Building a Dedicated Gaming Server

Hi Logan, Wendell and all other readers.

I want to build a dedicated server for gaming. I DON'T want to rent one,

Hopefully it costs under $15000

I want this thing to be able to handle anything thrown at it and dont want to have to upgrade it to accommodate more people and such. I also dont want to do custom water cooling but things like h100i's are fine. So basically i want the most overkill server build you can think of, Like the equivalent of this build by LinusTechTips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtHDqdo5pR0

Thankyou for reading,

If you said server... I assume it's only going to be hosting?

In which case it depends on what game you're hosting for...

If it's minecraft then get tonnes of ram and a Xeon processor (extra cores and 24/7 reliability). but you don't need any graphics cards.

First Question: What games do you wish to host?

Second Question: What are your internet Download and Upload speeds?

Third Question: Rack mount or tower?

I wish to host arma 2, Arma 3, Planetside 2, Star Citizen (when it comes out), Minecraft.

Ill be hosting off of an optic fibre connection, at least 100mbps up and down, Unlimited data.

But the question was to make a completely decked out server capable of running as much as possibly can,

So for those who know how to make servers i'd like a part list of what you would use in your dream server to make the possibilities endless,

 

So you want to host this outta one box.

All those....at the same time.... only on 100Mbps.... shooting for the stars I see.

Okay, see what I can do.

Well let's start with the case. Oddly yes, I know. However knowing what case your gunning for can drastically change your components.

Going with the Norco 4224

http://www.norcotek.com/item_detail.php?categoryid=1&modelno=RPC-4224

So we have 24x hot swap drive bays, connecting using a SAS backplane with 8087 connectors. Great case, can't really say more than that.

So inside there's the SuperMicro X9DRD-7LN4F

http://www.supermicro.co.uk/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRD-7LN4F.cfm

Obviously you can see it's a dual socket. Didn't go with a quad socket as those boards tend to be propriety design and require a certain chassis. This however is a good compromise and with the CPUs going to be paired with it. It certainly won't be lacking on power.

Notable features are:

  • Support for 512GB RDIMMs although can use 128GB of UDIMMs
  • 4 Intel Gigabit LAN ports. (One would be enough to saturate a 100Mbps line, but oh well)
  • Onboard LSI 2308, so capable of 8x SAS2 drives (and 6x SATA)

So now.... the CPUs

Intel Xeon E5-2690 8 cores (16 threads)

These are 2.9GHz clock. Although there are 3.1GHz versions (E5-2687W) unfortunately they suck 150Watts and most non-proprietary boards just aren't capable of powering them. So the 2690s are the next best.

 

RAM is up to you.

Using non-ECC Ram the board supports 128GB, which is still a freaking alot. So you could use crucial 4GB cheapest dimms. Least they will be cheap to replace if one dies. Using ECC would be better, but its not gunna offer much for use in game servers.

 

PSU

Both CPUs can draw 130Watts at full tilt and powering the mobo, RAM and any drives is going to be a pull. You also require a PSU with alot of overhead, so that it is running most efficiently as possible.

A Corsair AX860i is going to provide enough power and also has a platinum efficiency. If you wish to run LOTS of HDDs then the 1200watt version would be better.

However this is not very server like and provides no redundancy, however its the best your going to get that can support the hardware.

 

HDDs and SSDs

So SSD obviously for your OS and game files. 4x Plextor M5 128GB in RAID 5 are gunna blitz around 1.5GB/s in read and write (providing the controller holds up) and also provide an N-1 failover. 128GB fill be fine, as that is 330GB of usable data after formatting and losing 1 drive to parity.

For backup. you can also use a RAID 5 array of 4x WD Reds 1TB. although the capacity is overkill, you dont want to bottleneck in making backups. You could also allow for multiple staggered backups to be stored. Yes you can use just one 1TB drive, but as I said HDDs typically write at around 100MB/s these days.... which is dead slow considering your copying data from an array capable of 15x that.

Although the board has a RAID card built in, you'd still be better off to use a dedicated RAID card, incase something goes tits up with the board and it needs to be replaced.

 

I've bashed this together quickly and haven't done the pricing (that would take a while, plus im in the UK and i'd have to browse the USA retailers) But to give you a good estimate of pricing. The CPUs are around $1800 each.

PS. I'd go way more overkill on storage if this was more of a general purpose machine.

Alternatively, you could get a barebones like this Tyan one http://www.tyan.com/Barebones_FT68B7910_B7910F68W32HR-2T%20[BTO]

Starting with 2 CPUs and expanding as needed. 

Thankyou very much for your detailed answer, I didnt mean all those games on the one server just those types of high player type games. Thanks,

Well that sort of box is aimed at running all of those game servers at once. You could use something considerably cheaper if only doing one at a time.