I’m building a home server and I could use some advice on hardware, or anything you feel is helpful. Bear with the length of this please. I am new to this and I just don’t want to spend a lot of money and get it wrong again, like my first attempt with a Supermicro board.
I have never successfully built a server from scratch, I have only repurposed old comps. If my thinking and approach to this project is myopic, please share your thoughts on how I should change my approach. Thanks!
Two main purposes of this server:
What kind of hardware do I need to run a Minecraft server with a view distance of 30 for five people at a time without my tick rate lagging, and a few small databases for occasional weekly access? Is the slower tick rate that reliant on hardware anyway, or is it more of a bottleneck due to the games programming? My understanding is that Minecraft is not an efficiently programmed game, so maybe all the RAM in the word won’t let me run large view distances at a normal tick rate.
Budget and current assets:
I would like to keep costs to around $700 on this, but I might spend more if I need to.
Right now I have a case I was thinking about using SilverStone Mini-ITX Case (SST-SG13B-Q-USA) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNBWRJT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Here is what I am thinking:
Mobo: I would like it to be a mini-ITX, but maybe that restricts my mobo options too much? At first, I was looking at using a SoC mobo (like a Supermicro maybe), fanless for both decreased noise and power consumption, but now I am thinking that is a bad idea. I think I need a discrete CPU and a CPU fan for heat dissipation or I will kill the machine eventually. Am I wrong? I have come to think that lack of a fan in a comp is either an overheating failure waiting to happen, and/or an underpowered machine, but maybe I am too biased. Thoughts? On board graphics is fine I assume. Does it matter much if the integrated graphics are CPU dependent?
CPU: Not sure on this one. Was thinking maybe something like the Xenon E-2236, not sure it's worth getting server grade CPU or not. How many cores do I need? Will Minecraft run better with more cores? At most, there might be two Minecraft servers running on this machine at a time, but 80% of the time it will just be one. I don’t know how much the CPU speed really matters either. I know my older supermicro SoC board was slow to do anything and it was a 4 core 2.4 MHz CPU, I don’t want to do that again. Thoughts?
RAM: 32 or 64 I would think, but maybe that is a waste? Or, does throwing 64GB RAM in there probably solve all my issues? ECC RAM, or is that really unnecessary for my purposes too?
Server grade CPU/Motherboard: I see lots of mobos and CPUs listed as “server” grade. Does this matter at all for my purposes? Can I just get a regular mini-ITX mobo and matching CPU? Or, do these server grade boards matter for durability/longevity?
Case Cooling: Any thoughts on cooling an ITX machine. No gaming on this rig, just the Minecraft server and home sever lab. Is a single CPU fan enough? Do I need a case fan at the back too? The case I currently have should accommodate both I think.
Security: This will host a few websites, but nothing sensitive, and no e-commerce. However, I do not want to expose anything else on my network. Any security considerations I should have for hardware?
It will be in my office, so I don’t want a rack system or really loud fans.
Any advice is appreciated, thank you for reading all of this.
I have never successfully built a server from scratch, I have only repurposed old comps. If my thinking and approach to this project is myopic, please share your thoughts on how I should change my approach. Thanks!
Two main purposes of this server:
- Family Minecraft server. I want the server to allow for a view distance of 32 for up to 5 people at a time, with a decent amount of Minecraft redstone machines and active NPCs. It will be a Forge server with 5-6 mods. Everything I have read says you don’t need a lot for a Minecraft server, but I have repurposed some pretty decent comps and the Minecraft server didn’t run that well because I want to run a Minecraft server with pretty high demands. Right now my server is a Win10 comp running only Minecraft, i5-7500 3.4 GHz CPU, dedicating 12Gb RAM, and it is struggling to keep normal tick rates with a view distance of 32 with 2 people on it at a time.
- Home server lab for learning server skills and tinkering. My high school aged son is getting into IT right now and he thinks he would like to pursue this career path. My wife and I would also like to start on some database projects that could use a server. I thought it would be fun project as a family. I don’t think the hardware really matters much for this purpose. We will not be accessing the databases constantly, just here and there during the week. I don’t need constant uptime, and I don’t need any RAID array stuff. A simple back up is fine. I just need to host some small databases and a website or two, but I want to build it and run it, not rent space elsewhere. My son wants to learn to manage it, as do I.
What kind of hardware do I need to run a Minecraft server with a view distance of 30 for five people at a time without my tick rate lagging, and a few small databases for occasional weekly access? Is the slower tick rate that reliant on hardware anyway, or is it more of a bottleneck due to the games programming? My understanding is that Minecraft is not an efficiently programmed game, so maybe all the RAM in the word won’t let me run large view distances at a normal tick rate.
Budget and current assets:
I would like to keep costs to around $700 on this, but I might spend more if I need to.
Right now I have a case I was thinking about using SilverStone Mini-ITX Case (SST-SG13B-Q-USA) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNBWRJT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
Here is what I am thinking:
Mobo: I would like it to be a mini-ITX, but maybe that restricts my mobo options too much? At first, I was looking at using a SoC mobo (like a Supermicro maybe), fanless for both decreased noise and power consumption, but now I am thinking that is a bad idea. I think I need a discrete CPU and a CPU fan for heat dissipation or I will kill the machine eventually. Am I wrong? I have come to think that lack of a fan in a comp is either an overheating failure waiting to happen, and/or an underpowered machine, but maybe I am too biased. Thoughts? On board graphics is fine I assume. Does it matter much if the integrated graphics are CPU dependent?
CPU: Not sure on this one. Was thinking maybe something like the Xenon E-2236, not sure it's worth getting server grade CPU or not. How many cores do I need? Will Minecraft run better with more cores? At most, there might be two Minecraft servers running on this machine at a time, but 80% of the time it will just be one. I don’t know how much the CPU speed really matters either. I know my older supermicro SoC board was slow to do anything and it was a 4 core 2.4 MHz CPU, I don’t want to do that again. Thoughts?
RAM: 32 or 64 I would think, but maybe that is a waste? Or, does throwing 64GB RAM in there probably solve all my issues? ECC RAM, or is that really unnecessary for my purposes too?
Server grade CPU/Motherboard: I see lots of mobos and CPUs listed as “server” grade. Does this matter at all for my purposes? Can I just get a regular mini-ITX mobo and matching CPU? Or, do these server grade boards matter for durability/longevity?
Case Cooling: Any thoughts on cooling an ITX machine. No gaming on this rig, just the Minecraft server and home sever lab. Is a single CPU fan enough? Do I need a case fan at the back too? The case I currently have should accommodate both I think.
Security: This will host a few websites, but nothing sensitive, and no e-commerce. However, I do not want to expose anything else on my network. Any security considerations I should have for hardware?
It will be in my office, so I don’t want a rack system or really loud fans.
Any advice is appreciated, thank you for reading all of this.
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