Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : Game Servers : Buying a 4000$ dedi, need opinions

[sawine]

Hello,

I will quickly resume my situation. I'm the owner of {snip} a relatively popular minecraft server. Minecraft is a java game and is at the current stage of beta 1.7. This little game seems nothing to run, but infact it turns out to be a real memory killer. We currently rent a server for 210$ per month with the following specs: Xeon3450, 16gb RAM, 2x500gb RAID1 + RAMdisk. Even with this hardware, which is quite decent, we manage to full our ram usage and we also have to mount some files on the ram otherwise the hard disk buffer is too slow. For our server to keep expanding, we need better hardware and we decided to build our own dedicated and to get it hosted in a datacenter.

Here is the current stuff we plan to buy:

http://i.imgur.com/O9y0X.jpg

We might add few hard disks to it for backups. And if its possible, we would raid0 the 2 SSDs, our objective is to get maximum read/write speed. (Even if ramdisk remains the best option afterall, for some of the server files that are always accessed)

I would like to know what you guys think, would you change anything ? Or do something else ?

*Oh and I know that for this price you can rent a server for a while, but I prefer the option of buying, so even if it don't host a minecraft server in the future, I will still have the hardware host something else.

Thanks in advance !

-sawine

[Steven F]

Correct me if I misread, but you want the following:
Dual Xeon E5645 processors (Hexa cores)
6 x 8 GB of RAM (64 GB of RAM)
2 x SSD (not sure about total size, nor are they RAID 1?)

It seems to be a bit overkill if the Xeon 3450 was strong enough. I would recommend the following:

One Xeon E5645 processor (YOU CAN ALWAYS UPGRADE!)
3 x 8 GB of RAM (YOU CAN ALWAYS UPGRADE!)
4 x SATA II RAID 10 (On RAMDisk, these should be WAY MORE I/O than enough)

You'll end up saving like $1,000 - $1,200 and you can always add more later.

I made an edit to the recommended HDDs.

[trustedurl.com]

Any particular reason you picked those SSDs? I probably get faster SAS drives, RAID-10 and get more RAM.

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by trustedurl.com

Any particular reason you picked those SSDs? I probably get faster SAS drives, RAID-10 and get more RAM.

Hell, even SAS is a bit overkill. SATA II RAID 10 should be good enough. If 16 GB RAM was pretty much enough, why would he need 64GB of RAM or more?

[CirrusTech]

I would recommend using SuperMicro motherboard, chassis .... they build better server mother boards.

I would also recommend adding IPMI/KVM over IPs

[chennaihomie]

Downgrade your processor to E3, upgrade RAM and create a RAM disk for fast I/O. Don't go any further than SATA raid-10 or SAS Raid-10 if you want little more performance.

[VN-Ken]

You realize a desktop PS will not fit into a 1U, correct?

[DJAB Networks Josh]

Originally Posted by CirrusTech

I would recommend using SuperMicro motherboard, chassis .... they build better server mother boards.

This. The build team we work with highly recommends them and we've never had an issue with Supermicro.

[sawine]

Originally Posted by Purely

6 x 8 GB of RAM (64 GB of RAM)

6*8=48

Originally Posted by Purely

It seems to be a bit overkill

We plan to run a Terraria and also a BF3 server on this box in the future. Maybe other games or websites...

Originally Posted by Purely

If 16 GB RAM was pretty much enough, why would he need 64GB of RAM or more?

I said 16gb was not enough and it would be a total of 48gb.


And to all those suggesting changes on the current box, it's a rented server, I don't own the hardware.


So raid 10 will achieve faster read AND write speed than 2 ssds ?

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by sawine

6*8=48


We plan to run a Terraria and also a BF3 server on this box in the future. Maybe other games or websites...



I said 16gb was not enough and it would be a total of 48gb.


And to all those suggesting changes on the current box, it's a rented server, I don't own the hardware.


So raid 10 will achieve faster read AND write speed than 2 ssds ?

RAID 10 Sata II 7,200 RPM hard drives will not have faster read and write, but with RAMDisk they will and you will have MUCH more disk space, and redundancy.

Sorry about my math, I was rushing at work. I'm going to stick by my recommendation. When you want to run additional games, add components as needed. Don't spend $4,000 when you only need to spend $2,500. You can use that $1,500 for other things.

[sawine]

Originally Posted by Purely

RAID 10 Sata II 7,200 RPM hard drives will not have faster read and write, but with RAMDisk they will and you will have MUCH more disk space, and redundancy.

Sorry about my math, I was rushing at work. I'm going to stick by my recommendation. When you want to run additional games, add components as needed. Don't spend $4,000 when you only need to spend $2,500. You can use that $1,500 for other things.

But what if I actually wanted to spend the 4000$ ? What would be the best option then, to make the best server possible for that price ?

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by sawine

But what if I actually wanted to spend the 4000$ ? What would be the best option then, to make the best server possible for that price ?

I just can't understand why you would want to. I mean, in a few months, the 5645 will probably be obsolete. By purchasing one now, which should be more than enough, you save yourself money to expand in the future. The setup you have is a good one, but it's overkill.

[mazedk]

Hmm.. correct me if im wrong.. but isnt minecraft a cpu killer more than mem ? - And isnt the biggest issue that its not coded for multicore/multisocket cpu's ?

[Purevoltage]

Minecraft depending on what mods are being used can rape the cpu as well.
Ram is the big killer for those servers though.

I would do as others have said and get only the single cpu and half the ram at the moment then upgrade in the future when needed.

I own multiple dual quad cores and when we started out if I could go back I would have bought half then upgraded when needed as most times you end up not using those servers as much as you think.

Also you might want to recheck how much bandwidth you'll use if you're thinking about maxing that new box out as well sometimes it ends up being cheaper to rent the servers.

[Lee-RackSRV]

I have a similar setup at present however I opted for a raid10 sata array / 32gb ram / sm chasis / sm mobo

Depending on what you expect to get out the box server wise you should be fine, however I'd avoid using the asus chasis, you'll also need a 1u psu.