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Rex Ursus

What a custum built server should require

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I am now at the research stage of building a server dedicated to multi-player Arma2 and OA.

I need people's input as to what would be best in terms of processer speed, RAM, and the like.

I have noticed that the servers that are dedicated to BE Warfare tend to lag at even low settings and would like know if this is due to processor speed, or RAM or even internet connection. That way I can begin to work around that and begin to approach the full potential of this multi-player aspect.

I suspect that the 'rent on line' approach is entirely lacking in this regard for the money one would pay for such a service and have decided, therefore, to build my own.

Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

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HOLY REX URSUS!

Where'd you go buddy? You used to game with me over at AWP about a half a year ago or more.

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I dont think you can get a server that dont lag with many players as in warfare. I just upgraded my server from a Q9550 clocked at 3800MHz to a Core i7 875k clocked at 4000MHz all on a 100/100Mbit conex still gets lags from time to time. The dediserver as i see it is not nearly as good as the client to spread load over cores. On my server playing doomi 32players 1core are used 100% while 3others (HT off) are only used 5-10%.

I would recommend more MHz is better than more cores, so get an easy overclocker (like the i7 875k) and lets pray BIS will be able to get the load more evenly spread over more cores in the future.

Edited by [HUD]Dorph

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To give better advice, I would need some more info.

  • Available funds
  • How many virtual game servers you intend to run
  • What other applications you will be running
  • Where it will be located, eg colo or run from a home connection
  • How many players will it cater for
  • Will the website be on a different machine
  • What redundancy and support features will you require, eg raid, onsite warranty etc
    • How accesible will the server be for repairs /upgrades etc

    [*] What monthly running costs can you afford

To give you an idea

The Zeus server was custom built using

  • Barebones Tyan 1u rack
  • Motherboard dual processor capable Tyan
  • Hard drives ( x 4) 500GB WD 16MB RE3
  • Processor (x 1) Xeon X5570 (Quad core 2.93ghz)
  • Ram (6Gb)
  • Raid Card

It was built approximately 8-12 months ago (cant remember exactly when) and cost just over £2000, half of that was just fro the processor

It is colocated at a top end data centre and the server itself cost us in the region of £60/month to run with a decent bandwidth package and 1gb line connection

It allows us to run 3 parallel coop game servers, teamspeak 3, and lots of apps and has never been pushed to its limit.

I would suspect that your requirements are a lot less, the one thing I would advice when doing your costings is buy the fastest processor you can afford and if it's going into a colo, then dont go bigger than a 1u rack server

Colo's now tend to charge on power consumption as well as space, so be wary of this when spec'ing the server and read the small print for the colo contract and use one that has an easy in easy out agreement, you do not want to be caught up in annual contracts wherever possible

Bare minimum hardware specs:

  • Motherboard with basic gpu onboard (& a bmc (baseboard management controller if at a colo))
  • 6gb ram
  • quad core processor
  • 1 * 500 gb hardrive

Preferred specs

  • High end quad core cpu
  • Raid 1+ array setup

If you have "unlimited funds" then buy a pre built tank like an IBM or other named brand. This however is likely to cost approximately 50% more than a custom built rig

Anything else is down to your available funds.


Look at barebone starter kits for Tyan or Sunmicro

Edited by Terox

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For your info: Kellys Heroes Server Specs. Custom built and co-located in the UK.

As said above, you will find that Warfare will lag at times regardless of how much hardware you throw at it. Get yourself a robust, expandable system in the good co-loc company and you'll not go wrong.

Edited by [KH]Jman

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