Building a gaming server

[SuperSparks]

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]

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]

Thanks Liam, that gives me an idea of what questions to ask. I'll come back later with the answers.

[liam858]

No problem, does your friend have a set budget to work around for this build?



Liam

[SuperSparks]

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]

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

[liam858]

Two Opteron 275s @ $1350 each
Tyan K8WE @ 600
2 each 1GB Corsair DDR400 modules {registered} @ 200 each
850 SSI powersupply 470

, 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


Liam

[SuperSparks]

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:

AMD Opteron 246 2-way CPU = £170.00
AMD Opteron 248 2-way CPU = £250.00
Intel Xeon Nocona EMT64 2.8 = £158.57
Intel Xeon Nocona EMT64 3.0 = £199.69
Intel Xeon Nocona EMT64 3.2 = £258.44

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]

Well with XP PRO 64 you could use 4GB of ram but it wil take a total of 16GB.
8GB per cpu.

[liam858]

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/Produc...82E16813186055

And also a selection of Dual CPU ATX Opteron boards: http://www.dealtime.com/xPP-Motherbo...ard-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.


Liam

[liam858]

OCZ Powerstream 600w PSU http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...roductid=18272

Akasa PowerPlus 650W http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...roductid=18648

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]

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 I suppose there's always Ebay.

[liam858]

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]

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]

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

Thanks for trying Liam