Home/Game hosting server

[LewisRaz]

Hello all. Firstly I hope this is in the right section.

I have been hosting game servers for friends on and off. Things like ARK and minecraft. etc..

I have been doing this off of an old base unit. Using an AMD FX 6300 and 8GB of corsair vengeance DDR3. The PC also has a 270x since the mobo has no video.

For the most part this is fine. But the power usage and just the size of the unit annoy me.

I also want to be able to start using the server as a way to backup my main media and have the TV stream from it.


Can anyone advise a better build or config for this set up. (it currently has only a 120gb SSD so will need some HDDs for data backups/media.)

It is currently on windows 7. While my experience of setting up dedicated game servers is quite sound. My actual knowledge of proper servers is limited.

TLDR: Spec me a power conscious budget server that can host games and also stream media to my tv.

Thanks

Lewis

 

[lude1962]

How will you be streaming to the tv (pc as a nas, plex trancoding , plex client kodi client DLNA)?

Have you actually measured the power consumption (plug in power meters are about a tenner)?

If you're going to run a NAS with raid, the term budget soon goes as the cost of disks is far greater then cost of cpu etc.

Your only upgrade route is really an Intel chip based system. You need to work out how much computing power running your servers actually needs then measure it up against an equivalent intel cpu.

If your current system uses all the 6cores of your fx@100% (most unlikely), then you'd be looking something like a Intel Core i5-6500 @ 3.20GHz, 10% more computing power, less power hungry, in built graphics, but you'd need new mb, and possibly new memory.

a quick build
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i5-6500 3.20GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £188.99
• 1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD4UZ124001608G-2C= £68.99
• 1 x Gigabyte H110M-S2H Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £49.99

Total: £318.47
(includes shipping: £10.50)
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If your only using 50% of your cores/cpu you may be able to use a Intel Core i3-6100 @ 3.70GHz, + so cheaper board only 8gb mem we end up with

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Intel Core i3-6100 3.70GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £109.99
• 1 x Asus H110M-K Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £47.99
• 1 x Team Group Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (TPKD48GM2400HC16DC0= £37.99

Total: £206.47
(includes shipping: £10.50)
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Also have a look at the Dell T20 server thread.

 

[TheSkateyBird]

Definitely look at Dell T20, the E3 Xeon model can be had for around £250 with £80 cashback until October.

 

[TechMinerUK]

Definitely look at Dell T20, the E3 Xeon model can be had for around £300 with £80 cashback until October.

This absolutely or go with the Lenovo TS140 as both are great little servers which pack a punch with their CPU's and have plenty of room to upgrade the RAM on

 

[LewisRaz]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Should I stick with windows 7/10 or would linux be a better approach?

 

[Bluecube]

If you're prepared to tinker then Linux will be fine provided the game servers you want to run will run on Linux. Otherwise stick to what your comfortable with.

 

[TheSkateyBird]

Agree with Bluecube. Although I'd say even if you're not too familiar with Linux but are serious about running your own servers it would be a worthwhile investment to read some wikis and have a crack at it.