Small Server for a local lan party.

[Blayze]

I am going to be helping one of my friends setup a small lan party for a group of local guys.

There will probably be 6 to 8 people coming with 10 being the max.

I have an extra P200mmx that can overclock to 225 here at my house.
I can stick 128megs of ram in it as well.

My question is would this work ok as a server for this small lan? It is currently running NT4 Service pack 6. I would like to run either NT 4 or possible 2000. Although I don't know if 2000 would cut it on this hardware.

Games will be Quake 1, 3, Half-life, and Unreal Tourn.

Also about how many people could this server handle on a local lan?

 

[GKar]

Probably just one server at a time... The recommended minimum for a HL server is 233, so you'd just cut the mustard. Fast RAM will help, as will a fast HDD, but not as much as a faster processor. To run, say, UT and Q3A at the same time, you'd need, IMHO, 128-256MB PC133 RAM, 500mHz, 7200rpm hdd, 10/100 NIC.
The amount of people who can play on it has a limit of about 40 (that's when you lose that sweet zero ping...) I would suggest a maximum linit of about 16 for a HL server, 12 for UT and 8-10 for Q3A.
Just my AU2c (US1c)

 

[Shockwave]

Ya, you want a fast cpu for your server. It has *alot* of numbers to crunch. Your workstations want fast video cards. But your server needs cpu power. Maybe see if someone would let you use their pc for the server and take a slower pc with a sweet vid card to game on.....Just a thought

 

[Blayze]

that would work.

my friend that is running this is trying to get his new computer sometime before the lan.
if he does then we should have a P3 500 to use as a server, which will work tons better.

I guess its Linux box time for this old machine

 

[GKar]

Running Linux on the server (console only, it's a server for gods sake) would let you increase the player limit by 4-6 people probably, because it has to devote less resources to the GUI.

 

[MustPost]

I don't think a 225 mhz will work well for UT or Q3 no matter how many people u have.