Can anyone suggest a recommended Server for my Purpose?

Fedora Sheep

There are refinements to consider in such a server, but the main idea is that unless you have a place to isolate it, the host might be more conveniently done as a used dual Xeon workstation, mainly because of the noise potential. The reliability, memory bandwidth and disk performance potential is about the same, while a 2U or 4U server may well have a more enthusiastic network and of course larger and hot swap disk array .

The suggestion for this are the Lenovo D30, HP z820, and Dell Precision T7600 as these have good cooling designs and a good number of drive bays. These variously have advantages and disadvantages, but I'd say the Lenono D30 is a good one as it mounts both CPU's on the main board- rather than a riser- and has 5-drive bays. The prices are reasonable. Buy a D30 or other with a moderate specification for $600 or so and change the CPU's to a pair of Xeon E5-2670's which are 8 core @ 2.5 / 3.2GHz selling now for as little as $70 each and have 64GB of RAM- ECC registered for the highest reliability.

Run that off a good size M.2 like a Samsung SM951 512GB AHCI (these systems can not read NVMe) that contains the OS and games and if there are subsidiary libraries or games are recorded, run those off an LSI 9260 or 9361 controller in RAID 5 using a reasonable performance 1TB SSD. However, I don't know the files sized involved however, and this may need several times the storage on mech'l drives.

Just a thought to start the conversation. Can you tell me more about the threading capability of Ubuntu, connection type, and the file size, and transfer rates needed?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 2) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 40GB DDR3-1600 ECC) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) / 800W > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5322 / CPU= 19777 / 2D= 741 / 3D = 3887/ Mem =2290 / Disk = 13426 ] 9.2.16

Fedora Sheep,

I first have to mention that I'm not by any means an expert on gaming servers- in fact, I've never seen the games mentioned game played. However, this how-to article explains quite a bit,:

http://www.pcgamer.com/dedicated-gaming-server/

> and it seems reasonable to apply the common elements of server performance.

Purchasing a Dell R700 series 1U server is certainly possible for the £400 and as it happens, the LGA1366 Xeons are excellent. My suggestion for servers and workstations alike is not to use an earlier series than LGA1366.

From the above article though - and a couple of others I read-, the combination of games mentioned requires all the components and subsystems to to be quite good.

Minecraft in particular is mentioned as needing a high single-threaded performance. That is, the performance is dependent on the calculation speed of the first core, not the cumulative computation power of all the cores. That's a function of the clock speed which naturally diminishes with the number of cores. For example in a Dell PowerEdge using LGA1366, the fastest is the Xeon X5687: 4-core @ 3.6 / 3.86 GHz- quite modern speeds. The Passmark single thread rating is 1577 - not too bad really, but it can be improved substantially and also include more modern RAM and disk subsystem.

It's possible with patience to find a Xeon E3 server with a much higher single-thread rating. For example:

Dell PowerEdge R210 II Intel Xeon E3-1240 v2 Quad Core 16GB 500GB DRAC Rail Kit > Buy It Now £268.77

That example is in the US, so it's needs to be evaluated for shipping and import costs. A quick look look through Ebay UK completed listings shows a number of good specification Dell, IBM and HP Xeon E3 servers sold in the £200-300 range from within the EU.

That server has 2x Intel Xeon E3-1240 V2 Quad Core 3.4GHz which have a single-thread rating of 2038 and supports DDR3.

The RAM is important because of the number of users nad on that system, the RAM might be doubled to 32GB.

The choice of drive is a matter of budget. Intel and Samsung SSD's have good performance and reliability, and consider:

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5" SATA SSD/Solid State Drive > £145.99

The Graphics card is not important in this use, but you'll need something to use for setup and maintenance. A number of Xeon E3's have integrated graphics which is better than one expects but if the processor chosen doesn't, about any card is fine or look for a Quadro FX 1800 or FX 3800- very good 2D and reliable. Firepro V4900 too.

You are apparently aware of the tremendous noise of these servers due to the air volume required, and I would make one final mention to consider a workstation- an Dell T1600 for example:

Dell Precision T1600 Intel Xeon E3 1270 3.40GHz 16GB RAM 2x500GB HDD Windows 7 sold for £195.00

Single-thread rating for E3-1270 is 1931. The v2 and v3 have quite a bit better rating. A server will have a better native disk subsystem, but a workstation in my experience seems much easier to live with.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Why are you recommending using a 6 year old socket and 6 year old tech, based on old numbers, when you could recommend C236 / X150 and get DDR4 and M2 SSD support? That would be infinitely faster than what you are suggesting.

It's not so much speed as it is that you're paying good money for six year old tech and workstations of questionable quality. The thing is whether you're building a new general use system, workstation or server, buying the latest will ensure that you get the longest lifespan possible out of your new components. Buying something that's six years old and of questionable quality means that you'll be replacing it in six months. Build new with new components and you won't have to worry about it for years.

Well, my two cents. Better to rent a server, from AWS or some other outlet. It's going to be much cheaper in the end, if you consider total cost (w/ electricity, etc.)