Dedicated gaming server...

CK61938

CK61938

CK61938

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I dont know if this is the right place for it...but here goes.

I am seriously thinking about having a dedicated gaming server set up so I can run games like COD4 and also possibly Crysis Wars.

I want to put them on this set up:

AMD Athlon X2 6000+ 3.0GHz
4GB DDR2 RAM
250GB HDD SATAII
ASUS M2R32-MVP motherboard


I going to run Windows 2003 Server on it. But I want to know what exactly is needed to run a dedicated game server? Do I need to run the games themselves on the server?

Thanks all in advance :D
 
Why do you need Windows 2003 on it? Surely XP would be fine?

What sort of bandwidth have you got, as there would be very little point in having a dedicated games server if you dont have a large amount...
 
Well my upload speed is 1.3Mb...and download is 50Mb. You saying I wont have to specifically use Win 2003? I can use either XP or even Vista? I would much rather use Vista to be honest...
 
1.3mb isnt really enough, people will have high latency I would imagine.

You can use xp or even Linux, you need to run a server version of the game, I don't think they use a huge amount of power.
 
mr_x_plosion said:
1.3mb isnt really enough, people will have high latency I would imagine.

You can use xp or even Linux, you need to run a server version of the game, I don't think they use a huge amount of power.
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Not if I restrict the amount to say about 10 users. lol...

funkeh said:
Only a tenner a month for a 20 slot cod4 server.
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Ah thats the other one...I was going to ask if there was some charge involved.

iaind said:
Waste of a decent spec box IMO....
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lol...to be honest, you are probably right...:D
 
Game servers just run maths in a console window. I've run them on a P4 laptop before. most games the dedicated server application is cross platform so will run on Linux.
when you connect to hosted servers it's not actually a server it's an instance of the game running on a box. Most are average spec linux servers running 8 or more instances at once. Nowdays probably even a VM running COD4 on a box running several VMs - Rack space costs in hosting.

For LAN it'll be fine but for net facing with public access don't bother. Even AnnexM connections with 2.5Mbit up would struggle to run a single medium sized instance. These days it's cheaper to rent one. Plus if it goes wrong you've got experts on hand to fix it rather than have to do it yourself.
 
Skidilliplop said:
Game servers just run maths in a console window. I've run them on a P4 laptop before. most games the dedicated server application is cross platform so will run on Linux.
when you connect to hosted servers it's not actually a server it's an instance of the game running on a box. Most are average spec linux servers running 8 or more instances at once. Nowdays probably even a VM running COD4 on a box running several VMs - Rack space costs in hosting.

For LAN it'll be fine but for net facing with public access don't bother. Even AnnexM connections with 2.5Mbit up would struggle to run a single medium sized instance. These days it's cheaper to rent one. Plus if it goes wrong you've got experts on hand to fix it rather than have to do it yourself.
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Hmmm...I knew this wouldnt be a walk in the park lol...but thanks for the input...looks like I will have to leave it for the time being and see what else I can do with the AMD based machine. :D
 
CK61938 said:
Not if I restrict the amount to say about 10 users. lol...
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You'd be lucky to get 5 users on there, 4 is probably more realistic.

Do it for the fun/experience of having a gaming server at home but it would be a massive waste of electric/tidy rig/etc in the long term and the gaming experience for the clients will be passable as opposed to spot on.
 
I don't know if all these people saying it won't work have actually tried it.

I actually do this on a regular basis. I have a file server/PC that is use to host games for me and some friends to play (over the internet games).

Main games we play are source bases ones, I've yet to set up unreal tornament 3, I might set up COD 4 soon too, the games that we play are pretty low power, so my server is a bit over-speced. It's got a Q6600, 4GB of RAM, and is soon to have a 4850 in it :p (it doubles up as spare power for rendering though and LAN games when friends come over.)

Anyway, the point is that I can host games with around 10 people, and it copes very well. I have a 24Mb downstream and 1.3Mb upsteam connection.

Average ping for people connected, within the UK is 30-50. Most of my friends are in the merseyside area, but I have some down south and up north-east ways.

I've had games go for hours, the performance is consistent and the games flow well. The average amount of players is about 6, but sometimes It's around 10.

I reckon it could host a lot more.

I don't know where people have gotten the numbers they've been quoting, but I do what you want to do on a regular basis, and it's more than good enough. Paying out for a server would be a waste of money.

At least give it a try before you resign it to a useless attempt.
 
I don't know where people have gotten the numbers they've been quoting, but I do what you want to do on a regular basis, and it's more than good enough. Paying out for a server would be a waste of money.
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I find that amusing from the guy running a Quad core as a home dedicated.

1.3 meg over 10 connections is 130k each max. Assuming you get the full 1.3meg which is highly unlikely. if you look at netgraph during game you'll see the in and out spike to well above that, these spikes will flatten out and cause ping spikes/spells of lag..
IF you could run servers for 10 people on ADSL everyone would do it cos it's a lot cheaper than 100meg hosted + Rack rent.

For the record I have tried it as you'll see in my post above I've run them on laptops and all manner of hardware and as someone who's tried it and is a networking professional I can tell you adsl isn't fast enough.
My AnnexM connection has 2.5meg upload and 20 down but still lags a bit hosting a single Left4Dead server.
 
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I fail to believe a 10 user server is going to put anything like sufficient overhead on a single PC to make it worth running on a separate machine.

Fair enough if the PC is there for another purpose but its a waste if its all you're doing with it
 
Skidilliplop said:
I find that amusing from the guy running a Quad core as a home dedicated.

1.3 meg over 10 connections is 130k each max. Assuming you get the full 1.3meg which is highly unlikely. if you look at netgraph during game you'll see the in and out spike to well above that, these spikes will flatten out and cause ping spikes/spells of lag..
IF you could run servers for 10 people on ADSL everyone would do it cos it's a lot cheaper than 100meg hosted + Rack rent.

For the record I have tried it as you'll see in my post above I've run them on laptops and all manner of hardware and as someone who's tried it and is a networking professional I can tell you adsl isn't fast enough.
My AnnexM connection has 2.5meg upload and 20 down but still lags a bit hosting a single Left4Dead server.
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I can only assume you didn't read my whole post. As I stated it's not only used as a home server, it's used to play LAN games with friends, to assist in rendering. In addition to that, I upgraded my whole PC and moved my old PC into a new case to be used as a server. Q6600s were so cheap then that the additional cost was quite low, especially considering the benefit an additional quad core CPU would give me when rendering. 8 Cores instead of 4 cores is far better.

You might be a networking a professional, but it doesn't change the fact that I sucessfully run games on a regular basis.

I actually do get the full 1.3Mb, well it's actually more 1.4Mb.

He should at least give it a go before considering spending money out, just to play some games on line with friends.
 
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Well I'm open to correction if you can provide a vidcap of 10 non local clients all connected and playing smoothly at >60fps and <50ms latency.

With regards to your connection, you might sync at nearly 1.4 but your throughput won't get close to that.

Regardless of the rig, multiple sources on google show COD4 clocking in at 50-80Kbit/s upload and up to 300kbit download on average over an hours play . Which 10 times over is more than the fastest home broadband could handle comfortably.

£20 per month is less than most pay for an iPhone. Which is more useful.....
 
lol...well I wasnt expecting this...

I will say I will have to have a long think about this...either way the idea was good but we will see what happens in future...but thank you for all your input :D
 
kylew said:
He should at least give it a go before considering spending money out, just to play some games on line with friends.
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I think the point was he could play some games online to the extent of his connection's capability by running the server locally so there would be a more useful use for his old hardware
 
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