A new server

[DAve]

Chatting with the chaps on the freshers week stall, it became clear that we could do with a nice new server. One to host games would be nice. TBH, I have no idea how powerful we should aim for.

Bearing in mind we have a tiny, tiny budget for this year and are basically self-funding from LAN fees, cheapness is essential.

How powerful can we scrounge?

I know BF2 demands:
LINUX
- Minimum Specification, based on playing a 16 player game:
CPU: 1 Ghz
RAM: 256 Mb

- Recommended Specification, based on playing a 64 player game:
CPU: 3 Ghz. For AMD Athlon 64 CPU: 3500+ (2.2 Ghz)
RAM: 1 Gb

WINDOWS
- Minimum Specification, based on playing a 16 player game:
CPU: 1 Ghz
RAM: 384 Mb

- Recommended Specification, based on playing a 64 player game:
CPU: 3 Ghz. For AMD Athlon 64 CPU: 3500+ (2.2 Ghz)
RAM: 1 Gb
so for a 24 player game, it looks like around 1ghz to 1.5ghz and RAM of around 512 is the target.

Any thoughts?

[Sideshow]

I think you really need 1gig of ram. Dunno how fast a proc you need, but a good gfx card is probably necessary, even for servers - don't games these days use the GPU to work out maths stuff?
As much as I'm for a new server, consolidated web hosting would be my preference...

[DAve]

ebuyer is tempting, as is ebay.
150 for a celeron 2.3gig (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=89079) for example, just needs more memory or barebones from £80.
The other alternative is to watch out for some person selling their PC at a low,low price on the bulletin boards or QM / GUU pinboards.

[Strings]

If you tell me what you need.. I could be able to scrounge some parts. Few of my clanmates have built new PCs so there be cheap parts afoot.

Edit:: Yep at below post. I just found a fiver in the flower pot.. so get it while you can.

[Phizz]

I'm sure if we have a pool at the next LAN say donation of £5 plus from each person we could boost it a bit.

[YegaDoyai]

I have a 1200 duron with 512MB doing nothing right now.

[Bluepixie]

I have a K62 450 kicking about.......

[YegaDoyai]

ok then, I have 2 PIII 500s and a celeron 300 that clocks to 550 but only enough memory for 2 of them.

[DAve]

Currently we have a fileserver and a games server, both are celeron 433's and have about 256 meg of ram.
I have a 1200 duron with 512MB doing nothing right now.
That would be ideal for a games server. What's it running?

If we could pile a few dedicated server installs for games like BF2, UT2004, steam etc., that would be fantastic :)

[Bluepixie]

Currently we have a fileserver and a games server, both are celeron 433's and have about 256 meg of ram.
I have a 1200 duron with 512MB doing nothing right now.
That would be ideal for a games server. What's it running?

If we could pile a few dedicated server installs for games like BF2, UT2004, steam etc., that would be fantastic :)

Yip sounds damn good. Depending on the performance we get from old bits, we can then start looking at some new parts. However, I do think for serving games such as BF2, we may be needing something with a little more ooomf It does recomend 1G of RAM, but then again, are we ever going to be having a 64 player LAN? Nevermind 64 people being able to play the damn thing.

[YegaDoyai]

'k the Duron Machine currently hsa a 6gb drive with a corrupted win2k install on it and that's it. By the LAN it will have an XP install on a 30gb HDD and all the games that I have that can be run from a dedicated server.

[DAve]

All hail the all-mighty and powerul YegaDoyai!!!

[YegaDoyai]

Yeah! *dance* Woohoo.

I will try and get a stable overclock on it. I think I remember getting 1400 out of it, but we'll see. I know it posts at 1500 but my mem is not quick enough. I have found an additional 256MB for the machine so were are getting close to the 1GB mark.

[Strings]

If you dont mind a small racket.. Ive got a spare Ys-Tech delta 120mm. That could help the heat so you can crank the voltage up a bit.

[YegaDoyai]

Well if I put it in my tower it will have 2 80mm fans (one in one out) a 60mm CPU extracter and a cooler master Super Orb 2 cooler on the Cpu itself. So I don't know where it would fit but I'm up for modding the case :)

[Strings]

In me old build, when I ran out of mounting brackets etc I just attached to stuff via the cable tidy things. :wink:

[Phizz]

*shakes head*