As you all may or may not have heard, in the upcoming months, I will be building a new and improved server, donated in full to Majkp to use for the Discovery 24/7 RPG Server. The server will be built over a period of approx six months and once it is finished, it will be reboxed in it's original packaging, wrapped in a large box with a crap load of fragile stickers, and shipped to Majkp across the long and tribulant ocean to his door step. I have nicknamed the project "Project SoD (Server of Dreams) and it will be used to power the Discovery Server. Here are the components I will be using to build the server:
Case
Motherboard
Processor
RAM x2
HDD
Video Card
The total price will cost:
$1,169.95
The reasons for what I chose are as follows:
- The server MoBo has no onboard video, so it requires a video card, a good cheap 1gb video card will suffice just fine.
- The processor was chosen as a dual core because that is all that is needed to power the FL Server, any higher than dual will be a waste of core power. FL Server can only thread off one core, so it's pointless to go above two.
- The TB storage is because of the massive database that the server has onboard, that and this paticular HDD has 7,200 RPM, one of the fastest TB HDD's.
- The case has a fold out MoBo tray and is large, which will hold the full ATX Server motherboard nicely, that and it looks so friggin cool (I bought one for myself just now hehe)
- The RAM...well...8gb of memory with Windows XP 64 Bit will work just nicely for the server, don't ya think?;)
Hope you guys don't tear it apart too badly with all your lagging;)
~Leo
A great cause and a good build, I'd be wary of using a Zotac product though. I somewhat less than trust them based on consumer reviews and personal testing on friends PCs.
Will keep that in mind Turkish, thanks for the heads up. I'll start to search for a new Video Card to use with the server.
~Leo
Thanks to the quick reflexes and inside information on the manufacturer of the video card, I was able to change the video card and change it to a more stable card.
~Leo
Man, I love Newegg.com. Great place to buy. Very communication/service oriented.
Looks good:)
Just be sure to plaster the thing in fragile stickers. Maybe put a bear inside, if it gets rattled around too much it'll burst out and maul the handlers.
I applaud your effort, time and money for this endeauver but this one little phrase sent me rolling:
' Wrote:"wrapped in a large box with a crap load of fragile stickers"
:lol::lol::lol: You see, I worked Air Freight for over 15 years. Do you know what a "Fragile sticker" means to someone in the business?
A
RED flag to a bull in a china shop.
-or-
The phrase, "An 8x8x8 box will fit in a 6x6x6 hole."
My recomendation: Take your work of art and pack it, and place it in a sturdy box. Mark side all four sides of the box in professional letters "AIRCRAFT INSTRUMENTS", place one (1) fragile sticker on the top of the box and also insure the contents. Make sure that no 'insured' amounts are visiable to any handlers. Most freight companies do not want the headache of being sued for the loss of business and or their self pay insurance paying out the rear for the loss or damage ($500 - $1 mill) just for the instrument. I have seen several compenies (You know the BIG ones) require their section managers hand carry and signoff each leg of the (Aircraft Instrument) boxes travel to make sure it get there without the apes in sorting playing warehouse billards with the box. (Yes, it does happen on slow days)
You might also look into taxes and such. My wife builds computers and shipped one to Canada from the US and the customer had to pay almost $300 in taxes and other fee's before he could get it out of customs.
Thanks for the offer, but I think that setup is wrong for a server. . . It's a gaming PC.
Using that as a server would be like buying a Ferrari to use as a cargo truck...
- The CPU + mother are not a good idea. The Xeon platform is expensive, and won't offer any performance improvement over our current setup. Using a standard CPU will get us the same for half the price. Plus the MB needs onboard video, which brings me to the second point:
- A gaming card for a server Is a waste of money, unless the server is used for 3D rendering, or maybe to run specially designed apps that use a GPU to do the magic, like this case. Most servers don't even have video output... Anything that can handle 1024*768 video output is more than enough, as a server uses the video output only to set it up (install the SO, and that if you don't have a networked unattended installer package).... and to do stuff that can't be done by remote.
- 4GB can't be efficiently used under a 32bit architecture. A 32bit S.O can address 4gb of ram (2^32), but it can use it all, as some memory addresses (addresses, not blocks) are used to access the rest of the hardware. So, we have 4GB... but with that 1gb video card 1024 million memory addresses will be used to control the GPU ram. That leaves 3GB available to the S.O, and 1 that is just sitting there empty. From that, remove some 512 millions more used to address the rest of the hardware, and you have only 2.5GB of RAM that can be used by the S.O, as all the rest cant be used 'cause the memory addresses are being used for something else. So, that means 1.5gb bought just to have it there, sitting idle. Yeah. Vista 32bits will show you the amount of ram installed, no matter how much there is. But it's still unusable, 'cause its 32bits.
Also, more than 2GB is useless, as there are no apps that we can run on the server that can use that much RAM. Plus the memory busses will choke when such a vast amount of RAM needs to be accessed all at the same time. For more info, learn a bit about CPU architectures, SO design, and memory management. Even for today heavy apps is too much.
- 1TB of storage is more than the server will ever use. 250gb are far more than enough for the current and future needs. More than that in a single drive is overkill, as it cannot even be used to do backups, as a backup MUST be outside of the server. That's the idea of a backup. To have the data safe in case the server, dunno, explodes 'cause of a power surge, is stolen by thugs, gets fried, or, dunno. . . is hit by a comet. When a server disk is bought, you first need to know how much space will the server use, and for which purpose is it being made. Then, you double that. And then, you buy a disk around that capacity, that has the lower cost per GB among those that can fulfil the needs of the server.
- Too much case too. All it's needed is a cheap ATX case that has good ventilation. Unless the server is on a rack (or we need something to host exotic cooling devices, like WC or Compressors), in which case an ATX case won't do, as a 1/2U rackmount would be far better (A rackmount is a case designed to fit as a module on a rack).
- The processor is nice, but our OCed E8400 is better, as it overcloks A LOT. We have the most CPU power that can be affordably harnessed and used by FLserver. The only way I see to increase CPU power is to go liquid with our current CPU, and OC it a lot more. That's why when I designed the current server with Michal, we came out with the current setup. It's fast, reliable, and cheap. . . and can't be beaten unless you spend an order of magnitude more cash on a rig.
Another important thing is that shipping it overseas is inefficient. As hardware is almost as cheap on Czech Republic as it is on the USA, buying all in-situ is far more practical. Such a shipment could be damaged in transit. Also costs A LOT, takes a lot of time to ship, and you have to pay customs (I know them well, and i hate them, as all Airsoft stuff I get must be bought in Hong Kong, as selling it here wit commercial purposes is illegal:(. That makes it 120% more pricey >.<). It costs half to send the money through paypal, bank transfer, or even WU (and they do tax a lot for sending cash), and then buy and assemble everything in place.
Making a server is not just to throw all the most expensive stuff that can be found into a case. A server is built with budget in mind first, then reliability, then the purpose of it. It's almost a science on itself:unsure:
I think this project needs to be re-thought... As its 4x more expensive than it should be. . . and the computer being suggested will not fulfil the task its being built for.
Korrd - 1
Leo - 0
*Ding Ding*
Round Two.
*Waits for Leo to reply*