Server for network game center?
 

Hey we're closing in on a hopeful launch date here and I have to configure servers to run the games (Counter-Strike et. al.) for the 80 machines in the store and possibly to open up to outside players on the Internet. Do any of the tech-heads here have good experience or suggestions on what hardware you'd run for the game servers?

Dell servers!

We are looking at Dell first because of lots of good experiences with them but my question was more along the lines of specs...

:2 cents: The game servers we have running are mostly Intel P4 2.0 or better with as much RAM as possible. Recently the trend has been for a few customers to even upgrade to the Intel P4 3.+ with hyper-threading. Also, if you are going to use IDE drives the ones with cache do seem to be more responsive. :thumbsup

MarkTiarra-

are you starting an internet cafe of sorts?


also, check your ICQ

P4 Dual Xeons or Amd Dual Machines(overheat if you dont pump them full of air) for the servers hosting the games.

i ran a 13-person HL server, mostly running CS without any problems. it was a k62-500@450 with 196mb ram and 13gb of hard drive.


you don't need much :)


even at 32 players, a 1ghz celeron with 256 or 512 mb ram should be able to do nicely i'd think. no sense in spending $1500-2000 per box :thumbsup


a friend of mine used to run a HL server on a 533 emachine with like 64 or 128 mb ram, and would get pretty close to 20-25 people on it, not too much trouble. sometimes in TS when you get like 30 people on it it would start to choke, but that was the connection sometimes more than anything.

ahahha. dual xeons or p4 3ghz? talk about overkill.


unless you're running the windows servers... then _maybe_


actually, if you're running duallies, you could run 2 HL games on each server, 1 game per cpu. i'm pretty sure this would work, but never tried it.

iroc - He will be running multiple game sessions on the server.

Cheers,
Matt

If you'd like some specific advice hit my tech Rob up on ICQ, his specialty is game server hosting: ICQ#96230287

We're always happy to help even if it isn't for new business!

Cheers,

Brad