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How will this computer work for a LAN game server?

E

Epsil0n00

Golden Member
I am hosting a computer gaming class at the school I work at, sort of a 3 day long LAN party. There are 16 students in the class and I am wondering what kind of computer is necessary to host the games we want to play. The server I am planning to use is a P4 2.24GHz with 640MB of DDR2100, and GF4MX. I am hoping to be able to host 2 (different) games at the same time with 8 players in each game. We are looking to play some original UT, CounterStrike, Command and Conquer, Starcraft, America's Army, etc. Mostly games that are not too new as many of the players will be using laptops. This will all happen on an isolated 100mbps LAN.

Will that server be able to handle 16 clients and 2 different games (as in UT and CS at the same time) all at once with no lag? I have never served up any games before so any advice on LAN parties or game server administration would be very much appreciated! Do it for the kids!

Thanks!
Epsil0n
 
Wait...let me get this straight.

You are teaching a class(an official one at that) on computer gaming? LOL!

Anywho, the server you described should be plenty, the only thing I'm worried about is the laptops that the "students" will be gaming on. You will be able to play starcraft and C&C probably fine, but Americas army, UT, and maybe CS won't run well at all.
 
Yes, this is a high school class that the students are actually getting credit for. It is called "Learning teamwork and Strategy through Computer Gaming." I am going to have them play a hardcore game of capture the flag in the forest near the school the night before the class begins. Then we will contrast/compare how teamwork and strategy work in real capture the flag vs. digital capture the flag... and other strategy/teamwork based situations.

Originally posted by: PCMarine
Wait...let me get this straight.

You are teaching a class(an official one at that) on computer gaming? LOL!

Anywho, the server you described should be plenty, the only thing I'm worried about is the laptops that the "students" will be gaming on. You will be able to play starcraft and C&C probably fine, but Americas army, UT, and maybe CS won't run well at all.
Click to expand...

When you say that those games "won't run well at all" is that because of the limitations of the laptops or the server? I am also worried about how well these laptops will perform... most of them are IBM Thinkpad P4s with Radeon Mobility graphics. I have been encouraging the students to bring desktop machines if they have them (lord knows I am hauling in my desktop from home to whoop their a$$es with). I know most laptops usually suck for gaming but do you really think that these brand new lappys (as of August 2002) wont run UT which is a several year-old game?

Thanks again for the advice 😀
 
Laptops with P4s and mobility Radeon chips should be fine for those games as long as they have a decent amout of RAM. I would say 256MB will be more than enough.
 
yes, they all have at least 256MB of SDRAM... some have 256+ of DDR2100 and one in particular has 640MB of PC2100. They are all running WinXP Pro.
 
ya, the server will run fine and the laptops will do fine as well, i still run CS on my 2 year old dell with 700mhz, 128mb "S"dram ram, and 16mb nvidia card with good results (run it at 800x600 with 30ish FPS). 🙂

brandon
 
Originally posted by: Epsil0n00
Yes, this is a high school class that the students are actually getting credit for. It is called "Learning teamwork and Strategy through Computer Gaming." I am going to have them play a hardcore game of capture the flag in the forest near the school the night before the class begins. Then we will contrast/compare how teamwork and strategy work in real capture the flag vs. digital capture the flag... and other strategy/teamwork based situations.
Click to expand...

Can I take your class too? And what are you going to do with all the gibs in the forest?

 
I don't know about the other games, but serving with CS definitely does not take a powerful system at all. I have done that with a 433@540 Celeron and 256MB of memory. The laptops should be fine if they have Radeon Mobility graphics cores. However, bringing in their own systems would be ideal as you suggested to your students. Furthermore, HOW DO I SIGN UP FOR THIS CLASS?! Hehe.
 
Yes, this is a high school class that the students are actually getting credit for. It is called "Learning teamwork and Strategy through Computer Gaming." I am going to have them play a hardcore game of capture the flag in the forest near the school the night before the class begins. Then we will contrast/compare how teamwork and strategy work in real capture the flag vs. digital capture the flag... and other strategy/teamwork based situations.
Click to expand...
As a gamer, I think that's awesome! As a home owner and payer of school tax, I'm appalled. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Epsil0n00
Yes, this is a high school class that the students are actually getting credit for. It is called "Learning teamwork and Strategy through Computer Gaming." I am going to have them play a hardcore game of capture the flag in the forest near the school the night before the class begins. Then we will contrast/compare how teamwork and strategy work in real capture the flag vs. digital capture the flag... and other strategy/teamwork based situations.
Click to expand...

If only my school had these classes, I would have signed up for these a LONG time ago. LOL
 
those specs should be fine i ran a DXMP, AOE 2, and CS server at my housing complex with a XP 1800+, ecsk7s5a, 1 GB of ram and gf2gts....
 
Both the server and laptops will be completely fine. UT (original) is hard a heavy load on a P4/Radeon Mobility, and that server is definately enough for hosting 2x8ppl assuming the srvrs run dedicated not listen mode.

Thorin
 
Originally posted by: zodder
Yes, this is a high school class that the students are actually getting credit for. It is called "Learning teamwork and Strategy through Computer Gaming." I am going to have them play a hardcore game of capture the flag in the forest near the school the night before the class begins. Then we will contrast/compare how teamwork and strategy work in real capture the flag vs. digital capture the flag... and other strategy/teamwork based situations.
Click to expand...
As a gamer, I think that's awesome! As a home owner and payer of school tax, I'm appalled. 🙂
Click to expand...

Don't worry... it is a private school. (This would never fly in public school).
 
Originally posted by: thorin
Both the server and laptops will be completely fine. UT (original) is hard a heavy load on a P4/Radeon Mobility, and that server is definately enough for hosting 2x8ppl assuming the srvrs run dedicated not listen mode.

Thorin
Click to expand...

Yes, the server is going to be dedicated and no one will be using it for playing... it is actually just my desktop at work... I am bringing my home machine in for myself to play on as it has a better graphics card than the server machine (GF3Ti200 vs. GF4mx)

Thanks everyone for the input!
 
Recommend bringing in your homepc a few days early to iron out the inevitable bugs that crop up at the beginning of LAN parties and to smooth out your ability to host on that server. Also, check the number of outlets in the room you are in, try to limit the numbers of players per outlet. Hmm, also have extra cat5 cable around(make sure the cables are long enough to reach where they need to). As mentioned before, I am very jealous of those students.

Enjoy,
Devin
 
While we're on the topic, what sort of back end would I need to run a 50-client LAN gaming center? I was thinking:

Dedicated T-1
50-port Switch
Router
Server - let's say an Athlon XP 2400 or Dual MP 2000, 1 gig of RAM, 160gb (striped 2x80gb) IDE RAID array, 450w power supply.

All the clients would be minimum Athlon XP 2000 or 2200, 256mb DDR, GF4MX460 or Radeon 9500 64mb, 40gb 7200rpm drives.

XP or 2000 Server on the server, XP Professional on the clients. All clients will run at 1024x768 resolution most likely, possibly a little higher but not likely.

Any comments? Too little or too much on any of these? Thanks for any info..
 
Originally posted by: magomago
The question I would ask is - Why in the world would a videocard make a difference on a dedicated server?
Click to expand...

Let me clarify... it is not that the graphics card matters for the server... it doesn't. The deal is that I have 2 machines at my disposal to use in this setup. One is my home machine: (AthlonXP1800+, 1GB DDR, GF3Ti200) the other machine is my work machine: (P42.24GHz, 640MB DDR, GF4mx). One of these has to be used for me to play on and the other is the server. Either one would be fine for the server (mine would actually be better), but I'm sho' not gonna let my graphics slip and FPS drop... NEVER! Thus, the P4 system has been relegated to being the server. Plus, my rig looks way cooler and those high schoolers will run away in fear due to my slick lian li case and 19" Trinitron! Bwaahahahaahaha! 😀 :| 😀

Epsil0n
 
Originally posted by: alighieri
Recommend bringing in your homepc a few days early to iron out the inevitable bugs that crop up at the beginning of LAN parties and to smooth out your ability to host on that server. Also, check the number of outlets in the room you are in, try to limit the numbers of players per outlet. Hmm, also have extra cat5 cable around(make sure the cables are long enough to reach where they need to). As mentioned before, I am very jealous of those students.

Enjoy,
Devin
Click to expand...

Yeah, the other 3 organizers of the class (students) and I are going to get together for a trial run a couple weeks before hand... plus they all have sweet desktops so we can play some UT2003! During the class we are stuck with older games due to the low-power of the latops that most people will be using... I know it isn't fair that some will have to use lappys... but then why else do I have a sweet system other than to make people feel the superb pain of my shock rifle. ha. 😀
 
Originally posted by: hapahaole
All the clients would be minimum Athlon XP 2000 or 2200, 256mb DDR, GF4MX460 or Radeon 9500 64mb, 40gb 7200rpm drives.
Click to expand...


Avoid the GF4MX series like the plague! Get AT LEAST a GeForce 4 Ti4200 128mb with those comps, as they will be hard core gaming machines!
 
Dude I gotta buy like 25-50 of them so I would LOVE to put 9500 Pros or Ti4200's in there but that's potentially like an extra couple grand to shell out, if I'm running at 1024x768 max anyway (17" LCDs) I'm not sure I could afford to pay more. Hmm well actually with the FX coming out and the R350 etc. in a few months that will pimpslap down the prices of the 9500 Pro and Ti4200's so maybe they will be a possibility.. 🙂
 
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