Is this setup good for a CraftBukkit server?

Hi guys!

I want to home-host a Minecraft Server. Let me know if this setup will be enough for a 1-100 Players server. Note that I have a more than decent Internet Connection. Thanks a lot!!

 

I'd swap the i5 for an i7 for sure. Bump the ram up to 16GBs. Maybe get a better known PSU too, like Corsair or Antec.

 

I don't think you need that much RAM for 100 players?

 

i5 + 8Gb = 70-80 players depending of your connection
i7 + 8Gb = 120-130 players depending of your connection
i5 + 16Gb = 70-80 players depending of your connection
i7 + 16Gb = 150 players depending of your connection

 

If you are going to se this just for your server then try switching the xpu with an e3?

 

That will get you there fine, can probably get 150 of you optimize well. Run a Linux distro ofc.

 

If you're only going to be using it as a server, why not buy a server CPU ? Something along the lines of Intel E3-1245 v3 or 4.
Also you can never have to much ram, and it's pretty cheap these days, so why not get 16 GB ?

 

If he is going to run any RAM intensive plugins such as Dynmap for his users to make use of, then the extra RAM will be nice.

 

Use Haswell. 4xxx

Almost the same price for a newer CPU.

 

Wrong. Very wrong. Processors can only support so much RAM overall, though most motherboards don't even have enough slots/capability of that capacity per slot to get that high.

 

negatory on the i7 being inherently better, the different between 4 core and 4 core + HT is very minimal for a minecraft server, the i5 is a better value for this has a good fast IPC/core for the minecraft server and plenty of compute power for background threads (including dynmap)

The amount of memory will be very dependent on map size (as there could be more potential chunks loaded), number of players, and plugins.

 

I think it will work just fine for what you want it to do. My setup is as follows...

CPU = Xeon X3210 (2.13 GHz quad, HT is off (why cut it in half just to double it?!))
RAM = 8GB DDR2
MOBO = Intel, older
HDD = OCZ Vector 4 128GB (very high random write IOPS)
PSU = Something I had laying around.

Right now I host 5 servers, 4 aren't very active (maybe 5 people on each one) with max players at 10 - 20. All have large maps and tons of farms and stuff in 'em, but the 5th server has a 60 connection limit, and has a large map as well. The only time there is any lag is when Overviewer is running, so I schedule that to run at 3 AM (nightly), which is the lowest activity time. I have yet to see my CPU/RAM spike over 60%. I'm aslo running Windows 2012 and IIS, with users regularly checking the map renders. Stats are loaded to a MySQL server running on my web hosting server (separate server).

I think the biggest thing to look at is your HDD, it seems MC really hammers your drive, so find an SSD with high IOPS, the OCZ Vector (NOT THE VORTEX!!) has twice the IOPS on random writes than the Samsung drive. If I changed anything, that would be it.

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the tips. Much appreciated!

I edited the config. It's a little more expensive, but I think it worths.

Again, thanks a lot!
Antoine

 

I suggest this instead of the refurbished OCZ: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226237

 

The 840 EVO from Samsung has better ratings, specs, and slightly more space for only $15 more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147248

"...As we progressed through our test suite, the Evo laid waste to all the previous drives and became the fastest SSD we have ever tested by a sizable margin, even beating out its big brother, the more expensive 840 Pro. We also tested the drive with Rapid Mode disabled, and it was still extremely fast, making it a supremely competitive SSD that seems to have no weaknesses other than its short three-year warranty..."

http://www.maximumpc.com/samsung_840_evo_1tb_benchmarks

 

antoine_gali The i7 won't really be any better than the i5 unless you are running 3+ servers on the same box, I would also change the ram from 4x4GB to 2x8GB as that will leave room to add more if/when needed and puts less strain on the cpu's memory controller (in case you overclock the cpu)

moldyspore I would still go for the 840 Pro simply for the warranty difference (5 year v 3 year), realistically he won't see much of a difference between either of the drives in terms of performance for the server (especially for 256GB+ drives)

 

Welcome to 2013 you do know you can get 8 GB blocks right ? Maybe 5 years ago motherboards didn't support at least 16 GB ram, but again this is 2013, we have modern hardware

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/52274/

Sooo.... yes, you can have too much.

 

I'm talking from experience, not just a review site. We've been running Mushkin's in production for a couple of years now without a single failure. Also the review compares the 1TB model which is not fair at all and does not include a single Mushkin product. I can also get 550 sequential read/write on the mushkin drive which is only slighter slower than the evo 1TB which has the advantage of being much, much more expensive.

 

As was my recommendation. I only included the review to backup my suggestion.

I run the 128 and 256GB version of that Evo in my personal machines, and have used Samsung SSD's in almost all my the builds for my customers. I've never had a DOA Samsung and have not had to return a dead one yet. I've had bad experiences with Mushkin products, myself. More than a few DOA items from them, enough to make me stop using them a while ago.

Regardless, my experience with the Evo's shows comparable benchmarks to the 1TB. Really any modern SSD is a viable option. Heck, A-Data SSD's get near 500 and they are even cheaper. Personally I just prefer Samsung since their benchmarks are usually a little faster, and I have yet to have any issues with their products. I bought their HD103SJ and UJ mechanical drives for years before it got bought out, least amount of failures than any other mechanical drive I used. That quality seems to have carried over into their SSD line.

 

I guess we've both had bad luck from the differing brands. We'll call it a tie and let the OP decide for himself.

 

It doesn't matter how powerful your computer is if you don't have the bandwidth to support your player base. For 100 players you will need a 25 to 30 Mbit/s uplink to the internet. This will crush nearly every home internet connection. Also, most home internet connections are asymmetric - they have a faster download than upload. You need a fast upload to run a server. Consider physically hosting your server in a colocation facility.