vohk 10 Posted February 25, 2014 I would love to get some input from all of you wonderful folks on what sort of server hardware you're running (dedicated or virtual, cores/clock/RAM, etc) and how it's working out for you now that the game has been out for a few months (performance/typical player count, style of missions/mods, other software or servers running off the same box, anything like that). I've been looking into setting up an A3 server for a while and I'm trying to get a more complete picture of what sort of specifications are needed to provide a satisfactory experience before taking the plunge. I've been digging around for a few days but most of the information I've found around these and other forums has been somewhat incomplete and often a little outdated. I'd really love to hear from those running smaller servers (10-20ish slots) but also those who have managed to get large packed ones running smoothly. Really, any experience in that department is appreciated. As a followup, I'd be grateful for any recommendations for good hosts in western NA (particularly in the ballpark of Seattle or Vancouver, Canada). I find the idea of a DS or VDS more appealing than a managed game server but that does seem to drive the cost up in a hurry, especially for a smaller server. Right now a VDS from NFOservers.com is looking pretty appealing although I'm concerned the performance might be a little borderline. For what it's worth, I'm looking to operate a fairly small server (~10-20 slots) and aiming to run primarily objective oriented (for lack of a better description) co-op missions and Zeus-enabled DMing for group sessions a few times a week, rather than always on Wasteland or Insurgency type sandbox missions. Being able to squeeze in a Mumble or TS server would be nice but that's secondary. Any input you have would be much appreciated! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
terox 316 Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) Primary hardware spec needs to be the CPU especially for coop Get the fastest intel based quad core you can afford even if you intend just running 1 Arma3 server. This also then gives you the advantage of being able to run a headless client which if you intend running large numbers of AI is very useful. You don't need fancy ssd's, the only improvement they will give you on a dedi is boot up time. You will need to spec up for additional HD storage space for large mods that will come eventually 8gb ram will be more than ample for the server, HC, o/s and also additional 3rd party apps such as teamspeak etc GPU not used on a dedi. It has been said that the most optimised setup is a basic o/s, eg not virtual ware and for best bandwidth performance, you will need it to be set up at a datacentre. typically this is a minimum of 100Mb line more often than not these days 1Gb Our server Twin xeon x5570's Enterprise HD's 16Gb ram that easily accomodates up to 3 production servers and 1 test server and the cpu is now fairly old by todays standards Edited February 25, 2014 by Terox Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SavageCDN 231 Posted February 25, 2014 (edited) I'm in Canada as well (Ontario) but I found that getting something I wanted in NA was far more expensive than an EU provider like Hetzner. Perhaps virtual/slot servers are cheap enough but I wanted a dedicated box with full access for things like mySQL, setting up our own repo, etc. With a dedicated box you can also run multiple servers, teamspeak, etc. which is handy. CPU clock speed is the single most important feature.. so spend your $$$ there. Don't worry about SSD it doesn't do much for a server running Arma. Minimum 2GB of RAM for each game instance plus overhead. 100mbit line minimum. Our server: i7 2600 32GB RAM 2 x 3TB SATA6 drives Edited February 25, 2014 by SavageCDN Terox Ninja Move Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vohk 10 Posted February 25, 2014 Thanks for the input! I'm in Canada as well (Ontario) but I found that getting something I wanted in NA was far more expensive than an EU provider like Hetzner. Sadly, I'm out near Vancouver so eastern Canadian pings are somewhat borderline, let alone European. A quick ping of your TS server averages 180ms for me. Shame really, they have some very compelling prices, especially under the auction section. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SavageCDN 231 Posted February 25, 2014 hmmm...yeah I get about 90-110ms depending on how much Rogers is over-saturating their network that day. If your group does primarily COOP gameplay ping doesn't matter that much IMO... but I could see how you'd want to avoid that.. good luck and Leafs Suck :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vohk 10 Posted February 25, 2014 I don't suppose anyone has used SoYouStart or Kimsufi (both part of OVH)? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SavageCDN 231 Posted February 28, 2014 Anything I've read about OVH has mentioned cheap prices and crappy service.. but I have no personal experience with either. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
J0K3R 5 93 Posted February 28, 2014 Ive just bought a 2nd hand, Dell Poweredge 2950 DUAL QUAD CORE 3.16GHz, 8GB Ram, 2x 73GB 7.5k SAS Im just hoping it will cope with running as an arma 3 server. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
