Dedicated Server hosting questions

[Uriel74]

Sorry for the repost, I put this in the server hosting section but wasn't sure if that was for questions or for advertising servers only so I thought I might repost it here as well.

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and appreciate any help you can give me in reguard to them. I am wanting to build a rig to make my own dedicated server for myself and a small group of friends to play ARK and possibly a few other games like Savage Lands in the future.

1. Does a dedicated server require a video card and if so would it benefit from SLI. I wasn't sure about the video card since the server would not be outputing any graphics to a monitor other than when I log in to make adjustments but a standard boards graphics would be enough for that I would assume.

2. If the server needs a video card would it be better to run a GTX 980 Titan X, or 2 GTX 980's in SLI. I have a GTX 980 in my current gaming rig. My confusion is if it would be better to put 1 GTX Titan X into my gaming rig and run the GTX 980 in my server or if the server would benefit more with 2x GTX 980's in SLI. (please only reply to this question if you are absolutely certain as this will be a $1,000-$1,500 investment alone and I do not want to spend that kind of money unless absolutely nessesary)

3. Would 16GB RAM be enough for the server, that is what I have in my gaming rig atm or should I go with 32GB RAM. If I don't need a video card then I would have a lot more money for extra RAM or other higher end hardware.

4. Would the server benefit from using SSD or should I just use 2TB or higher 7500 RPM standard drive, or would a hybrid drive be beneficial in anyway? Also, would it be better for the server to possibly have an SSD just for the OS, and the larger 7500 RPM drives to run the gaming software. Any advice on drive configuration would be awesome!

5. Would Windows 10 be the best OS to use. I am not familiar with Linux or any OS other than Windows.

6. Should the server have software antivirus/firewall or is the windows firewall + routers hardware firewall sufficient.

7. I do not plan to have more than 2-5 people using my ARK server. I am mostly wanting it for just one specific friend and I for the most part and possibly a few new friends I may make in the future. I don't want to have to deal with the tethering issue on the non dedicated server option and also so my friend/'s can log in when I am not online and work on our world.

8. I have built quite a few gaming rigs for myself and for friends but I have never built a rig speficially for the purpose of being a dedicated gaming server. If there is anything I may need that a standard gaming rig uses that a server needs or doesn't need that I may overlook could you please advise me in this reguard.

Thank you in advance to anyone who took the time to read my post and to anyone who takes the time to give me any advice. It is greatly appreciated!

[LastChime]

1. Probably not, only if you wanted to launch the game with a client, the server console is just command prompt window

2. Way overkill probably

3. Likely

4. Yup SSD never hurts a server

5. Whatever your familiar with, Gentoo Linux would probably be best but you need to have Asperger's to run it.

6. Good router is probably lots.

7. Maybe try running the server on your local machine first and save some cashbux, it's really not that intensive just might have to turn graphics down a smidge

8. In my experience last gens junk is best for building a server, they're just dedicated to one thing so no point overkilling unless you're trying to host like 120 ppl

[darkclyde456]

If it helps I have amd 8 core with 16 gigs of ram and r9 280 video card I run server with up to 5 people no lag

[Uriel74]

Originally posted by -=ESW=-darkclyde456:

If it helps I have amd 8 core with 16 gigs of ram and r9 280 video card I run server with up to 5 people no lag

O.K. Sweet, thank you very much for the replies!!

[Esméa Tuek]

My hosting rig is primitive compared to setups that many people overkill it with... I have yet to see any issues.
I've been able to have it host multiple servers at the same time with no problems. On top of that, it's basically just my HTPC - the server runs on a separate account that I admin over windows remote connection. Other people have used it for media playback while I was running servers and I saw no dip in server performance.

It uses an AMD APU A10-6800k clocked to 5GHz, 16GB of RAM at 1800MHz, boots Win10 off a small/older SSD.

People focus to heavily on outpricing their hardware - often with intent of boasting about it. Seriously, if you want to pay too much for something so you can brag about it, just buy Apple products. Rental servers have impressive specs because most of them are divvied into multiple virtual machines; you only need a fraction of that compute power.

If you really want to impress with server specs, grind out a large asteroid in Space Engineers using a 100+ drill large ship using pistons and rotors... if your simulation speed doesn't drop, you have my earned respect.

[geert19]

you are going way overkill on this server, i use a 1U server quad core cpu and 8GB ram, i might have gone for bit more ram. i run this server fine with 4-5 people and don't have a graphic card at all as its not needed, my first infesment in the server would be an ssd as the current 10k rpm drives are keeping up but ssd is always good to have (specially for starting the server) i use server 2012 to run my systemand its great for what it needs to do, but as its expensife win 7/8.1/10 would do as well

[Nightscale]

i bought an old power edge 2850 with dual 3GHz Zeon cpu's16GB ram 6 x 145GB scsi drives running server 2008 r2 and it runs ark very well. cant complain for 50 bucks

[</life>]

1. no
2. see 1.
3. for your purpose, absolutely. 8 GB would be enough for few players.
4. SSD never hurts. I recommend SSD on any kind of server (huge except data storage)
5. Windows should be OK, but better use Server version. If you have desktop version, then I recommend to invest some time to learn about linux. I am running CentOS 7 and it have few advantages, like less overhead (stripped linux with only necessary applications don't require much resources, so there is more RAM and CPU left for game. For example GUI, AV, updates and many other system services are unnecessary)
6. I recommend allow incoming communication only on necessary ports and block everything else. Any firewall can do this and can be sufficient, if it is configured correctly.
7. You need public IP address with important ports routed directly to your server machine. This can be achieved by configuring your router.
8. there is no general recommendation for optimal server machine. It always depends on how it is used, but good server is not build with same components as desktop machine. If you don't want spend a lot of money on this, you can rent self managed VPS. I have 8GB RAM, Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630 4x2400MHz, 320 GB disk capacity for as much as 20€ monthly VAC included.

[Uriel74]

Originally posted by Esmea Tuek:

My hosting rig is primitive compared to setups that many people overkill it with... I have yet to see any issues.
I've been able to have it host multiple servers at the same time with no problems. On top of that, it's basically just my HTPC - the server runs on a separate account that I admin over windows remote connection. Other people have used it for media playback while I was running servers and I saw no dip in server performance.

It uses an AMD APU A10-6800k clocked to 5GHz, 16GB of RAM at 1800MHz, boots Win10 off a small/older SSD.

People focus to heavily on outpricing their hardware - often with intent of boasting about it. Seriously, if you want to pay too much for something so you can brag about it, just buy Apple products. Rental servers have impressive specs because most of them are divvied into multiple virtual machines; you only need a fraction of that compute power.

If you really want to impress with server specs, grind out a large asteroid in Space Engineers using a 100+ drill large ship using pistons and rotors... if your simulation speed doesn't drop, you have my earned respect.

Thanks for the info! I have no intentions of bragging about anything, I just am the type of person if I am going to spend money on something I want it to do what I want it to do and I don't want to build something and then wish I had spent that few extra bucks because it's not performing the way I hoped it would. Since I have no experience with servers I felt it best to ask others who have that experience. Anyway thanks for the info!!

[</life>]

Originally posted by Uriel74:

if I am going to spend money on something I want it to do what I want it to do and I don't want to build something and then wish I had spent that few extra bucks because it's not performing the way I hoped it would.

for server:
- no need for GPU. you can sen money to me if you feel you need to spend more, dedicated server really doesn't need GPU.
- decent RAM, 8 GB should be enough, but it's cheap so go for 16 or more.
- SSD over HDD is always good on any server, but if you need RAID, it can be costly and HDD perform slower with ARK only on server starting (there should be no problem while server is running)
- decent CPU
If you found you have more CPU and RAM than server needs, you can always use rest for something else. Teamspeak, webserver, another game server, etc. whatever you need.

[sriggle]

If you're willing to put that kind of money into something that's only going to act as a dedicated server then you should just put that money into your pc. You don't need anything high end to run a 5 person server.