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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.
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Thanks for trying Liam
You're Welcome :) This is the kind of stuff i enjoy, hardware/component pricing /compatibility etc
Liam
I think 2GB should hold it, but 4 would not hurt either as he may have a large number tapping in.
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"
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Server Number 1
Server is Overclocked to 3.33Ghz
Dual Intel® Xeon™ Processors 3.06Ghz 512K 533 FSB, 604 pin PPGA FC-PGA2 (BX80532KE3066D SL6RR)
iWill Dual Xeon™ Motherboard, Intel® E7505 chipset (DPI533 Rev. 1.0, 07/04/03 BIOS)
2 X 1GByte TwinX Matched Memory Pair DDR RAM - Corsair, XMS 2700 Platinum Heat Spreaders - (TwinX1024-2700LLPT)
Maxtor 36.4GB 68pin U320-SCSI 10,000RPM Hard Drive (Atlas(TM) 10K IV) (8 meg Cache)
Adaptec 29160 U160 LVD SCSI Controller Card
Intel® PRO/1000 MT Server Adapter (PWLA8490MT)
Antec Server Tower Case (SX-830)
Fortron 550W EPS 12 Power Supply (FSP55060PLN)
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DS-3 connection
100 MB Full Duplex Ethernet switch
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..
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.
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..
and go with top notch network card, something I never worry about, but I had a server dropping packets. was the cheap network card
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
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.