Hello,
I just wanted to share my experience with a tf2 community I help run and how many tf2 servers can fit on what specs.

The Server:
Dual Quad Core Xeon 5410 2.33 Ghz
6 GB DDR2 RAM
250 GB SATA2 HDD
100 mbps Uplink
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

We run 10 x 34 slot TF2 Servers, most of which are full a majority of the day. We use sourceban on a seperate database server that the tf2 servers connect to.

We seem to have figured out that on this particular box we can put 1x 34 slot full server per core (could be more, but we have other stuff on the box as well). Also you would have to figure that moving the database onto its own servers helps a lot as well.

I hope this is helpful to someone :D

I've recently bought a server with nearly identical specs, except I have 4x500GB hard drives in Raid-5, 12 GB of RAM, and I also run Cent OS instead of Windows.

But I find that running 8 of the 32 slot Source Engine Servers, and 8 of the 32 slot gldsrc Engine servers, and 3 Left 4 Dead Servers doesn't even fully stress the CPU's, and the RAM seems fine, I haven't tried stressing my machine more than this.

Thanks for the info, good to know

You have a gaming community Jeremy ?

Not bad. Are Windows servers better for TF2? I heard that for some other Source based games Linux servers may be better if compatible.

Source isn't at all optimized for linux (it's compiled using the old gcc etc etc...). But with a lot of tweaking, coding, custom kernels and quite a few mods you can achieve better performance on linux.

I've tryed both windows 2008 server, and Cent OS 5 (linux) on the same machine, and when I stress tested the machine with a variety of source game servers, I had much better performance using linux. You couldn't tell either way in the actual gameplay of the server, but when I looked through my cpu usage logs, amount of different system resources used by different processes, etc, it was obvious that these servers run better (for me at least) on linux.

I know for a fact that Left4Dead servers run better on Linux, at least in terms of buggy performance and random server crashes.

I used to 4 32man TF2 servers on a Intel Q9300 on CentOS Linux and they definitely used more CPU than on Windows. Typically you can run a 32man per CPU core.

Do your servers experience any choke/loss?

Hey everyone. The servers are currently running great. Yes I am a leader in a large TF2 Community . I also heard Linux servers are better, and we could probably squeeze more on this server if we were running Linux, but I have no complaints. As of right now we dont experience any choke or loss. Although we did go through a period of attacks that we managed to tackle one by one. So I think we have most of our bases covered now!

There is really very little difference between Linux and Windows. Just my experience...

There is really very little difference between Linux and Windows. Just my experience...

While I've used both i perfer linux for running higher quality serveers(1000FPS Plus) and even to run 1000FPS on windows you need to have server 2008.

I've recently bought a server with nearly identical specs, except I have 4x500GB hard drives in Raid-5, 12 GB of RAM, and I also run Cent OS instead of Windows.

But I find that running 8 of the 32 slot Source Engine Servers, and 8 of the 32 slot gldsrc Engine servers, and 3 Left 4 Dead Servers doesn't even fully stress the CPU's, and the RAM seems fine, I haven't tried stressing my machine more than this.

Wait to they are using full capacity

While I've used both i perfer linux for running higher quality serveers(1000FPS Plus) and even to run 1000FPS on windows you need to have server 2008.

You can still get high fps from windows machines. You either run the srcds fps tool or run windows media player in the background.

Check the srcds community for more info

Thanks! I actually had been looking into getting a server like that for game server hosting. Didn't think that you could hold that many servers on one dedi. You have any recommendations on how to get a good dedicated server from very little cash? Been looking into getting one but don't have the cash.

Thanks! I actually had been looking into getting a server like that for game server hosting. Didn't think that you could hold that many servers on one dedi. You have any recommendations on how to get a good dedicated server from very little cash? Been looking into getting one but don't have the cash.

You need to budget around 100-120 dollars minimum for a Dual Core dedi server, and the best place to look would be on the dedicated server offers on this site. If you don't have an extensive background on server hosting, I seriously suggest you getting a server with TCAdmin setup which usually costs a little bit more. If not, you would definitely want to get a linux server and install SwiftPanel or something to help you manage multiple servers.