My friends and I are building a server. Pointers, please.

[jazzy663]

Alright, I'll try to make this short and sweet.

My friends and I want to build a server for hosting games, among the most common being Minecraft, Garry's Mod and various Source games, Arma, etc. It won't be a very high-load server (4~6 players). It'll be mostly for our group of friends, but we're tossing around the idea of making it public if the specs can handle it. We'll restart it once or twice a week for stability.

All of us have Internet speeds that are very capable of hosting games.

I'm going to be upgrading my PC soon. When I do that, I'll be donating my old CPU and motherboard to our server build, so that'll automatically knock a couple bucks off the price.

So what I have right now is this: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Jazzy663/saved/gTGH99

A few questions:

1)How important is memory speed in servers? I ask because the fastest the board will support is 1333Mhz.

2)Could we boost performance in any way by getting a "better" hard drive, such as one from the WD Black series?

3)Can anyone recommend a case for this? The case that's there is a placeholder, really.

Price really isn't an issue at this point as we're all going to be pitching in for this. There are currently three of us that will pitch in with potentially more.

4)Is 16GB of memory overkill at all? I've vaguely heard that more memory is good for servers, but I'm not certain about the details.

5)Are we going to take a hit to performance using a workstation CPU, specifically and AMD one, for server use?

 

[MasterDell]

1) In this case, using 1333Mhz will be just fine.

2) No a better hard drive wouldn't be very beneficial. You will be storing data on this server I assume? If you are then I suggest you go big or you keep it safe. Caviar Greens promise longer life spans but lower performance. Caviar Blacks promise higher write speeds but shorter life (But not that much shorter). What you could do is buy two 1TB Caviar blacks and run them in RAID 1.

3) Any case with a 120mm intake and a 120mm exhuast will do really nicely. The Cougar Spike does this really well.

4) Stick with the 16GB.

5) Well ideally a Xeon would be best. But the 6300 would be fine I suppose. Please do use a CM T4 to cool it though. It is going to get warm.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4WTfGX

 

[jazzy663]

Thanks very much for this. I understand the change of PSU, Seasonic's units are considerably better than Corsair's, especially CX.

One last question: Is it really necessary to get a cooler other than the stock? I have put the 6300 under heavy gaming load for several hours at a time on the stock cooler, and there hasn't been any problem, from what I've seen.

Thanks!

 

[MasterDell]

Honestly the stock cooler is obviously fine. But I hate them so much that it's ridiculous. I can't stand noise and the hotter a cpu runs the shorter it will live. So it being used as a server CPU, I thought it would be a good idea. But if you don't mind noise and higher temps then don't get the one I added! Feel free to keep the questions coming

 

[jazzy663]

Haha, now that you put it that way, I can't say I disagree 😛 I'll consult with my friends and we'll look into the T4 or the old Hyper 212.

I don't want to take up too much of your time, but since you're open to questions, I do have one that's been burning since last night.

Why the change of memory? I compared the Ares memory with the Ripjaws X and they seem very similar, aside from the Ares being a couple bucks cheaper.

 

[MasterDell]

Haha, now that you put it that way, I can't say I disagree 😛 I'll consult with my friends and we'll look into the T4 or the old Hyper 212.

I don't want to take up too much of your time, but since you're open to questions, I do have one that's been burning since last night.

Why the change of memory? I compared the Ares memory with the Ripjaws X and they seem very similar, aside from the Ares being a couple bucks cheaper.

Reason being A. It's less expensive for the same thing and B. It has a lower profile so that you can use most coolers. And lastly it seems to get better reviews for whatever reason..

 

[jazzy663]

Thanks! I think we're set on what to buy now.

 

[MasterDell]

Awesome. Let me know if you need anymore help