Game servers and upload capacity

ExaByte

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Can someone shed a light on how much upload capacity and type of connection you need for a game server that hosts lets say 500 gamers? What kind of server do you need? Are Opterons on a Tyan mobo the best deal, technically? How much RAM would be required?
 

ExaByte

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We are talking about FS9 and BF2, yes, both at the same time.
Is there a hugh difference between SCSI discs and SATAII discs (for gaming)?
 

hubbardt

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For 500 players you are going to need a monster server and connection.
BF2 is a resource hog and the official specs for running a server are:

Minimum Specification, based on playing a 16 player game:
CPU: 1 Ghz Processor
RAM: 384 Mb

Recommended Specification, based on playing a 64 player game:
CPU: 3 Ghz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP
RAM: 1 Gb

BANDWIDTH
Minimum: 2.5 Mbit
Recommended: 5Mbit



... and let's face it ... the minimum specs are never enough :wink:
 

ExaByte

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We, me and my friends, are willing to invest in a Tyan/Opteron based "Monster server", 16GB RAM, 2 or 4 Opterons.
The 5Mbit is not so bad as I thought. We can get 8Mbit for a reasonable price. I thought you might need 10+Mbit for upload, which becomes quit expensive.
 

hubbardt

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The available bandwidth will be the limiting factor here, not the server hardware.

I would say get the max bandiwdth you can afford and then test how the server performs under maximum player load

- 2 x 64 player BF2 servers
- 2 x FS9 server (not sure on technical specs for this game)

I would start with a slightly lower hardware spec (8Gb RAM and 2 CPU) and then increase if you need more.
 
G

Guest

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Just get a cheap vps mate they are more than capable and you can scale them to your needs, no need to spend hundreds on a dedicated server, you would be cheaper renting servers when you start thinking about doing stuff like that