Server questions

[ksoth]

I am not sure of what stresses certain things will put on a computer. If anyone could give me some advice on what parts should go in a system that will have the following uses:

Counter-Strike game server
UT2004 game server
Doom 3 game server
Call to Duty game server
Maybe other games
Small website server
Handle a small security system (4 cameras maybe) that records to DVD-RW and also displays cameras over the internet on the website

Now, I was thinking that a server with dual Opteron 248s or 250s, 2 gigs of ram, SCSI RAID array, and gigabit ethernet should be adequate. Does anyone know if I am totally off the ball and would need more than 1 system to handle everything I listed here?

Thanks in advance.

--
"There's more to life than profits."
<font color=red>"Like what?"</font color=red>
"Like, you know, Slurpees and stuff."
<A HREF="http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/video/707/slurpees.mov" target="_new">South Park</A>

 

[Crashman]

I think it would be CHEAPER to go with 2 systems.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Cybercraig]

Handle a small security system (4 cameras maybe) that records to DVD-RW and also displays cameras over the internet on the website
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


WOW! Somebody finally asks a question that I answer everyday for a living! I don't know which is going to be harder for you, running a GEO live video card or being a Doom3 server. Live video eats bandwidth like crazy. We sell 4, 9, 16, and the big 32 channel recorders. All are dedicated to the task of recording. If you look inside the Toshiba PC-DVR 16 channel box you will find (4) specially modified ATI-9700Pro cards, (4) channels per card. That's to do a maximum of 240 Frames per second recording across the machine. We recommend a minimum of 15gb of drive space per channel. In essense, I've got to agree with Crashman. You're asking a lot out of one box!

Abit IS7 - 2.8C @ 3.4ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[ksoth]

Well, in terms of live video on the website I was not thinking of high resolution, high fps. Maybe 320x240 at 1 fps, just enough to get an idea of what is going on but also reduce the bandwith required to do it.

In terms of the recordings it would make, it would be of higher quality definately.

I haven't really researched PC security systems yet, so I'm not too sure about what route to go yet.

--
"There's more to life than profits."
<font color=red>"Like what?"</font color=red>
"Like, you know, Slurpees and stuff."
<A HREF="http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/video/707/slurpees.mov" target="_new">South Park</A>

 

[Crashman]

The problem is, when you do things simultaniously you run into bandwidth issues. You could probably do 4 cameras with small images (like 320x240) across 1 network (if you used network enabled cameras) and record to hard drive (for backup to DVD). Depending on what you're serving, you may be able to get by with a second network serving files from a separate hard drive on the same PC. But because gaming requires so much of a system, I'd go separate for the second system.

The first system doesn't even have to be FAST, PCI bottleneck issues are the same on all relatively modern PC's. But if you were to go with a cheap (read, old) server board you could get a cheap (read, old) server processor and have more bandwidth via PCI-X, etc.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>