A home server with a little more horsepower

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ibshortkid94

ibshortkid94

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I'm beginning the research process for a home server. Along with the typical uses for a home server, I also want to build it to run a Minecraft server (if possible). If anyone has any ideas for a build that would be very helpful. Also, if it is not possible to run the minecraft server on it for whatever reason let me know. Sorry if any of this includes "noob" questions. Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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ddpruitt

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There is no such thing as a "typical" server. To give you decent information we would need to know the number of clients and what it's serving. Are you planning on streaming movies, music, storing documents? Running a game server (other than minecraft)? Are there any unusual requirements (will be stored in an area with no airflow,)?
 
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ibshortkid94

ibshortkid94

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Currently, there are 3 computers im my house, 2 of which are used regularly. The server would likely be used to store word documents, pictures, and some video. Other than minecraft it may potentially be used for a gmod server (unlikely) or a ventrillo/teamspeak server (also unlikely). I do have friends over at my house regularly so that will add a few more pcs to the mix (albiet for a short time). As far as air circulation, I can put it in either an open area or in an area with less air flow (possibly a closet?). However I would like it to work either way without too much of an issue.

Edit: I have done some searching on Google but I have seen so many different builds that it's a bit overwhelming, especially for someone who has no experience with servers. Although I do have experience with building computers.
 
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kyzarvs

kyzarvs

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I run:

TF2 server with 23 bots or CS:S with 23 bots or GS:GO with 23 bots depending on what I feel like shooting ;)

+ PS3 media server (1080p media transcoding on the fly)
+ Mediatomb (for MP3 and image serving to PS3)
+ 2 XP virtual machines
+ 1 Debian virtual machine
+ LAMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) development
+ Samba shares
+ On the fly encoding / decoding of my work-sensitive data
+ Rsync based backups to one of my other servers in another location
+ Any number of other odd-jobs I think of

All on an ancient Phenom 9650 quad core with 8GB RAM (recent upgrade from 4) and ~ 4TB of storage, ancient Asus mobo, Antec Neopower PSU and an Intel Prio1000gt nic. O/S is Debian. During the day I will have up to 6 local + 3 remote desktop users on it, in the evening it depends what I'm doing - the TF2 server gets fairly busy, but it's bots that kill that, not concurrent real people :)

GMod is hard as people sometimes push the Source engine way beyond what it is efficient on - depends on your map.

Ventrillo / teamspeak use almost zero CPU until you get to silly numbers - usually you are more limited by upload speed on a home internet connection.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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I just use a spare PC with Windows 7. Any standard PC will work in a small home environment. Up until recently, I was using a $50 garage sale PC for the HTPC and 'server' function. Since replaced with a $350 homebuilt.

Basically, you're just looking for a shared resource. Share out a couple of folders, map a drive letter to them on your regular devices...done.
 
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ibshortkid94

ibshortkid94

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I have a spare pc with an AMD athlon 64 processor and 2GB of ram, the windows got corrupted and I recently got it to boot with Ubuntu. Would that be sufficient?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Up until very recently, I was using something quite similar for a server/shared file location/HTPC. It will work. Not being a Minecraft player, I have no idea about that part of it. But as a server, no prob.

For just a few people and not a lot of strain on it, a regular PC will serve just fine as a 'server' for the house.
What you also want is redundancy in the data. Get an external drive, and maybe once a week back up all your critical info. Store it at work, maybe.

Critical info = data, not applications. Applications can be reinstalled. Data, with a single copy...once it's gone, it's gone.
 
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