How much server and OS do I need?

[jwo7777777]

How much server and OS do I need?

I want to host a Counter-Strike or America's Army game while providing a Window's profile and file server to my seven person family. We presently have two computers, but plan on four including the server in the immediate future. The file server portion would be used as mentioned above and also to serve as a CD jukebox for all the kid's games and educational CDs.

The game server portion would be served through a Linksys 4-port to a cable modem to the general public (I think I have 356kbps ~ 1.5Mbps upstream and definitely 1.5Mbps downstream).

Your comments are appreciated, including recommendations. But, please, hold the "You are a moron because....." comments down to a minimum (except the obligatory satiristic ones).

You may of course make as many "You are a wonderful person because...." comments all you want.

(And no comments about what I should watch on TV .... I have five kids.... I don't get to watch anything except the Disney Channel and Cartoon Network)

 

[mcveigh]

hmm a fast cpu maybe a 1+ gig duron
at least 256MB ram
good network card, say intel pro 10/100

large ide HD for mp3's

 

[jwo7777777]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
hmm a fast cpu maybe a 1+ gig duron
at least 256MB ram
good network card, say intel pro 10/100
large ide HD for mp3's

I am surprised that it would take that little of a computer in power terms.
Here is what I was thinking about before your comment:
MotherBoard: MSI K7D Master w/ lan
Processors: 2x 1900+ Athlon XP (with L5 bridge connected)
Main Memory: Crucial 512 DDR Ram (Registered)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 7200rpm 80gig 8MBcache (WD800JB)
Case: Antec SX1040 or 1080
Obligatory peripherals: DVD-ROM, Floppy drive, keyboard, mouse, some sort of video card
OS: Windows XP Pro

The above would cost me USD 1100 shipped (either Newegg or Allstar)

Am I thinking about driving a finishing nail with a sledgehammer?

p.s. As of this post I have 16 posts total. I have been a member since Oct 1999. It's a little silly that I am considered a junior member when I do a lot more reading than posting. Maybe there should be a rating based on threads viewed.

 

[mcveigh]

will this server be also someones workstation?

remember with a server reliability is the most important.

if you got the money, get the most amd processor you can buy. I don't think either game can do multithreading.
the 512 of ram would be nice, as would the WD w/8mb buffer

 

[BatmanNate]

No way that you'd need dual athlons for that, it would not take very good advantage of it anyway. I would go anywhere from a 1.0G duron to a 1.4G athlon for the processor, AMD Chipset if possible. 512mb ram, and perhaps a 40-60 GB IDE RAID 1. The money you'd be putting into a dual setup for this purpose would be better spent in areas such as fault tolerence (RAID 1, 3, or 5) and stability. (I try to stick with AMD/AMD or Intel/Intel processor/chipset combos when building servers)

 

[Vegito]

How many player cs ? More player = more memory if that the only server you'll have to share cs + files

 

[jwo7777777]

I'm not really sure how many player CS or other games. I suppose that the smart thing would be to study how many I could practically support on a cable modem and make a decision on RAM size based on that. Unfortunately I have not yet done the research concerning that.

If I go with what is being suggested (single processor and modest RAM), then how do I keep junior's connection to the server's CD image for his favorite game and my wife's profile use from bogging down the poor CS players? Simple OS settings? More RAM? A kicking lan card?

 

[bigshooter]

running a win2k domain controller and a cs server on one machine is going to take a bunch of ram. i'd say at least 512-768 megs for it to give you good respone when using it, plus you'll need it for the cs server. You may want to use a seperate hard drive and controller for the kids cdrom images, that'll help a lot, and if you're talking about storing roaming profiles on there, it won't bog it down very much.

 

[Whitedog]

jwo - ignore the single CPU suppestions... and ESPECIALLY the DURON CPU suppestion (shesh). Most of these "hobbiest" posters here don't know what a server is... (pun intended) You Certainly will need as much of that L2 cache as you can get... for Forget about a Duron!

You're original system specs you listed sound fine. You most Certainly will benifit from a dual system. If you've got a CS game going and your family is trying to access files and other programs the two cpu setup will be a great benifit.

The only change I would make to your specs is, I would run Win2K Server instead of XP Pro. Yes, I like XP Pro better for a PC OS, but Server is much more flexable. If you think you can't afford Server.. There's a program called "NT Switch" that will turn Win2K Pro into Server in a matter of seconds.. It's a registry hack. That's the ONLY difference between Pro and Server anyway... The register. Trust me, the program works like a charm. I've used it many times.

Right now I am wishing BIG time that I had a 2 cpu server... the wife is playing Sim City on my server and I can't access my DATABASE...
I'm a programmer and I have SQL server running on my server... with only 1 CPU it can't talk to it while she's playing. (game takes 100% of the CPU) :| So when she's playing, I can't work... doh!

Have fun with it! Sounds like a good one!

Oh... One other thing. Since you're using IDE drives, I would take the one guys advise and consider getting an extra drive and raiding them (for safety)... either that, or get SCSI... but I know SCSI is way too expensive for what you're planning on using it for. (mass storage)

My server on the other hand (well, all my computers for that matter) are All SCSI drives. My work is on them, and it's way too valuable to store on IDE

 

[Whitedog]

Oh, and BigShooter... He never mentioned running a Domain controller. Besides, a Domain controller certainly does NOT take much ram at all. With what he is going to be doing with it, 512MB ram will be WAY over-kill!

My server running ALL the services, including SQL 2000 and Domain controller, DHCP, WINS, IIS... etc.. and it barely uses 30% of the 320MB I have in it.

Unless he's going to be "using" the computer, the 512 he's going to put in it will be PLENTY. Then again, it would still be plenty.

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: Whitedog
jwo - ignore the single CPU suppestions... and ESPECIALLY the DURON CPU suppestion (shesh). Most of these "hobbiest" posters here don't know what a server is... (pun intended) You Certainly will need as much of that L2 cache as you can get... for Forget about a Duron!

You're original system specs you listed sound fine. You most Certainly will benifit from a dual system. If you've got a CS game going and your family is trying to access files and other programs the two cpu setup will be a great benifit.

The only change I would make to your specs is, I would run Win2K Server instead of XP Pro. Yes, I like XP Pro better for a PC OS, but Server is much more flexable. If you think you can't afford Server.. There's a program called "NT Switch" that will turn Win2K Pro into Server in a matter of seconds.. It's a registry hack. That's the ONLY difference between Pro and Server anyway... The register. Trust me, the program works like a charm. I've used it many times.

Right now I am wishing BIG time that I had a 2 cpu server... the wife is playing Sim City on my server and I can't access my DATABASE...
I'm a programmer and I have SQL server running on my server... with only 1 CPU it can't talk to it while she's playing. (game takes 100% of the CPU) :| So when she's playing, I can't work... doh!

Have fun with it! Sounds like a good one!

Oh... One other thing. Since you're using IDE drives, I would take the one guys advise and consider getting an extra drive and raiding them (for safety)... either that, or get SCSI... but I know SCSI is way too expensive for what you're planning on using it for. (mass storage)

My server on the other hand (well, all my computers for that matter) are All SCSI drives. My work is on them, and it's way too valuable to store on IDE

I'll grant that 2 cpu's would be helpful if he's running a game server and wanting to server mp3's to the family, but I feel that for 90% of what he wants to do it's overkill.

I still want to know if someone will be using this as their personal workstation, even sometimes? that will increase the need for ram and cpu cycles dramatically.
I agree on going raid1 at least for storage, and it's a lot cheaper than scsi. (I love my scsi though)

 

[BD231]

2 CPUs seems like the right thing to do, although I think 2 1900+ processors is way over kill. If I were you I would go with 2 1500+ cpu's(1333mhz), even with those, the dual machine will be making ALOT of heat so thats something to think about as well. I'd also go with another 80gig drive for multi tasking, having 1 IDE drive do all of what you want this computer to do is a big mistake. If you were to use SCSI then I dont think it would matter so much, but IDE is simply horrible for multiple opperatons in my experence.

 

[PlatinumGold]

I'm not sure exactly what you need, but i'll tell you what you dont' want.

NEVER EVER use a P4 for a server. My client, against my advice, bought a P4 1.6 ghz Northwood server from someone he knows. let me tell you, this server SUX. it is much slower in almost every department than a 1 ghz P3, Athlon XP or even the Xeon P3's (especially the ones w/ a lot of cache).


if you can get a good deal on a P3 1 ghz or a dual P3 1 ghz system. that might be something to look into. something like this actually.

Nice dell server.

 

[DaveSimmons]

A win2K file server with only 4-5 clients alone shouldn't need more than a 400-500 MHz CPU. A counterstrike server only (not client) should also run fine with 400-500 MHz. As described this is just serving files NOT running SQL server.

So a single Athlon XP 1600+ should be more than enough power given 512 MB RAM (2100 DDR should be fine). No dually needed as long as the machine isn't also going to be used as a client / workstation. RAM is more important to W2K than CPU power, a 1 GHz P3 with 512 MB would probably work better than an XP 1600+ with 256 MB under load.

IDE RAID mirroring is not a bad idea since you can get it onboard the mobo. [ but if you don't care about backups, separate hard drives on different channels for CS and files would give better performance, I'd put CS on the drive with C: / W2K and have the files on the second drive ]

My old MP3 jukebox was a Celeron 400 with 256 MB and it worked just fine serving files and testing IIS ASP code while running winamp to play MP3s.

 

[splice]

Come on! dual CPU's for a file server and a CS server....there is no way you need to have that much power.... We run a Duron 600 on DSL with 128MB of RAM, 90GB HDD, on Linux that hosts SSH, SMTP, POP3, FTP, SAMBA, and an 8 player CS server. A CS server on a cable modem is not going to tax a 1GHz duron, sorry.

Personally, I'd go with the following:

Athlon XP 1600+
ThermalRight AX-7
Shuttle AK35GTR
Crucial 256MB DDR RAM
some cheap PCI or AGP card
10/100 3COM or Intel NIC
CD-ROM drive.
100GB Western Digital 8MB cache

that server is going to be sitting idle almost all of the time, unless you are going to be running a DC app.

save your money and spend it on something more useful...like a gigabit network or a RAID setup.

 

[Jeff7181]

Yes, I would think a RAID setup would be FAR more beneficial to a file server than dual CPU's would be. Might even consider going with SCSI drives if you're looking for top speed... although most ATA100 or ATA133 drives perform on par with SCSI drives... or at least close enough that the extra cost of SCSI isn't justified.