View Full Version : Building a server
Mattooooo
05-12-2003, 19:49
I'm looking into building a cheap yet fast server to run a day of defeat (Halflife mod) game server. However, I have no experience what so ever in the server side of PC building. What sort of components would you recommend I get to have a reasonably quick DoD server?
Thanks for your time,
Matt
You will need lots of ram thats for sure. and a dual CPU mobo would be a good idea i guess
If you only running 1 server, scrap the dual cpu setup, and in reality 512mb of ram will do you fine.
On our dual 2.8 Xeon servers which each have 2gig of rambus we have had 12 servers running of various games, and the cpu useage was under 12% and the ram useage was just over 1.2gig.
Now on another server that we have which only has one 2.4 xeon in it with 8 servers running on it the cpu load barely goes above 70% when there all full, its steam atm which puts the most load onto the server as when we had 2 CS servers up cpu useage was getting upto 100%.
A P4 will see you fine for running DOD, basically you can build a gaming machine without the top end graphics card and the hard drive space.
shifty.ricky
05-12-2003, 21:03
Where is the server going to be?
If on lan then go high spec if on adsl then go 1.5ghz ish as on adsl the line wont support any more than 8 players and thats pushing it.
Mattooooo
05-12-2003, 21:05
Ok, thanks for that.
The alternative ofcourse is to go the usual route and rent a server. Can anyone recommend some good cheap places? We're basically after a 14 player private server based in Europe somewhere. Atm the cheapest price if 55 euros (appx. £30).
In a few weeks I would be able to offer that no problems for a DoD Steam server.
Unfortunatly i'm just starting everything and I can't point you at a non existent website so you'll have to bear with me.
Dedicated game servers just collate all the players data, they don't need top end cpu's etc. Depending on how much use it gets, you may find that you need to spend money on a fast internet connection instead.
Mattooooo
06-12-2003, 14:50
Abe, send me a PM with possible prices and I'll see if we can get one from you when you're up and running.
Steam servers currently use more CPU power than necessary, so prices of all servers are due to drop on the next update when this problem is fixed.
I'll drop you a PM now mate,
Steam servers require a hell of a lot of CPU & RAM at the moment, and because of this I won't be chancing running many games from each server just to be sure that it's up to it.
for rental i recommend warservers.com ... hands down best pings for any steam based game in the UK (that ive found so far) and good support. Ive even seen yanks get a sub 100 ping on mine!!!
As for runnin yer own server, my clan have got a p4 2.4GHz with 1GB ram with 4u servers, we run one 32 man cs server and a 20man server. CPU is around 70-90% and ram sits around 50-60% when both full.
Mac
Check out http://gaming.multiplay.co.uk/ these are the same guys that run the massive i-series events at Newbury Racecourse 3 or 4 times a year
Nikumba
http://gaming.34sp.com
These guys, you may know from their really good hosting packages. They also do gaming servers!
If anything though, they're the friendliest people to deal with -- always ready to help, and their support is top-notch.
Even if you think their hosting is pants, I sit in their IRC channel and they do so much to keep people happy -- it's unreal!
As is already said, you internet connection is not up to it for more than just a few players with the 256k up, it has nothing to do with your download rate.
Its certainly nothing you can charge people to rent off you at least.
8-10 players I'd say to be on the safe side. You need a lot of RAM and depending on the game, processing power.
A few friends? Run your desktop as a server, im sure its powerful enough for you to play on and get your friends to connect to without a problem.
The current server version of steam is resource hungry an epia is not an ideal games server.
Our hosts are 34SP.com atm, we have our server co-located with them.
No, you can start a multiplayer game on your computer and play away, and your friends can connect to you on a LAN or over the net if everythings set up right.
You can play cs on the same computer a server is running on, when you goto play online you can create a server within there which isnt dedicated unless you select a check box, you join the server and are the host, then other people can connect to your ip then if your router/firewall is set up correctly.
TheFallenAngel
10-12-2003, 19:53
ye Alex it should work fine.
Hell i host a total of 6 players max with ma ADSL when I fancy playing my friends at halo and my machine manages fine.
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