A friend of mine is an avid online gamer, and wants to run a gaming server using an SDSL broadband connection (or maybe even a T1).
I'll do the actual building of the machine. We need to know what kind of specs to the machine needs though. Looking around a little bit I've seen talk of quad Xeons, which I would have thought is totally over the top, is that kind of power really necessary?
What info do I need to get to help specify the hardware here?
liam858
August 14th, 2005, 10:16 AM
What games will be used? How many players per game? If running more than one dedicated game server then hard drive options would probably be to go for a large size drive on a Raid 0 array, and a high end CPU with 1gb of the fastest RAM the board will support, obviously the more players the more the CPU and RAM will be needed and pushed, so if he will be hosting upto 32 players (or more if the game allows) then i would suggest an Athlon 64 socket 939 Venice 3800+ or if he can afford the big bucks X2 3800+ looks to be a gamers dream at the low end of the X2 range.
You probably already know that graphics are not the most important thing in this situation, as the players just run off your server and connection, but if your friend wants to use this server for playing the games as well as hosting then he could get a decent graphics card of his(or your) choice, just get something that can live upto the standard of all the other components.
A nice case with good cooling capibilities and will hold everyting well............hmmm.......Either a Thermaltake or there are some pretty good Enermax towers available with front 120mm fans and enough room for future expansion (water cooling/dual PSU's etc if he wants to go down that path)
Multiple hard-drive controllers or striped (level 0) RAID (optional): For performance reasons, I recommend that you run no more than one type of game on a single machine. However, a resource-constrained user, or one who wishes to offer an extra but seldom-played game on the same box, may demand that multiple game servers run on a single machine. If that's the case, then increase the power of the system's CPU and add a second hard drive, either on a different controller or in a RAID Level 0 (striped) array. These hardware upgrades will help to prevent disk contention from slowing the performance of either game.
SuperSparks
August 14th, 2005, 12:38 PM
Thanks Liam, that gives me an idea of what questions to ask. I'll come back later with the answers.
liam858
August 14th, 2005, 12:41 PM
No problem, does your friend have a set budget to work around for this build?
Liam
SuperSparks
August 14th, 2005, 12:51 PM
I gather that a group of people will be clubbing together, so I don't think budget constraints will be too much of an issue.
Train
August 14th, 2005, 05:12 PM
Two Opteron 275s @ $1350 each
Tyan K8WE @ 600
2 each 1GB Corsair DDR400 modules {registered} @ 200 each
850 SSI powersupply 470
Now that would be a screamer of a start.
EXPENSIVE!! Start :D
liam858
August 14th, 2005, 05:34 PM
Two Opteron 275s @ $1350 each
Tyan K8WE @ 600
2 each 1GB Corsair DDR400 modules {registered} @ 200 each
850 SSI powersupply 470
:D, That would be my "Weekend" system, I would suggest if you really want to break the bank: Tyan K8QSD Pro Board I would agree with you on RAM, 4 x Opteron 875's @ God knows what price and a PC Power & Cooling 850 SSI SLI, EPS12V, SSI 850W Power Supply @ $420 :D
Liam
SuperSparks
August 14th, 2005, 07:38 PM
Well we're looking at a dual CPU system for sure. I've been surprised at how reasonably priced the mid range Opterons and Xeons are actually:
I could do with suggestions for a mobo though. I haven't had a lot of luck in even finding places that sell multiprocessor mobos.
2 GB of ECC RAM should do, and some SATA drives in either RAID 0 or RAID 5 configuration I think.
Can anyone convince me that SCSI drives would be worth the extra money? My view so far is that the bottleneck will be in the connection to the Internet, and that having very high data throughput won't really be an issue here, unlike with a fileserver. But I might be wrong.
Hot swap PSU's, hard drives, etc are not needed here anyway, so that will make the choice of case a lot easier.
Train
August 14th, 2005, 07:51 PM
Well with XP PRO 64 you could use 4GB of ram but it wil take a total of 16GB.
8GB per cpu.
liam858
August 14th, 2005, 07:54 PM
I could do with suggestions for a mobo though. I haven't had a lot of luck in even finding places that sell multiprocessor mobos
I think it would have to be an online american retailer, example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186055
And also a selection of Dual CPU ATX Opteron boards: http://www.dealtime.com/xPP-Motherboards-opteron_motherboard-atx-2_cpus
I don't think that SCSI would make that much difference as long as if your friend is using multiple games across multiple drives it shouldn't be a problem, i think you are right about the connection, upload may cause a bottleneck.
I would think a 500-600 watt PSU would be a good idea, not sure about price for a decent manufacturer.
The akasa is cheaper for an extra 50W output looks like a good deal.
This is a good option for a case: http://www.antec.com/uk/productDetails.php?ProdID=01001
Liam
SuperSparks
August 14th, 2005, 08:09 PM
Antec will do nicely for the PSU, and Antec or Thermaltake for the case.
OS will be Windows Server 2003 Standard most likely, maybe Web Edition.
Train, do you think going higher than 2GB RAM would be beneficial here?
Liam, it's interesting that you seem to be finding it hard to find a UK supplier of multiprocessor boards as well. Given the ease of getting Xeons or Opterons, it's surprising :confused: I suppose there's always Ebay.
liam858
August 14th, 2005, 08:19 PM
I guess it is a gamble when UK suppliers "buy in" dual boards for the domestic market, as they do not know whether people would want them or can afford to build a system around them, as they arrive in the US before we see them and there is a larger market there are a lot of US retailers that think they can sell on these components.
I would try Ebay yeah, you might aswell, just to guarantee the shipping and shipping fees.
Liam
liam858
August 14th, 2005, 09:21 PM
Ebay didn't turn up a great deal for me, does your friend specifically want an ATX board? I'm guessing it would slightly OTT to go for a server board and rackmount case based on space and budget alone, so i'm now thinking he should check what US retailers ship to the UK and for what shipping charges, hopefully it won't cost that much just for a board.
Liam
SuperSparks
August 14th, 2005, 09:37 PM
I don't think a rackmount will be any good, there isn't going to be room fo a 19" rack for sure. I think it will have to be a large tower case, and so an ATX board. You may be right, a US supplier may be the way to go here. I think we've spotted a hole in the UK market here, if any retailers read this thread :rolleyes:
Thanks for trying Liam :)
liam858
August 14th, 2005, 09:54 PM
I think we've spotted a hole in the UK market here, if any retailers read this thread
Definately, lets hope some of the big retailers see this and change their minds about the Dual CPU range.
Thanks for trying Liam
You're Welcome :) This is the kind of stuff i enjoy, hardware/component pricing /compatibility etc
Liam
Train
August 15th, 2005, 12:53 AM
I think 2GB should hold it, but 4 would not hurt either as he may have a large number tapping in.
Abhoth
August 15th, 2005, 03:19 AM
Below are the two machines running for a very popular group playing UT2k4 ... take your pick. Server #2 is the 32 man Onslaught server I believe and it's generally quite full and runs very well...
Server Number 2
(March 2005)
Dual AMD Opterons Model 252 2.6GHz, 1MB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor
Tyan S2882 "Thunder K8S Pro (S2882UG3NR)"
4, Corsair 184-Pin 512MB ECC Registered DDR PC-3200 (DDR400)
Maxtor 73.4GB 68pin U320-SCSI 10,000RPM Hard Drive (Atlas(TM) 10K IV ) (8 meg Cache)
On Board Broadcom NIC
2, Thermaltake Venus 12 CPU Coolers For AMD Opteron
GigaCase, YY-W201
Antec 550W Power Supply, 24-Pin, Model "TRUE550 EPS12V"
DS-3 connection
100 MB Full Duplex Ethernet switch
Byan
August 15th, 2005, 05:39 PM
ack, I just lost everything I was typing..., and I am really tired now, so I am gonna be right to the point
opterons = faster then xeons atm
get 10,000RPM at least, seek time in game server is important, sata should be good, but SCSI would be ideal, the actual data rate is not as important, so RAID may not be needed (not like it could hurt)
if running more then one game on server, get a controller + HDD/array for each game
why not linux? gentoo 64?; you'll be able to strip everything down and run only the dedicated server, very ideal, very stable; maybe have windows on at first and have your friend learn linux and then shift over...
ethernet, brand name card, T1 is slow, so reliablilty is the only thing needed here
4x512 ECC DDR cosair would ne nice
Antec PSU and case.., 500+
I think thats it..
Daneph2
August 15th, 2005, 05:56 PM
I have run game servers from home just using decent size home PC's. Bandwidth will be your number 1 issue. broadband has all these great downlaod speeds, but a server must upload to each user and it grows proportionatly for each user that joins. Most ISP's have low upload and at about 6 users, your dead in the water.
T1 would probably work or these new fiber lines might. but bandwidth will be much more important than all the hardware you are putting into this. Most servers need cpu and memory power and thats about it.
Byan
August 15th, 2005, 06:03 PM
I was gonna add that, but I am tired and I forgot..
even with a T1 server, all this top notch hardware maybe completely overkill..
if you could get 100mb, then you'd be golden.., but with T1..., athalon 64's may be all you'll need..
Daneph2
August 15th, 2005, 06:14 PM
and go with top notch network card, something I never worry about, but I had a server dropping packets. was the cheap network card
Byan
August 15th, 2005, 07:41 PM
exactly, I would get an intel PRO card.., it doesn't need to be top notch as in GB though.., since you won't need those type speeds, but it should be the top of the 10/100 class
SuperSparks
August 15th, 2005, 08:40 PM
That's excellent stuff, thanks guys :)
It will most likely be an SDSL connection so the upload and download speeds will be the same. But you've confirmed something that I was suspecting, that the connection bandwidth will be the limiting factor in all this.
Byan, that is interesting what you said about seek time. SCSI is going to add a lot to the cost, but a couple of SATA 10,000 WD Raptors should give the same kind of seek time/latency as SCSI I would have thought, so that might be worth going for.
I don't have any experience of Linux myself, and I'm sure my friend doesn't either, so installing it would be a steep learning curve. Windows would be a lot easier, because I'm reasonabley familiar with Windows Server.
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