Trying To Make A Game Server

[phatazzmoose]

hey guys...so heres the deal

im wanting to build up a dedicated game server

 

but i also want to get a killer strong cpu at the lowest cost...obviously

 

a guy i work with got his 2.4 pentium up to 3.2 on air and has no problems with stability

 

what would be the best cpu/mobo combo to get for that? also mushkin is good... but is there any others that would be about the same? what about ballistics?

 

EDIT: would the p4 3.0 prescott overclock nicely?

Edited December 6, 2004 by phatazzmoose

[ThunderChicken]

why pentium why not just get a a64 for the same price maybe im wrong but right now looks like a64 will be faster and youll have more upgradability or maybe opteron! maybe someone else can give better suggestions because i dont know much about pentiums!

[nakedeif]

For a game server, go with an AMD opteron for best performance. It's a 64 bit server processor. I have a feeling microsoft isn't going to come out with a 64 bit version of Windows until Intel is ready to put their POS on the market. I guess they feel threatened (and thay should) by AMD since AMD is CLEARLY the better processor.

[phatazzmoose]

thanks guys...im die-hard amd all the way...but i wanted to know what a few others thought. what opteron series should i go with? how about the 3200+ that i have now running at 2.6? would that be a decent server...that way i can buy an fx-53 and overclock to 3.6 like another guy did

 

EDIT: if i do go with opteron.. are they locked? and if so can they be unlocked?

Edited December 6, 2004 by phatazzmoose

[phatazzmoose]

thanks for the help airman, but since one game server only runs on one thread...would i actually get noticeably better performance if i ran a dual cpu setup?

[SMeeD]

Just wanted to add a bit about the 2.4ghz p4 if you dicide to go with it. My friend also overclocked his 2.4 to a little under 3.0 on air so they are good overclockers

[phatazzmoose]

hey blitz...how does he like that setup?

[GTSticky]

My 2.4 at 3.2x is a great box. If you are intent on building one, the hardware I used is excellent. You could go with cheaper RAM if you get the 875 chipset instead of the 865 i'm using.

 

With the 865, we had problems on multiple platforms and with multiple hardware combinations with graphic distortion when overclocked using ATI graphics cards. We didn't have any Nvidia to test with that week. /shrug

 

It still seems like a cheap a64 would be better, but the 2.4 setup I have is great for what it is.

[airman]

thanks for the help airman, but since one game server only runs on one thread...would i actually get noticeably better performance if i ran a dual cpu setup?

well yeah, good observation. Hyperthreading and Dual CPU is different. Ofcourse you know that Hyperthreading is like having 2 cpus, but virtually. but any software (i believe) takes advantage of 2 actual CPUs.

[Paranoid]

An Opteron 146 or 148 with a Tyan board would be my choice for a game server.

 

I'm currently running a pair of 242's with a Tyan Thunder K8W and 2 GB of Registered ECC Corsair PC3200.

 

Edit: don't bother overclocking a server

 

Edit #2: This would be a great board for a 1-way Opteon server.

Edited December 6, 2004 by Paranoid

[phatazzmoose]

so on the server if i have two physical cpu's...it woudl run better? maybe then i could use the server AND play the game on the same comp and not have any hickups?

 

why not overclock the server? if you can why not do it??

 

regestered..does opteron HAVE to have regestered?

[Paranoid]

so on the server if i have two physical cpu's...it woudl run better? maybe then i could use the server AND play the game on the same comp and not have any hickups?

 

why not overclock the server? if you can why not do it??

 

regestered..does opteron HAVE to have regestered?

Yes it needs Registered memory, no way around that.

 

Most server boards do not have overclocking options anyway. A 2-way setup will cost a lot of money once you factor in the PSU, 4 Registered DIMM's (2 per CPU), the board and the CPU's.