Spare pc: is it good enough to be a tf2 server?

[Nick259]

Ok well one of my friends has a pc lying in his corner atm and i'm wondering if it would be good enough to run a tf2 server for all of us (we all live in the same city) to have our own exclusive server He's getting sky unlimited broadband soon and he should be able to get about 10mb speeds in his area.

Specs are:
pentium D (dual core) 940 3.4ghz
2gb ddr2 800mhz
320gb hdd (do servers need lots of hard drive space?)
7900gs 256mb
dunno about the rest.

So what do you guys think? I have a serial key for server 2008, could i install it off the vista disk? Also whats so special about the server edition that makes it better as a server than say a normal vista pc?

 

[brandonwh64]

hmm seems like it will need more memory 4gb instead of 2gb. is this going to be an internet server or just LAN?

 

[Nick259]

will be internet, unless i can somehow set up a lan between all of us. i could get another 2gb ram.

EDIT: The pentium d is just about as good as a low end e2140 right? I could get one of those and pop it in to be more power efficient if the mobo supports it.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

the PD 940 is way better than the e2140...but it costs 3 times as much to operate
EDIT: I take that back it is about the same

 

[Nick259]

the PD 940 is way better than the e2140...but it costs 3 times as much to operate
EDIT: I take that back it is about the same

looking at some reviews it seems to be beaten every single time by the 3800x2

it was a high end dell pc (2005 or early 2006) at the time so it might just support core 2 cpus. I don;t think it will support overclockign though as it will have an OEM mobo.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I had looked back at some of my old numbers and found that my PD920 stomped my E2160 in every game at 1366x768 and then at 1440x900 the E2160 was simply the better cpu it's like the PD's were good up to a point then simply DIED where the E2160 just kept moving along I would also like to add that I was using a x1800 on that setup...

 

[angelkiller]

I don't know how stressful a TF2 server is on a computer, but my guess is that nearly any modern computer can do it. I think that PD system with 2GB of RAM is plenty fast.

And at stock speeds the E2160 and the PD 940 might be similar in performance, but the PD has a 113% clockspeed advantage. If you overclock the E2160 even just a little, it'll be faster no question. If you get to 3GHz, it'll walk over the PD. But it's a moot point since it's a dell. It's even more moot because a PD 940 is probably plenty.

I think the biggest concern is the connection speeds. You mentioned a 10 megabit connection, but that's mostlikely the downstream connection. In other words, your friend can recieve data at a maximum of 10mbps. However, the most important thing here is the upstream connection. The server needs to send info back to the clients. Most residential ISP plans have a huge downstream speed and (really) tiny upstream speed. Example: I have 7mbps down, but only .3mbps up. Might want to investigate the connection.

But why not just try it? Worst thing that happens is that it's really laggy.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Good point Angelkiller

 

[KainXS]

will be internet, unless i can somehow set up a lan between all of us. i could get another 2gb ram.

EDIT: The pentium d is just about as good as a low end e2140 right? I could get one of those and pop it in to be more power efficient if the mobo supports it.

yea, the E2140 is about the same performance as the PD 3.4Ghz usually slower, sometimes faster but in comparison to overclocking the Penitum D is no match.

heres a good read

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-e2160_10.html#sect0

I think your pc is good enough for a server with more ram, everything else is fine, are you gonna use the onboard nic or a nic card.

does your connection have 10mb upload or 10mb download?

 

[Nick259]

I think he's getting sky unlimited which apparantly has up to 1.3mb upload, up to 20mb download but he look a test and it said 10mb although it might be wrong.

http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyproducts/broadband/pricesandoptions/compare

yea, the E2140 is about the same performance as the PD 3.4Ghz usually slower, sometimes faster but in comparison to overclocking the Penitum D is no match.

heres a good read

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-e2160_10.html#sect0

I think your pc is good enough for a server with more ram, everything else is fine, are you gonna use the onboard nic or a nic card.

does your connection have 10mb upload or 10mb download?

He'll be using the onboard NIC.

So basically the e2140 is just equal and the 2160 beats it in everything?

 

[headshot119]

I think he's getting sky unlimited which apparantly has up to 1.3mb upload, up to 20mb download but he look a test and it said 10mb although it might be wrong.

http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyproducts/broadband/pricesandoptions/compare



He'll be using the onboard NIC.

So basically the e2140 is just equal and the 2160 beats it in everything?

I'll just point out some key words here, "UP TO." I live in North Wales and have good broadband from Zen internet at about 8mb. and a 0.7 upload speed. My friend who lives down the road and I mean a 2 minute walk has sky broadband up to 10mb, he actually gets 2mb.

Food for thought.

 

[KainXS]

I think he's getting sky unlimited which apparantly has up to 1.3mb upload, up to 20mb download but he look a test and it said 10mb although it might be wrong.

http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyproducts/broadband/pricesandoptions/compare



He'll be using the onboard NIC.

So basically the e2140 is just equal and the 2160 beats it in everything?

the 940 falls in between the E2140 and the E2160 basically from what I have seen and headshot is right, alot of isp's use up to and lie

 

[headshot119]

It would be interesting Nick to see what speeds he actually gets, use Speed test.net and do a test to Maidenhead, and then to London. No offense but I highly doubt you'll get anywhere near 10mb from Sky broadband.

 

[Nick259]

atm he has bt broadband with a 30gb limit (thats why hes moving) and when its not being restricted p) he gets download speeds of over 1mb so 10mbit seems about right.

 

[Bo$$]

trust me i've had 4 game servers (tf2, cs, BF2, cod4) running on a dual NIC pc with:

pentium 4 2.4 GHZ
1.2gb ddr 400mhz
60gb hdd
1650XT 512mb

NO LAG

that system should run a few TF2 servers with a decent internet connection and 2-3 NIC's

TIP: never use Wireless and run XP Pro is the Simplest thing to do as VISTA will slow that PC down too much

im on the SKY 20MB, i get 16.3Mbit and im like 400m from the xchange, my upload can reach 1.3Mbits get something like BE broadband, MOAR UPLOAD!!

 

[zithe]

My Gmod server doesn't take a whole lot to run smoothly, and it's a hell of a lot more intense. I'm running it on a Celeron M 1.5 with 512MB of DDR2. Could use a faster drive as complex items jerk the server for a split second.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Dedicated servers for a hand full of users hardly ever require much, they don't have to render anything (so drop that videocard) they just keep track of some coordinates and whatnot. My phone is probably even powerful enough to run a decent server. A low latency connection is far more important. Even bandwidth isn't that interesting, unless you have many clients the average adsl line is sufficient.

 

[Indra EMC]

Ok well one of my friends has a pc lying in his corner atm and i'm wondering if it would be good enough to run a tf2 server for all of us (we all live in the same city) to have our own exclusive server He's getting sky unlimited broadband soon and he should be able to get about 10mb speeds in his area.

Specs are:
pentium D (dual core) 940 3.4ghz
2gb ddr2 800mhz
320gb hdd (do servers need lots of hard drive space?)
7900gs 256mb
dunno about the rest.

So what do you guys think? I have a serial key for server 2008, could i install it off the vista disk? Also whats so special about the server edition that makes it better as a server than say a normal vista pc?

you need more ram (4 Gigs for sure) and more Harddrive (1 TB or more) if you want your server to be a data center, but you don't need a GPU (onboard GPU still works) in server computer.

 

[Nick259]

trust me i've had 4 game servers (tf2, cs, BF2, cod4) running on a dual NIC pc with:

pentium 4 2.4 GHZ
1.2gb ddr 400mhz
60gb hdd
1650XT 512mb

NO LAG

that system should run a few TF2 servers with a decent internet connection and 2-3 NIC's

TIP: never use Wireless and run XP Pro is the Simplest thing to do as VISTA will slow that PC down too much

im on the SKY 20MB, i get 16.3Mbit and im like 400m from the xchange, my upload can reach 1.3Mbits get something like BE broadband, MOAR UPLOAD!!

Thats good news. I think I have a spare NIC in the cupboard, how can i use more than 1 NIC?

Its also a good thing because the system is currently running xp pro. Is server 2008 not better though?

 

[Deleted member 3]

you need more ram (4 Gigs for sure) and more Harddrive (1 TB or more) if you want your server to be a data center, but you don't need a GPU (onboard GPU still works) in server computer.

I recommend ignoring the above, 1GB is plenty, anything more is just nice for the future. TF2 Does not need a terabyte of space, the game won't take more than 10GB, unless you want to store hundreds of maps.

that system should run a few TF2 servers with a decent internet connection and 2-3 NIC's

Where do you people get your information? What are those NICs supposed to do?

 

[Bo$$]

Thats good news. I think I have a spare NIC in the cupboard, how can i use more than 1 NIC?

Its also a good thing because the system is currently running xp pro. Is server 2008 not better though?

not really, may be some compatability issue i really don't know, just for gaming, XP or seven

if you only host like 2-3 servers with like 8 players each then 1 NIC should be more than enough, when you have like 70 players then try using two, it's more hassle than anything else

 

[Bo$$]

Where do you people get your information? What are those NICs supposed to do?

i happen to run about 10 servers on my 2 space pc's, i would like to think i know 1 or 2 things about connections, it's not about bandwidth but about Ping, when you increase the load with like 48X3= 144 players then 1 NIC is not enough to handle all those connections, you need atleast two, on a high performance router/modem with a brilliant connection

 

[zithe]

Separate NIC's are pointless. If the computer could use them as separate connections, you still need to have 3 modems registered with your ISP and have a payment plan set up for all of them. A lot of money put into something that doesn't require an amazing connection in the first place.

I have 4-5 PCs connected to the internet at any given time and my server users still don't experience lag. Even in Europe. It's being run on the laptop listed above and an average upload speed of .3mb/s.

 

[Deleted member 3]

i happen to run about 10 servers on my 2 space pc's, i would like to think i know 1 or 2 things about connections, it's not about bandwidth but about Ping, when you increase the load with like 48X3= 144 players then 1 NIC is not enough, you need atleast two, on a high performance router/modem with a brilliant connection

So the router can handle such load over one line (say, 100MBit fibre) yet a decent NIC can't? Interesting.

Either way, if you read the OP you'd see he's running a server for his buddies, the system he lists is already overkill.

 

[Bo$$]

So the router can handle such load over one line (say, 100MBit fibre) yet a decent NIC can't? Interesting.

Either way, if you read the OP you'd see he's running a server for his buddies, the system he lists is already overkill.

thats probabily me using some el cheapo NIC on quite a slow PC to begin with


overkill is too small