Eximo :
Performance really tapers off above the $2000 mark, and most of that is GPU. Intel Extreme CPUs have always been a huge waste of money (and always will be) You are better of with the 5930k as an inbetween. Though recent benchmarks show the 5820k actually does a little better in games. Dual R9-295X2 is great if you want to run 4K at high frames, but they don't yet make a monitor that supports that. Eyefinity with three 2560x1440 screens is another route. For single screen gaming an R9-290X or GTX780Ti (either would be overkill for 1080p, but you could use a 144Hz screen)
The majority of private game servers I have seen are usually just the previous personal build of the owner. Since all they do is manipulate data, it doesn't take much. And with consumer Intel chips you don't even need a graphics card. They tended to host for free for convenience or control.
You don't even have to use one computer as a server. Find the server requirements for the games you want to host and you can just buy off the shelf machines to run them independently. With 10K to spend you could just go out and buy a pallet of used desktops at a corporate auction. These will come with Windows, so that should help a lot. Though there are many games out there that can be served in Linux. Of course this would raise electricity costs.
Another option is to take a cheap quad core LGA1150 Xeon, a motherboard, and ECC memory and a spinning drive and use that as a host for a few servers.
If you are serious about starting a small hosting company there is a lot more to it. As I mentioned you would need a lot more bandwidth, you are on the mark with Business Class, that gets you a static IP. (Looks like average numbers are about 1Mbps of upload bandwidth per 4 users, ISPs are pretty stingy with upload bandwidth) You would need a corporate phone (easily available from Comcast Business) to be on call in case of outages. You can also set up your servers to e-mail or text you in case of issues.
Back in the 90s and early 00s this kind of thing made a lot more sense. (One of my old friends ran an ISP/Web hosting business out of his basement) But now there are tons of hosting services out there that deal in bulk for small monthly payments per supported user. They have their machines hosted in datacenters running on VMs or cheap rack style dual and quad core Xeons or Opterons. They also achieve good pings by being attached directly to the backbone of the internet.
To compete you would need to either charge very little or offer services that they don't, such as setup for people that don't know how, personal assistance, etc.
Ok so screw the server! lol TWO LAST QUESTIONS please? Since you know so much, will my Alienware M17-R1 handle being a game server so I can host 4-8 friends on a game? And for the rig I'm about to buy, based on my experiences this $3k rig will save me money years down the road), but what do you think?
Alienware M17-R1 (2008 pre-Dell buyout)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz FSB1066 (~25GFLOPS)
8GB Crucial 1333MHz (locked at 1066 due to FSB, locked BIOS sadly. SetFSB doesn't work)
(1GB) 512MBx2 ATI Mobility Radeon 3870x2 Crossfire X
Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid SATA III 6Gb/s 7.8GB NAND Flash Cache and 32MB HDD Cache
Blu ray drive, Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit SP1
Rig:
Intel Core i7-5960X 8 core OC to 4GHz probably (will never need upgrading within 10 years)
Corsair Hydro H100i Extreme cooler (special liquid coolant never needs replacing)
Gigabyte LGA2011-V3 GA X99 UD4 (pretty basic, more than enough. Replace only if it dies)
16GB DDR4 G-Skill Ripjaws 3200MHz CL16 (will never need upgrading perhaps ever, can always add 4 more DIMMs)
4GB Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor X Tri X (upgrade in 5-6 years assuming it's needed)
2x 2TB Seagate Hybrid SATA III 6Gb/s 7.8GB NAND Flash Cache and 64MB HDD Cache (never need upgrading, one is purely a backup)
Cosair Professional Series AX1200i (plenty of headroom for a second GPU or future GPU's)
Total is $3,100. If I spend less now, I will spend more later and either way, I will spend at least $3k sooner or later because most Intel processors are $500-1000 depending. Spend $500 now to spend $500 later, so I spend $1000 now to spend nothing later. Current gen uses 8 cores but are low power and barely optimized, so I think the future generation of games will be core intensive and my 8 core will still be great. Next gen probably won't have consoles at all and will be steam machines perhaps or something like it. The parts on this rig will still be beast 6-7 years from now easily, with the weakest link always being the GPU. If I get an amazing computer now, I will have no desire to "have the best rig" later on. It's like a fetish lol. The power I get now allows me the grace of sentimentality later, like with old cars that were once great "still have their uses." This is how it's been with my laptop! I spent $2800 on my laptop and after 7 years it's still going and plays all 2013 games and prior at ridiculous settings, so I've learned the importance of money now vs money later.
What do you think?
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