Closet Game Server

[chazus]

I've been wanting to make a small, low power system to handle game servers I host (just for me and a few people, at most). Stuff like Minecraft, Terraria, Starbound. It isn't a huge priority, and I'm trying to skimp on costs as much as possible. Right now this is what I'm looking at, but I'm not sure about this CPU for small game hosting. I imagine I'll want 8gb ram, since each game takes up 1-1.5gb, and I'd likely run 2-3 concurrently. No OS, CD, or peripherals needed (Will be accessed via RDP). Right now the case and PSU have a rebate that pcpartpicker isn't showing.

This is what I'm looking at right now:
PCPartPicker part list
Motherboard/CPU: AMD E1-2100 ($40.00)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($30.00)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.00)
Total: $155.99

[Deleted]

I think you would need more cpu power to host those games. It would be fine for a file server but trying to run any multiplayer server loads on a dual core apu with suck.

It has about the same cpu power as a 10 year old Pentium 4.

[chazus]

I know that the games run perfectly on my A6-4400M. I'm not sure what the performance difference between the Piledriver/Trinity and the Jaguar/Kabini cores.

[Deleted]

Thing is the A6-4400M runs at 2.7-3.2 ghz, that E1-2100 runs at 1ghz flat.

[Tradewind]

You're going to want something with good cores, things like minecraft servers are only single threaded anyway from what I recall. You're not likely to get much performance from that if you're hosting more than a couple players at a time on any one of the games. That E1 is just a low power gutless laptop processor.

Even my old server at home that had a Core 2 Duo, E5300 had issues doing Minecraft/Tekkit. Eventually I changed it to my old Q6600 and that fared better, memory is a hog though with minecraft thanks to java.

Luckily I now host my servers on a rackmounted server I built at work, originally for just pfSense. But it's totally overpowered. Uses an Asus RS100 with a Quad Xeon E3-1220, then ESXi hypervisor, but it'll run my work's pfsense (router/firewall), websites and then; tekkit/hexxit, starbound, terraria simultaneously and flawlessly in seperate VM's, 2x ubuntu and 1x server 2008. But it'd be about a $1000 investment to go that route. Needs ECC memory too, but you know if you're hosting it for a few friends...get them to chip in some cash and that way you can all enjoy a solid experience.

[chazus]

Just an update on this system. I've got it all together now, and the results are interesting. Long story short, I'll probably be upgrading as people suggested, but not for the reasons mentioned!

It runs the servers fantastically, no lag or problems there. However, running it as a media server as well, it does NOT like playing Youtube or Netflix stuff. Audio is perfect, but video lags (I might try throwing a cheapie 610 in there first).

Since the board was only $35 anyway, no big loss. I'll likely be going to get a Celeron G1820 (2C/2T @ 2.7ghz). Considerably more expensive setup at about $90 total, rather than $35... But considering up til now, the Case, PSU, RAM, OS, HD, has cost me a total of $155... Staying under the $250 mark seems well worth it for a meager gaming, media hub, game server system.

Currently looking at either
CPU: Intel Celeron G1820 2.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($47.56 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $107.55

or

Mobo/CPU: ECS NM70-I2 Celeron 1037U 1.80GHz Mini ITX Ivy Bridge ($76)

I'm thinking the 1ghz faster might be worth $25

[Flame6]

Please update again! (well once it's done) I'd be interested in copying the final product

[chazus]

Alright! So, I've run most of the benchmarks and come out with some pretty decent results, as well as some curious ones. I used a few Passmark benchmarks just to give a rough idea, since I'm not looking to get super in depth results. Just an idea. Here's what I tested with.

AMD E1-2100 (2 Core, 2 Thread) @ 1.0ghz, using both the integrated HD 8210, and dedicated HD 5450
Intel Celeron G1820 (2 Core, 2 Thread) @ 2.7ghz, using the integrated "Intel HD Graphics (GT1)"

AMD E1-2100 + Integrated 8210
CPU Overall: 759
Single Core: 369
2D Rendering: 109
3D Rendering: 259
Wattage: 28w Idle, 30w Load

AMD E1-2100 + Dedicated 5450
CPU Overall: 706
Single Core: 397
2D Rendering: 119
3D Rendering: 211
Wattage: 32w Idle, 40w Load

Strangely, the benchmark performance of the system seemed to go down, save for the marginal Single Core increase. However I was able to use Youtube now pretty much without a hitch. System still felt sluggish, though. Here's the fun part.

Intel G1820 + Intel HD Graphics
CPU Overall: 2623 (3.5x of original)
Single Core: 1607 (4.4x)
2D Rendering: 727 (6.7x)
3D Rendering: 387 (1.5x)
Wattage: 35w Idle, 50w Load

Yikes. The $60 Haswell Celeron absolutely destroys the cheaper E1-2100 in every category. I don't even think I need to bother benchmarking the 5450 to know that this thing is significantly more powerful. The wattage isn't too terrible either.

Unfortunately, I forgot that all of this was installed on my silly old 36gb Raptor Drive (I got them when they were new in 2003! 11 years later, it's still a champ), and it doesn't have room for Diablo 3 or WoW at this moment in time. However, I have a 160gb WD Blue drive in the mail. The results are pleasing though. This system cost a total of $245 (I cheated, got Win8 on the $15 promo).

[Deleted]

The cpu results were to be expected. What is surpring is the render difference. I would guess that the dedicated gpu would bring at least same results with intel HD graphics if not better. The wattage at load doesnt matter that much. Cause if the setup is running smoothly and gives you the power you need the its justified. Wattage difference @ idle is almost negligible.

So for the Celeron setup, did you pair it with the ASRock H81M mobo? Another question is do you think it makes any considerable difference between having 1333Mhz memory compared to 1600 to justify the cost difference?

[Deleted]

Any update with the setup Chazus?