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Looking for a laptop capable of running a full server

ashangel1982's Avatar ashangel19821/29/15 6:44 pm
1 emeralds 1.2k 25
2/6/2015 11:07 am
ashangel1982's Avatar ashangel1982
Hi there, all.

(My apologies if this is in the wrong section)

I've recently been bitten by the Minecraft bug and have been playing pocket edition learning the ropes, but i want to get a new laptop and was wondering what the maximum running specs would be to have server software running. Probbably with lots of mods and high res texture packs and everything maxed out.

Also I will probbably be wanting to be recording and gaming at the same time.

I have been searching but I have yet to get any kind of definitive answer

I have at present about £600 to spend but would probbably go as high as 800 (if i went any higher my missus would probbably hang, draw and quarter me. Lol)

Hope you guys can help and that such performance isn't way out of my price range . Or at least point me in the right direction.

Ash.
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ashangel1982
Level 1 : New Crafter
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02/06/2015 11:07 am
Level 1 : New Crafter
ashangel1982
ashangel1982's Avatar
Well I've looked around a bit and for the money I'm looking to spend on a laptop this looks like my best bet. What do people think? I will probably upgrade the ram some more though.

Again lifespan isn't really an issue as with how hardware reqs are jumping up these days I will be looking to replace it within 12-18 months anyway also I have fibre optic internet so no bottle-necking there

Based upon specs alone is it capable of what i will be asking of it?


HP AMD A10 Quad Core 3.5ghz, CrossFireX, 15.6" HD LED Laptop 12GB 1600Mhz RAM - 1TB SSHD - AMD Radeon HD 8750 + HD 8650 Graphics
1
01/30/2015 2:38 pm
Level 30 : Artisan Geek
Z645
Z645's Avatar
mrelectroman3

If you're serious about this server, you should be worrying about hardware reliability.
Laptops are not meant to be on 24/7, that will degrade their lifetime significantly. If you're going to be running a minecraft server on a laptop that will be on 24/7, be prepared for that laptop to completely die within a year. (source: personal experience)

I disagree. Hosted servers for 3 years all on a laptop. (until I quit minecraft)
1
01/30/2015 2:36 pm
Level 30 : Artisan Geek
Z645
Z645's Avatar
I've always host all my servers on my hp laptop. So everyone saying don't do it, i'd go against and say do it if you want to. As long as you have enough bandwidth (that of, you do). Any laptop with like a good CPU can do your job. And enough ram.
1
01/30/2015 2:53 pm
Level 1 : New Crafter
ashangel1982
ashangel1982's Avatar
What specs are you running on that?




As I said before the laptops lifespan isnt an issue as i will replace it in a couple of years or less and the cooling pad I have dropped my last laptops core temp by 30°c

I was originally looking at a laptop that will run witcher 3 but the choice is pretty limited at those kind of specs. I would like a stack but it just is not practical.

Getting back to the original question/post, What I need to know is what the maximum possible running specs would be.
1
01/30/2015 3:24 pm
Level 30 : Artisan Geek
Z645
Z645's Avatar
I believe it was this one
--> here

edit: except for the ram. Mine's a 4GB, that article says 3GB.
1
01/30/2015 11:14 am
Level 31 : Artisan Dragonborn
WTFshady
WTFshady's Avatar
SloPro11But if you want to make a public server you shouldn't run it on your computer, because it is hard to do 24/7, people can ddos you easily, so rather get a good minecraft server host for that.

You can always home-host a server, but you need to set it up properly.
1
01/30/2015 11:02 am
Level 6 : Apprentice Network
Kingdomapbuilder
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Sorry, but you cant host a server, game with mods and high-res texture packs AND record all at the same time on a laptop. Laptops, as said earlier, also are not made to run 24/7, and it would heavily degrade the lifespan.
1
01/30/2015 11:00 am
Level 15 : Journeyman Engineer
minecraftian2424
minecraftian2424's Avatar
First off all, laptop is not really worth buying if you don't travel all of the time and you want to play games, so I'd rather get a desktop.
If you're hosting a private server (just a server for your friends and you), go ahead buy a desktop or a laptop if you really want it. But if you want to make a public server you shouldn't run it on your computer, because it is hard to do 24/7, people can ddos you easily, so rather get a good minecraft server host for that.
1
01/30/2015 10:48 am
Level 43 : Master Pokemon
Jacob Rigoberto
Jacob Rigoberto's Avatar
You can run a server to play with your friends on your laptop, but not by far you can have 10+ players on one computer, which you are also playing on yourself.

But I'll assume you want to host a server with 2-3 friends:
8 GB RAM is good enough, and I don't know much about your graphics. Make sure to have a stable Internet connection. If you self-host a server, your ping will always be at 0, but your friends might end up at 300+ ping, which is horrific.
(Ping is how many milliseconds it takes from data to be sent from one computer to a second one.)
1
01/30/2015 7:02 am
Level 18 : Journeyman Warrior
serdarminecraft
serdarminecraft's Avatar
You cant split the servers load. Minecraft and minecraft servers arent designed for that. You can run miinecraft on 1 pi and server on another pi. But just a recommendation dont use raspberry. Use bananapi. Much better performance.
1
01/30/2015 10:27 am
Level 1 : New Crafter
ashangel1982
ashangel1982's Avatar
Ok i will look into those.

What i meant though was to perhaps use the pi as the server and the laptop to play.
1
01/30/2015 10:58 am
Level 18 : Journeyman Warrior
serdarminecraft
serdarminecraft's Avatar
Dont expect much from a raspberrypi or bananapi. You cant setup a server with lots of mods and players on a bananapi or raspberrypi. Unless you overclock to maximum, setup a great ssd and use great cooling. İf you do those maybe you can run it with a few players like 5. You also need a great connection. İf you want the server to be on 24/7 and make it portable use an extremely fast 3g connection. İ still recommend to setup the server on a desktop pc and just let it stay where it is. The server will probably have a high ping and lag if you use a 3g connection and i dont even know if you can use it on a bananapi. Also im not responsable of anything that can happen (this includes burning the house) when you overclock to maximum speed.
1
01/30/2015 6:49 am
Level 1 : New Crafter
ashangel1982
ashangel1982's Avatar
Thank for all the replies.

The laptops I am looking at seem to have plenty of poke. The sort of thing Im looking at have quad core upwards of 2.8 ghz, upwards of 6gb ram and about 1.5 to 2gb on the graphics. These are just ball park figures though
I prefer and have used AMD and Ati all the way but will consider intel if it is a good deal.

As for it burning out I've had a few gaming laptops and by the time they burn out I am looking to replace them anyway. Plus i have a fairIy heavy duty cooling pad to slow this down.
I know laptops usually fall short of towers when it comes to gaming, but I need the mobility of a laptop.

Another option which I am considering is splitting the work load by using a raspberry pi. Again because of portability and I have seen articles explaining how to use them like that.

Bandwidth isnt a problem for me as im on fibre optic.

thanks again
1
01/30/2015 3:05 am
Level 31 : Artisan Dragonborn
WTFshady
WTFshady's Avatar
Don't get a laptop for a server. It's not meant to be 24/7 working and it doesn't have powerful-enough hardware.
1
01/30/2015 3:00 am
Level 21 : Expert Ninja
zoecGxhbmV0bWluZWNyYWZ0
zoecGxhbmV0bWluZWNyYWZ0's Avatar
Don't use a laptop. You'll damage it or break it completely
1
01/30/2015 2:22 am
Level 14 : Journeyman Modder
searchndstroy
searchndstroy's Avatar
Here's some information about servers: (Feel free to challenge me on any of this information.)

For a server, having the ability to run more threads at once is better than a higher clock speed. (A higher clock speed is better for a server with a small amount of players while having the ability to run more threads is better for a bigger server.)

For anyone who wants to know why:
Click to reveal
Each player connection requires one thread to run. (If it ran on the main thread, then the server would be delayed in listening for packets from players and most likely would lose a lot of sent packets.) Running more threads at once would allow the server to handle more player connections at once, and for anyone who knows a thing about CPUs, switching threads is not exactly "fast", so running more threads at once is better. (Computer time.)


A server should have a good DL and UL speed. It should have a good UL speed, since it needs to send chunks to clients. A good DL speed to receive packets from players efficiently.

Now that I'm done with hardware, I'll get into some software optimisations. One would be to turn down mob spawn rates on the server, and regularly clean dropped items. (For example, if there are over 1,000 dropped items, they should be cleared.)

Also, a big render distance will cause the server to: send more chunks to the client, load more chunks from the disk and possibly generate new chunks. (If chunks were not loaded before.) I would recommend setting the render distance to something that works well with your server. If your server is mostly skyblock, you can turn it down to about 4-5. (Unless you have a type of neighbouring system.) If your server contains a big huge map, maybe you can leave it at 10. (I would put it to 8-9, though.) Another thing you can do is pre-generate the chunks. This will prevent the chunks from being created and saved to disk.

Another optimisation would be to use a server software named "spigot". (spigotmc.org) It does contain performance enhancements, and more configuration options. Should also check out the plugin called "clearlag". It can clear entities at an interval. (Configurable.) You can also set what mobs to not remove and (I'm pretty sure) the same with dropped items. (And when I talk about entities, I mean stuff like arrows, mobs, items, etc.) More RAM would only help if the server needed RAM.

I know there are a lot more optimisions dealing with the JVM, but I don't know much about that stuff. If someone has a question about what I said, please ask. If they have something to add, please add on. If they don't believe in something I say, please tell me and I will look it over. (You must have proof or something saying WHY I'm wrong compared to "You're wrong.")
1
01/29/2015 10:35 pm
Level 25 : Expert Dragon
_ENDER_DRAGON_
_ENDER_DRAGON_'s Avatar
If you want to be hosting a server, go with an intel "i" series. i5 would be a start. There's nothing wrong with amd but because this is minecraft we are talking about....well you get the idea. Gaming wise, if you want a high res texturepack, most settings maxed, while recording; well you're going to need nvidia mobile graphics. I don't know much about their mobile graphics but try looking for 860M and up.

That said, I don't recommend hosting a server 24/7 on a laptop.
1
01/29/2015 7:42 pm
Level 1 : New Miner
RebelDuck1
RebelDuck1's Avatar
Hi Ashangel1972,
For running a server from home you are going to need a good router, a desktop computer for high uptime and a lot of storage. I do not recommend using a laptop, for the reason it gets hot very quickly and may burn out. (personal experience) This is the computer I recommend and I am pretty sure it is under your budget. (I am using USD)
Here is the link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229618&cm_re=gaming_computer-_-83-229-618-_-Product

-RebelDuck1
1
01/30/2015 1:21 pm
Level 47 : Master Giraffe
discOtter
discOtter's Avatar
No... Don't tell people to buy that computer.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sYZtsY
1
01/29/2015 10:39 pm
Level 25 : Expert Dragon
_ENDER_DRAGON_
_ENDER_DRAGON_'s Avatar
If that's for only the server I would recommend something intel. This comes from personal experience; my shittop's T9900 is on par with my fx 8350 in my rig when it comes to minecraft server hosting.

However, if that's for gaming as well....well prebuilt would not be the way to go. An r7 250 isn't even mid range plus the 350W PSU leaves no room for upgrading.
1
01/29/2015 7:17 pm
Level 18 : Journeyman Network
xmx1024
xmx1024's Avatar
When you host a server, you don't have to worry about texturepacks or anything visual.

If you're serious about this server, you should be worrying about hardware reliability.
Laptops are not meant to be on 24/7, that will degrade their lifetime significantly. If you're going to be running a minecraft server on a laptop that will be on 24/7, be prepared for that laptop to completely die within a year. (source: personal experience)

I recommend finding an old server computer on Craigslist (1U) that is meant to be on 24/7, but you can always build a PC for this purpose, just make sure to keep it dust free and monitor the temperatures closely. Run nightly backups.


If you still want to run a server on a laptop despite all I've said,this site will let you input your connection speed and amount of ram to estimate how many players you can hold.

NOTE: that site doesn't account for CPU, which is VERY important. 1GB=1024MB

SUPER IMPORTANT ADDITION: Don't run anything else on the laptop but the server, or you will have horrible performance. Install Debian/ubuntu for a huge performance improvement & more free ram
1
01/30/2015 2:30 pm
Level 35 : Artisan Ninja
DatFox
DatFox's Avatar
noice
1
01/29/2015 7:09 pm
Level 1 : New Miner
Bullgator
Bullgator's Avatar
For server hosting, you might find your internet connection is more limiting than your cpu or RAM.
1
01/29/2015 7:05 pm
Level 1 : New Crafter
ashangel1982
ashangel1982's Avatar
At first it will be just me and a few mates until we get the world setup, after that I may start allowing public access.

Is there a maximum limit on the number of players that can be on a minecraft server and what kind of drain would that have on performance?
1
01/29/2015 7:00 pm
Level 1 : New Crafter
waxerman1000
waxerman1000's Avatar
It depends... Who is going to be on it?? I'm a computer nerd. lol
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