Would this cluster work as a game server?

[ThePooBurner]

I came across this super cheap cluster build the other day and i was wondering (not knowing anything about clusters) if this thing could be made into a gaming server/file server for both home and over the net play. and if it can what would it take to set it up that way. Any help would be appreciated.

http://www.clustermonkey.net//content/view/211/33/

 

[Shadow703793]

No, because the games are threaded to be run on a single cpu. You can run a cluster with Windows Server or Linux but no gaming. Only good for "scientific" simulations and data centers etc.

 

[Shadow703793]

EDIT: It MIGHT be able to be made in to a game SERVER but you WILL not be able to play games on it.

 

[ThePooBurner]

yeah,. i want it as a server. i have a desktop box for gaming. I'm just looking to have a server that i can have all my game servers running on at once so i don't have to mess with it once i get it going and i will be able to play anything i want at a whim.

Edit: I didn't know windows server could do clustering. Would it's performance suck compared to a linux cluster?

 

[ThePooBurner]

bumpo. I would really like to know if this would work or not.

 

[jt001]

Would it work? It could in theory. Is it a good idea? Probably not.

If you really need that much power, go for a dual 1207 board(there's some decent ones for under $300), and grab a pair of barcelonas, if there's ever any in stock that is. That will give you 8 cores at likely far less power consumption, much smaller space, much less technical difficulty, and far better performance. The ECC ram you'd need for it is dirt cheap these days, $24/GB.

Though for what you're trying to do I think a single Intel quad core would do just fine.

 

[ThePooBurner]

Would that be enough power to have a server running for BF, BF2, SOF2, Q3, TF2, plus a few others, and a web server all at the same time?

Is there a forum just for server building, or is this the only forum where i could find info on the topic? I've never built a dedicated server before and since i came across the microwulf i thought why not start there if its something that would work Is there a server building resource anywhere to get someone building a server box for the first time a good roadmap? Like which OS woudl work best (be it windows server, or a linux distro).