Computer Question

megalomania · #1 07-24-2007, 08:24 AM

I'm contemplating buying a server instead of another desktop machine so I can run another 6-10 instances of EQ. I've never purchased a server before, does anyone have any ideas on what I should look for in a machine?

- M.

Jonathan5 · #2 07-24-2007, 08:47 AM

I'm curious about the same thing, but if your wondering what you should look for in a machine they usally make those kind of obvious in servers, lets say because it's stacked with 4gigs of ram and unreal amount of hardrive space. I'm a noob so possibly other stuff like processor speed/bus speed and that stuff. I don't know what you mean by 4-6 instances of EQ... but I'd was curious about this incase a nice server was in the works and they needed someone to host it, I'd be willing to buy a server.

John Adams · #3 07-24-2007, 11:33 AM

I'm not totally convinced this emulator (or it's population levels) requires super power to run. It seems rather sleek, with bandwidth being what chokes most people off. However, owning a real "server class" machine is very exciting. Some of my favorites are: Dell 1950/2950, those are fairly cheap and powerful. HP makes a bunch, too. Head over to NewEgg.com, search for Servers. Best bet (if you really want a server class machine) is to start with a base unit that is expandable... then add to it once you feel you've topped it off. Even then, you're looking at starting around $1500+ I believe.

For those who have a closet full of 20+ machines worth of parts (snicker), I still believe a P4 with some ram and fast HDD can hold it's own. Just split your SQL from your World and Zones... spread the work over multiple machines. Even if you make one machine do all the work, that could defeat the purpose. Most optimum and available server farms are clusters of machines, not a single - uber powerful one.

Hope this helps.

Jonathan5 · #4 07-24-2007, 11:48 AM

I go to tigerdirect, but yeah 1500 is probably the cheapest you'd find. Anyways you could probably just run it off a computer with an abundant amount of memory and hard drive space. Running the world on seperate machines is a good idea, I've seen it down for a private UO server I use to play on. Many possiblities.

sfisque · #5 07-24-2007, 12:06 PM

yah, to be honest, unless you're looking at hosting tons of players, a moderately stoked server will run the emu and you can even host the DB on commodity hardware (i host on a amd sempron 3000+ 1gig ram, my DB server is a Celeron P3-700 - 384mb ram). the database machine barely notices mysql.

== sfisque

techguy84 · #6 07-24-2007, 12:56 PM

Like Mr. Adams said, the emu is pretty well rounded as far as what you need to run it. It is going to boil down to your internet connection for the most part. You could get a good server, but without a fast internet connection, all that hardware goes to waste.

I think the player banwidth usage is roughly 2-5KB per sec up/per player. If you do the math, most home based broadband solutions fail quite short in thise arena so I would look at that first.

devn00b · #7 07-24-2007, 12:58 PM

In my experience there are several bottlenecks that have to be looked at when considering things. Ram size, cpu power, and also router.

1st two for obvious reasons. The router is rather important, most normal home routers just cant handle the # of connections required for large servers, Guildwars had this problem.

While you can run a server with a few zones on a p3 or hell maybe a p2 you wont be able to have too many zones open the cpu just wont keep up.

techguy84 · #8 07-24-2007, 03:15 PM

My DSL router is the same damn way. It tends to go into a safe mode when I leave me torrents running overnight due to a overload in connections. I think it handles like 100 or so connections in total, half opens, ups, downs, ect.. I have to do a reboot on it sometimes as it damn near disables the WAN side interface killing my connections.

Cowboy6534 · #9 07-26-2007, 01:34 PM

So im building a new rig at newegg.com and its basically a 3.0g amd dual core with 6gigs of ddr2(800) corsair xms. also my dsl at my house it is 5megs dl and 768ul. I run just a modem and a switch. i was wondering if i could use this machine to run the server and play in the server at the same time?? switch is a linksys 5 port workgroup switch. Any thoughts or suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Damilis · #10 07-26-2007, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowboy6534

So im building a new rig at newegg.com and its basically a 3.0g amd dual core with 6gigs of ddr2(800) corsair xms. also my dsl at my house it is 5megs dl and 768ul. I run just a modem and a switch. i was wondering if i could use this machine to run the server and play in the server at the same time?? switch is a linksys 5 port workgroup switch. Any thoughts or suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Just becareful about what OS you pick. Some Windows OS's don't address anything past 3 Gigs of physical ram. Do a bit of research before dropping all that $$ on ram.

As for all on one machine... two physical machines are better, if you can swing it.

DarkGothic · #11 07-26-2007, 03:13 PM

I am running on and old gateway server I got from surplus shop it has 4-733 Xeon and 8g ram 60g-sisc. run good for me and all my friends to play on, you can find good old server all the time CHEEP!! I only paid $20 for it. Look around and start with and older one to see if it is what you relay like.

vales · #12 07-26-2007, 08:04 PM

20 bucks for a server with 8 gigs of ram plus extras?

I'm sorry, but I find that highly unfathomable. A decent keyboard costs more than that these days.

Damilis · #13 07-26-2007, 09:27 PM

I dont, its old tech. I sold about 4 gigs worth of PC100/133 for about $15 on Craigslist a few months back... took awhile to sell too

$20 for a hunk of silicon someone wants to get rid of is entirely possible.

Cowboy6534 · #14 07-27-2007, 07:17 AM

I was going to go with Xp Pro 64bit edition. If that doesnt work ill go with windows server 2008 code name "longhorn".