Gaming server to run arma 3 £1500 budget, suggestions.
- Thread starter wozzsta
- Start date
How much use of this server are you going to get? How many players, any mods?
What is your internet connection like?
Only reason for asking is that's a lot of money to spend on something for a few mates to play with you on and monthly subs for a hosted one would be far more cost effective plus then you don't have hardware worries to think about.
What is your internet connection like?
Only reason for asking is that's a lot of money to spend on something for a few mates to play with you on and monthly subs for a hosted one would be far more cost effective plus then you don't have hardware worries to think about.
Hi sorry for the lack of info.
My internet is 100Mbs fiber, i get about 30Mbs upload enough for about 20-30 people to play on at a time.
I will be running arma 2 and 3 servers about 2 of each, the server will be running windows 2012 R2 Std and will also be handling ADDS, DNS and DHCP.
I have used the monthly sub option before but i prefer to have my own, also i work in IT so i like to have a server at home to experiment with.
Cheers.
My internet is 100Mbs fiber, i get about 30Mbs upload enough for about 20-30 people to play on at a time.
I will be running arma 2 and 3 servers about 2 of each, the server will be running windows 2012 R2 Std and will also be handling ADDS, DNS and DHCP.
I have used the monthly sub option before but i prefer to have my own, also i work in IT so i like to have a server at home to experiment with.
Cheers.
Have you thought about splitting into 2 separate boxes? Your game server will be accessible from the public domain so may be vulnerable or targetted by attack, last thing you want is your own personal stuff being compromised as well.
This is a very good idea. Indeed, I would recommend three boxes so you have two boxes running Active Directory.
Yes, put the game server in the DMZ.
£1500 is way too much.
You've not specified any real requirement for cpu/ram/storage so difficult to make a recommendation.
You could buy a HP MicroServer or Dell T20 for a couple of hundred quid which could work for you. You could just slap ESXi on it and run your gaming servers in virtual machines to isolate them from the host and other test beds you create. I'd probably sway more towards the Xeon based Dell T20 for this kind of workload though. Can fit up to 6 disks directly in it and up to 32 GB RAM.
You've not specified any real requirement for cpu/ram/storage so difficult to make a recommendation.
You could buy a HP MicroServer or Dell T20 for a couple of hundred quid which could work for you. You could just slap ESXi on it and run your gaming servers in virtual machines to isolate them from the host and other test beds you create. I'd probably sway more towards the Xeon based Dell T20 for this kind of workload though. Can fit up to 6 disks directly in it and up to 32 GB RAM.
Having two machines is a great idea, ill keep my current server for ADDS/DNS/DHCP, then have a second for hosting games.
I am surprised that everyone has said that i don't need a high spec server for this, my understanding was that ARMA 3 servers require a lot of CPU/RAM power to run smoothly.
Or maybe hosting sites just have uber spec servers and run a lot of VMs on each one.
i wanted to go for a 8 core 16 thread xeon, 16 or 32GB of ram and around 500gb of SSD in raid 1.
but if you guys really think thats overkill then i guess i'm open to suggestions.
Cheers.
I am surprised that everyone has said that i don't need a high spec server for this, my understanding was that ARMA 3 servers require a lot of CPU/RAM power to run smoothly.
Or maybe hosting sites just have uber spec servers and run a lot of VMs on each one.
i wanted to go for a 8 core 16 thread xeon, 16 or 32GB of ram and around 500gb of SSD in raid 1.
but if you guys really think thats overkill then i guess i'm open to suggestions.
Cheers.
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Dec 2009
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- 7,245
Ideally you want more RAM if you're going to be virtualising.
Also note that generally speaking once you surpass 30 players in ARMA 3 in a virtual machine, there is a distinct performance degradation compared to an ARMA 3 server on a dedicated operating system, especially so if you're running a mission with a lot of AI.
If it's primarily ARMA servers that you will be hosting and you want maximum performance than you'll want to pass on the enterprise/E3/ECC stuff and go for an i7 4790k for example, something that has high clock speeds.
Ultimately if you're going to be hosting a fairly popular server, then I would definitely recommend going down the renting route. SoYouStart Gaming range are very competitive. If you're not running a massively intensive mission then even their Intel Xeon E3 1245v2 would suffice.
Renting is always better, you're not paying for power, you can usually burst to 1Gbps speeds, DDoS protection, hardware guarantees, better network routes, stability and latency-wise than home ISPs etc.
If you really want to do virtualize, then I would recommend Server 2012 R2 as the base OS and if you want virtual machines then use something like OracleBox to host them within windows itself.
SSDs are king both for ARMA 3 server hosting and virtualizing. If you spin up too many VMs you'll quickly run out of IO on standard hard drives.
If you do want any advise with ARMA 3 server hosting itself then feel free to send me a trust and I'll be happy to help out if I can.
Also note that generally speaking once you surpass 30 players in ARMA 3 in a virtual machine, there is a distinct performance degradation compared to an ARMA 3 server on a dedicated operating system, especially so if you're running a mission with a lot of AI.
If it's primarily ARMA servers that you will be hosting and you want maximum performance than you'll want to pass on the enterprise/E3/ECC stuff and go for an i7 4790k for example, something that has high clock speeds.
Ultimately if you're going to be hosting a fairly popular server, then I would definitely recommend going down the renting route. SoYouStart Gaming range are very competitive. If you're not running a massively intensive mission then even their Intel Xeon E3 1245v2 would suffice.
Renting is always better, you're not paying for power, you can usually burst to 1Gbps speeds, DDoS protection, hardware guarantees, better network routes, stability and latency-wise than home ISPs etc.
If you really want to do virtualize, then I would recommend Server 2012 R2 as the base OS and if you want virtual machines then use something like OracleBox to host them within windows itself.
SSDs are king both for ARMA 3 server hosting and virtualizing. If you spin up too many VMs you'll quickly run out of IO on standard hard drives.
If you do want any advise with ARMA 3 server hosting itself then feel free to send me a trust and I'll be happy to help out if I can.
Last edited:
Soldato
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- 26 Aug 2012
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- North West
For game servers I would always recommend hosting it in a proper data center for the lower latency. Home connections just don't cut it in my eyes. If you've already for some servers running you can see what the memory/cpu usage are underload to decide if a dedicated server is needed or if you can get away with maybe a XEN VPS. I've hosted CSGO and UT servers off VPS and they no where near using the full resources even under full load. My next plan is an Ark Survival Evolved but I've been told that uses 3.2gb of memory with an idle server...
I used to play on an Ark server and speak to the owner a lot and helped him pick the components for the server and he had a 1.2tb Intel PCI SSD and had a M.2 and also a 1tb evo standard SSD and compared performance and the PCI SSD did miracles for the server and he had a 6 core 12 thread xeon and 32 or 64gb of ram and at one point had 100 people on the server and he said it was really comfortable doing so, the limiter was his Internet which living in the countryside was garbage..
Op you will be fine with something like the above, I think the SSD will be your deciding factor, your Internet seems good enough for sure, for multiple servers at once get more ram and that 8/10 core Xeon, try get that in budget and you will be laughing having fun.
As above there is online servers but they don't offer the same fun for someone like yourself who seems to want to mess on with his stuff heh!
I say build and enjoy it!