Intel or AMD for a budget server?

[Altiris]

I am building a budget server that will run on either Ubuntu or Lubuntu. This PC will be used to host a minecraft server and possibly a DNS server and a website, the minecraft server only uses 1 core I believe. My budget is around $410 max and I want to know what is better to go with, Intel or AMD. For intel the lowest I will go is a Pentium G2120 ($99). If AMD were better to go with I would either go with an AMD Phenon II X4 965 ($94) or the Athlon ii x4 640 ($79). Which is better in performance and money?

I have configured a build right now, the prices are pretty much the same so which processor would outperform/better for a server or what I want to do?

Intel Build
$407

AMD Build
$401

 

[BuddiLuva]

Some will say the G2120 is better

But in this case I'd definitely go with the Phenom, as it has more cores and is a bit better than its Athlon counterpart, can also be overclocked fairly well. Better for "server" use.

 

[stantheman123]

Yea i agree the phenom has more cores. Id personally go with the phenom

 

[Altiris]

Okay I will go with Phenom ii x4. To overclock it would I neeed a certain chipset type like how for intel theres 967, h77, and z77? What would be a good cooler, would the Hyper 212 evo be good?

 

[twelve25]

It won't matter that much. I suspect very low CPU utilization for either build. If it is going to be left on all the time, Intel will use a bit less power.

 

[Altiris]

This might sound really strange however should I go with buying a new server PC or buying an SSD for my Gaming PC?
I already have a really powerful server with Windows small business server 2011, Xeon x5690, 128gb of ram, all of that stuff however it is my dads and for some reason I just really prefer using Linux over Windows server. When I am an adult I will most likely use Linux for a home server OS instead of windows server just because its another $100 to spend or more, so learning Linux now would be good for the future.

Should I buy a new server PC and then have no money left over or buy an SSD for my gaming PC and have around $180-$200 left? I know these are really two completely different things but what would seem smarter.

 

[twelve25]

If you can piggy back your dad's server, who cares? Just use it. Or heck, install VMware player on it and run Linux on top of windows.

If you are asking about smart use of money, it isn't building a server you don't need.

 

[Altiris]

If you can piggy back your dad's server, who cares? Just use it. Or heck, install VMware player on it and run Linux on top of windows.

If you are asking about smart use of money, it isn't building a server you don't need.

Its not piggy backing or anything like that, he lets me use it and even take up 2GB of ram when running the server. The thing is that I dont have much freedom on what I can do on it, I can't set up a website without it being "his way", using Microsoft Expression Web or something. I also can't set up FTP even with FileZilla because he says its not secure and hackers can hack into the computer because of Port Forwarding Port 21 or I even told him I could port forward port 8000 (Can hackers actually gain access to your PC through these ports?) but he still says no. Having an FTP or something I can share files across my PC and a server is very useful since the server would be in the basement and my PC I play on is in the attic which is two floors above. (If I want to store the saves on my PC as a backup or something).

 

[adamv1]

Minecraft server? You won't need much for that. Just get a dual core intel Atom. It will do what you need it too and will be able to run 24/7 forever. I have allot of these in use for file servers, web hosting, home theater, they run at very low temps, you wont need a fan. They are fast enough for minecraft and really cheap.

I found this one, it will need a HD, just get a 60gb ssd. Probably will cost 370 with SSD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859324023

Or if you really want to save some cash:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500055
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211718
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154061

this would cost: $242.96

What makes you think you need a more powerful server? Are you going to be playing minecraft on the server or using it to host games? Their server website say's an AMD Athalon or intel Core series is optimal. A Phenom X4 is way overkill.

 

[Altiris]

Minecraft server? You won't need much for that. Just get a dual core intel Atom. It will do what you need it too and will be able to run 24/7 forever. I have allot of these in use for file servers, web hosting, home theater, they run at very low temps, you wont need a fan. They are fast enough for minecraft and really cheap.

I found this one, it will need a HD, just get a 60gb ssd. Probably will cost 370 with SSD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16859324023

Or if you really want to save some cash:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500055
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211718
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154061

this would cost: $242.96

What makes you think you need a more powerful server? Are you going to be playing minecraft on the server or using it to host games? Their server website say's an AMD Athalon or intel Core series is optimal. A Phenom X4 is way overkill.

Oh wow, I didnt know they had things like this. I honestly don't think these PCs are powerful enough for a Minecraft server (its pretty demanding). I will not be playing on the same computer that is hosting. The set up I was going for was about $407, It is an actual Desktop computer. A 60GB SSD doesn't seem worth it to me because I may want to do backups on the computer or store some pictures or game saves or stuff like that, you know my own personal little server. I would rather get a 500GB SATA 3 HDD. The SSD would make things faster but for the price right now, ehhh.

My MC server will run Bukkit although with very little plugins, only Essentials.jar, EssentialsSpawn.jar, and EssentialsChat.jar. The rest of the essential jars will be deleted. GroupManager will also be in it. Generally probably only about 2-3 people will be playing minimum and maybe 5 max or so.

Would testing the MC server on a Pentium 4 PC be a good test? The PC is an HP xw4200. The Pentium 4 it has is pretty fast and is running Win7 32bit. I also upgraded it years ago to 4GB of RAM.

 

[adamv1]

This computer is more than enough to run a dedicated server for minecraft.

You should check the minecraft server wiki. Running a server is different from running the actual game. A server shares the data but doesn't process graphics, so it doesn't need to be very powerful and the less heat it generates the longer it will last. I would build the system I recommend, the server wiki say's that it would be strong enough to host 45+ users. The money you save would go toward getting a huge hard drive if you want as well.

Like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844

that is 3tb and would still make the system cost less than the $400 budget even with the 64gb ssd running the OS and MC files.

This is the minecraft server wiki. http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Server/Requirements/Dedicated

This is the optimal server, which means what they think is the best when running Linux.
Optimal
45+ players: Intel Core-Based CPUs or AMD K8-Based CPUs and better, 6 GB, 35 GB empty space, 30 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, A SSD is preferably recommended for a populated server.

If you are really concerned about performance I would get the 2.13ghz Atom processor. But I honestly don't think you would need all that power.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500074
and this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144
and this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697
and leave the other case and SSD and your cost is 407.95
which gives you the advantage of 8gb ddr3 and the SSD plus a solid server processor with hyper threading for the same as your original set-up that won't do much more if anything better than this set-up.

You would want to run a dedicated server, which means all it does is serve the game 24/7 if you want. You would use another computer to connect to the server and play the game. All this server is doing is sharing the files needed to display the map with the users that are connected to the server. So running the server is not as "demanding" as you might think. For example, I can run a server for a very demanding game like ARMA2 on an intel atom set-up because it is not running the actual game, but just transferring information about the game to computers that are actually running the game. ARMA 2 won't run on Linux but I can run the server on Linux. The dedicated server recommendations would never run the game even on the lowest settings but it will run the server with over 32 players.

I hope that example helps.

 

[Altiris]

This computer is more than enough to run a dedicated server for minecraft.

You should check the minecraft server wiki. Running a server is different from running the actual game. A server shares the data but doesn't process graphics, so it doesn't need to be very powerful and the less heat it generates the longer it will last. I would build the system I recommend, the server wiki say's that it would be strong enough to host 45+ users. The money you save would go toward getting a huge hard drive if you want as well.

Like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148844

that is 3tb and would still make the system cost less than the $400 budget even with the 64gb ssd running the OS and MC files.

This is the minecraft server wiki. http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Server/Requirements/Dedicated

This is the optimal server, which means what they think is the best when running Linux.
Optimal
45+ players: Intel Core-Based CPUs or AMD K8-Based CPUs and better, 6 GB, 35 GB empty space, 30 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, A SSD is preferably recommended for a populated server.

If you are really concerned about performance I would get the 2.13ghz Atom processor. But I honestly don't think you would need all that power.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500074

You would want to run a dedicated server, which means all it does is serve the game 24/7 if you want. You would use another computer to connect to the server and play the game. All this server is doing is sharing the files needed to display the map with the users that are connected to the server. So running the server is not as "demanding" as you might think. For example, I can run a server for a very demanding game like ARMA2 on an intel atom set-up because it is not running the actual game, but just transferring information about the game to computers that are actually running the game. ARMA 2 won't run on Linux but I can run the server on Linux. The dedicated server recommendations would never run the game even on the lowest settings but it will run the server with over 32 players.

I hope that example helps.

I am almost sure Intel Atom isnt Intel Core CPU if thats what you meant, I didnt read everything sorry as I am in a rush. I built a system with an AMD Athlon ii x4 640 with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB SATA 3 HDD and total with tax is $362. I can go around $100 cheaper with your setup but when I researched about the Atom running a server with more than or about 10 people, which I may never host that many players but plugins are also a factor.

I also may want to run a website and DNS server off of this. I am sorry, I just feel the builds you gave me won't be powerful enough. The other thing is I can always upgrade the build I am going with while the one gave me I am stuck with DDR2 and only 4GB of memory. That build you gave me is around $306 or so and does not have a hard drive or a Cd Drive. The build I selected has all of this, DDR3 memory, and a better CPU for $362.

 

[adamv1]

I updated my post, don't look at that first build it's a rip off get the custom build in my second post. It takes DDR3 and for about the same price as the other build you get a core 2 duo equivalent (they are looking for hyper threading) processor an SSD and a 1 TB HD. with the AMD Athalon II X4 you are spending the equivalent minus the SSD which is recommended on the MC server site.

 

[iceclock]

965 right here.

 

[thetechybrit]

Yea i agree the phenom has more cores. Id personally go with the phenom

Don't forget if it's a server (and is going to be running pretty much 24/7) it needs to have low power consumption, something like 70 watts at max, or the electricity bill is gonna break the bank and so is your new server parts if the old one overheats and stops working.

 

[8350rocks]

Phenom II X4 965 is a good deal for what you're doing.

 

[Crasins]

Honestly, for your minecraft server, if it's gonna be hosted online and the server is hosted at your house, most likely, more than any CPU or RAM or disk access bottleneck limitations, you're gonna get hit with what they recommend for internet speeds. Most internet connections for home use has decent download speed but will be very limiting in upload speed. Which means that's your bottleneck which means you can go ahead with getting the Atom processor build. I wouldn't know why you're gonna be running a DNS server on it but DNS is usually separated out from other machines to eliminate any more reasons the DNS server should go down. If you're building a linux server, and will run a small web server and minecraft server, then the Atom is more than ample. You don't need GUI so just CLI it and you should be running fine on low amounts of RAM as well.