Spec me a Server..

ThatJoe

ThatJoe

ThatJoe

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18 Aug 2007
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Location
London, England
Currently looking into purchasing a server, Gotta start somewhere. Not so experienced / educated on this subject but I was looking to get one and go Co-Location. Do most Co-Location companies require a rack or tower? The plan is to use the dedicated server to host Game Servers such as HL2 Based Games (TF2, CSS, DOD:S etc.) I've also looked at (a four letter company, known to only sell online) but never trusted to buy anything pre-built as i'd hope to find it cheaper to build it myself.

Not really sure how to budget this, but i'd like to keep it below £600, not sure if this is possible. If you guys could try your hardest for a spec that'd be great. Oh and it doesn't need a OS. Thanks.

EDIT: Whizzed up this spec, is it any good? Am i missing something?

ocuk2ki7.jpg
 
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i'd get a Dell server, it may be worth it just for the support. Rack space is VERY limited and expensive in london and it may be worth renting a server from a hosting company.
 
Anyone notice anything wrong with that spec^^ ? Am i missing something really essential?
 
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No Raid.
2GB memory? You won't get many player slots out of that.
Just one CPU?

Also is this in tower or rack format? Have you even located your datacentre or researched the requirements of the system for what you need?
 
MMD said:
No Raid.
2GB memory? You won't get many player slots out of that.
Just one CPU?

Also is this in tower or rack format? Have you even located your datacentre or researched the requirements of the system for what you need?
Click to expand...

Rack format. I'm planning to go co-location. Hosted in BlueSquare2. I've looked around at Gameserver hosting companies, and their dedicated servers they have around the same spec.

EDIT: Re-uploaded the screenie, but removed competitor names.
 
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Spec looks good. BlueSquare is about as cheap as it gets in the UK, and is a nice DC. We have 3 servers there at the moment.

Have a look at www.poundhost.co.uk if you havn't already - great low cost colocation in bluesquare.
 
2GB of RAM for a server will get you nowhere. Double that at least if not triple or more.

Grab a second HD and put it in RAID1 for disaster recovery. It's not worth forking out for RAID5 but RAID1 is always good to have.

Oh and btw (four letter word company) servers are actually great. I work with them on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong I would NEVER buy a gaming system from them, but for a server, especially a rackmount one, IMO it's the way to go.
 
celliott said:
Spec looks good. BlueSquare is about as cheap as it gets in the UK, and is a nice DC. We have 3 servers there at the moment.

Have a look at www.poundhost.co.uk if you havn't already - great low cost colocation in bluesquare.
Click to expand...

Looked at them for a long time. Think I'll be going with them cheers.

Flareon said:
2GB of RAM for a server will get you nowhere. Double that at least if not triple or more.

Grab a second HD and put it in RAID1 for disaster recovery. It's not worth forking out for RAID5 but RAID1 is always good to have.

Oh and btw (four letter word company) servers are actually great. I work with them on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong I would NEVER buy a gaming system from them, but for a server, especially a rackmount one, IMO it's the way to go.
Click to expand...

Okie dokie, Looks like it's going to be quite a investment :P +60 on what i had for the extra 2gb of Ram. +75 for the Raid controller +68 for the extra HDD. Grand Total of £894.18 inc VAT and £57 delivery.
 
You could save yourself 30 quid by scaling down to 160GB disks. You won't use that up running a few game servers by a long way.

You may also want to consider a DRAC (Dell Remote Access Card). This is a device with a second NIC which is purely designed for total remote administration. Basically, it hosts its own HTTP web server. You can connect to this web server by IP (obviously with some credentials), and it will forward the server's console (video feed + keyboard/mouse controls) whatever state the server is in. That means, if it crashes, you don't have to go push the button or ask someone to. You just dial up the IP of the DRAC and do it yourself.
It's £150 so whether you do this would be based purely on how good your access to the physical machine is. Could be annoying if it crashes in-game at 2am and there's no-one to restart it!

Sorry this hasn't worked out to your cost expectations :) Servers that aren't file servers are expensive.
 
Flareon said:
You could save yourself 30 quid by scaling down to 160GB disks. You won't use that up running a few game servers by a long way.

You may also want to consider a DRAC (Dell Remote Access Card). This is a device with a second NIC which is purely designed for total remote administration. Basically, it hosts its own HTTP web server. You can connect to this web server by IP (obviously with some credentials), and it will forward the server's console (video feed + keyboard/mouse controls) whatever state the server is in. That means, if it crashes, you don't have to go push the button or ask someone to. You just dial up the IP of the DRAC and do it yourself.
It's £150 so whether you do this would be based purely on how good your access to the physical machine is. Could be annoying if it crashes in-game at 2am and there's no-one to restart it!

Sorry this hasn't worked out to your cost expectations :) Servers that aren't file servers are expensive.
Click to expand...

Cheers, i'll definitely invest in that and pull the HDDs back like you mentioned.
 
Janesy B said:
RAID, More RAM and some sort of remote management - you dont want to the DC every 5 mins
Click to expand...

Added another 2GB. So i'm at 4 Now. Put in the DRAC remote system that a very nice person mentioned earlier.. I'm not sure about raid.. It'll amount to another £150 and i'm just not sure what I'll do if it goes pear shape :P
 
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