on how many people will be playing. I used to run CS servers, and I could run about 5-6 16 slot public servers off of a P4 1.8 w/ a gig of ram no problem. I would think a P4 2.8 w/ a gig of ram would be more than enough.

Yeah but playing cs as compared to the new games out there today is wayyyyyyyy different. You can run cs smoothly on a celeron. Try running any of those games he mentioned...Halo 2, Battlefield vietnam, UT 2004/2005, Halflife 2 even on a 1.8 p4 is sorta worthless. Get a 2.8 or 3.0... around there, it won't be "more than enough", but it should work. Remember, you DONT have to spend money on a graphics card for servers, unless you expect to have other people come play and need the extra computer (but then whats the server for? lol). Come to think of it, you could get a really nice server with 1000 bucks and those parts you already have. Also don't waste too much money on your motherboard, as you're not looking for benchmarks necesarily, so you can go with a cheaper 865 board. I'd concentrate on your cpu and ram first. Then motherboard. Next in line, a graphics card such a the 9800 pro, and finally you might want to get a newer faster hdd for perfomance. Theres my little 2 cents.

 

[Scifience]

Get an Athlon 64 FX-53.
Will be able to host any game with ease.

 

[phreaqe]

how many people are you think of playing at once. we have hosted ut2004 and BFV on a duron 700. think that many people here are eay overstating the need for a super powerful game server. it was a duron 700 with 768 ram. this worked great. never got above 50& cpu usage with 12 people playing.

edit:
as a matter of fact, i was hosting a dedicated UT2004 server on my athlon 2500, and playing a game at the same time. on the same computer. no lag at all. nobody that was playing with us noticed any lag.

 

[dudeman007]

Try playing battlefield. lol that thing is LAGGY

 

[phreaqe]

we had battlefield vietnam running on the duron as well. ran perfectly. no lag whatsoever

 

[dudeman007]

lol really? I must be doing something wrong. I've been on a few bf1942 personal servers with about 20 people on them and theres a major lag bout every 5 minutes. oh well...go duron!

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: KillaKilla
A club I go to after school has weekly LAN parties. Unfortunately, our server is identical to the other computers. So we've collected $978 and I would like to know what setup would work best for a LAN gaming server. It would be running a dedicated, Windows XP (64 if applicable) server for games:
Halo 2
Battlefield vietnam
UT 2004/2005
Halflife 2

We already have:
Monitor
Case
mouse/keyboard
CDdrive, floppy and zip drive
HDD

The big question : Do you plan on serving more then one game at a time?

 

[Chu]

Originally posted by: dudeman007
Try playing battlefield. lol that thing is LAGGY

We had 50+ bots /w 10 players on our server before. CPU usage on an A64 2400+ maxed out at 40%. Your doing something wrong.

 

[stultus]

So, I run 4 game servers. Nobody can tell you what you need to serve games that aren't out yet. Some games are hogs if they're poorly written (and some still are poorly written, especially mods)m but this is only really important if you want to have multiple games running full on the same box.

I've found a single 3 GHz-ish P4 and 1 gig ram to go surprisingly far... I was so impressed I bought another. And it'll only cost you ~$500. On a single P4, I'm running BF, BF:V, ET, UT2K4 ONS. I've never saturated the processor, and still have ~200 megs ram free. When these are full, ET takes 10%, UT2K4 ONS (which takes twice that of other gametypes) takes ~30%. I don't have info for the BF games, sorry.

I will echo phreaqe's statement that these people are overstating the needs for a server. Yes, you have $1000 and yes, you can spend $1000 and get bragging rights (omg dual opteron! omg fancy 64-bit AMD!) but a single CPU solution works just dandy. I've yet to try the Athlon64, but it'll be next, eventually.

It is highly unlikely that a 3GHz server would be unable to host any game coming out in the next year (or two?). Your only potential limitation is if you want to run multiple servers that are full simultaneously, or if you want to run game sizes way, way larger than intended (example: 2K4 Onslaught is usually in the range of 8v8, but try 16v16 and it'll choke every processor out there -- the CPU demands begin to increase exponentially).

It would be helpful if you could tell us how many people total would be using the server at the same time...

 

[howdyduty]

Agree with dmw16, dual cpu's is overkill and can be expensive as well as harder to configure for stability.

For game server hosting, a fast cpu, 1GB ram, and a very good lan card should do. You probably could get by with $500 since you dont need a performance video card.

 

[Fokks]

Chipping in to agree that you don't need that much for a game server. As has been stated, $500 is more than suffecient. Dual-processors is overkill.

They're forgetting that running the server is nowhere near as intensive as running the game itself (with all the graphics etc.)

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: howdyduty
Agree with dmw16, dual cpu's is overkill and can be expensive as well as harder to configure for stability.

Harder to configure for stability?

I'll bite. What are you talking about?

If you're going to be running more than one game, here are my two cents...

Gigabyte GA-7DXPDW-P: $189
2xAMD Athlon 2400+: $242
1GB PC-2100R: $240
WD 200GB PATA: $102
Generic Video: $6
CD-ROM: $20

That's $799

 

[Davegod]

Can get a whole lot of gaming server for nearly $1k. Just get as fast a CPU and much ram as possible, mobo etc just go for anything at all suitable thats reliable.

btw, disable anything onboard etc that isnt necessary (even usb, firewire, sound) and tweak off any unnecessary services. Personally I'd stick to win2k - linux supposably even better but highly unlikely to be worth your time and hassle learning linux just to run on server box - but really no biggie.

what are your needs for this in terms of networking? need a switch/router or just an eithernet port or two?

I THINK games not using dual proc is different from game servers - you cant make the game you're playing divide itself (a single process) over two cpu, but I think you can have two game servers (two processes) each taking seperate cpu's... Are you intending on running multiple dedicated servers off the box at the same time?

 

[BurnItDwn]

I would recommend
an Athlon64 3000+ ~ $223 at newegg.com (or possibly a 3200 or 3400, if you want to have the max players in the games, or if you wish to run large quantities of AI bots)



Motherboard of your choice (if you are going to run linux or unix, you will probably want a VIA chipset since they are more "open" with their drivers & support. If for some strange reason you want to run windows, or if you are required to run windows due to some game not having a linux versiono of its dedicated server, than I'd advise a Nvidia chipset) ~ $ around $80 for low end, towards $175 for the high end ($100 should get you a really nice mobo)

1 GB of ram ... (if its just a gaming dedicated server, with one game running at a time, you could get away with 512, or even 256 (at least with desert combat and BF vietnam if you go with linux and don't use any GUI.)

Any cheap generic 100mbit network card wil work (don't buy one if its already integrated into the mobo)
No need for a sound card
Cheapest old crappy video card you can find (any VGA card will do ... don't spend more than $5 unless you want to do other things on that box besides run a dedicated gaming server)

A Decent Power Supply is vital ... it's worth shelling out a bit more for an enermax or an antec over some generic brand (There are several other good brands too ... these are just the first 2 that come to mind)