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Alright guys, so I'm thinking about turning one of my old desktops into a multiplayer server. I'm a fairly advanced computer user, but I'm not too familiar with settingup servers and whatnot, I wanted to gauge what people think about what I'm planning:
The desktop is old and cluttered. Its an HP Pavilion 753c, it currently has 512 MB of RAM and a Pentium 4 single core processor (max clock at 2.53 Ghtz, potentially overclocked at 3) and a 100 GB HDD. Here's what I'm planning; take out the 512 MB stick and upgrade the memory to 2 GB (I think that's all the poor thing will be able to handle) of RAM with potentially 1 GB's worth of swap on the HDD. After that I'm going to wipe the drive and freshly reinstall XP as the OS (I don't think it will be able to handle 64 Win7, the only Win7 OS I have. I have a Linux Mint 10 live cd, but I don't think that's an optimal OS for doing this sort of thing).
At that point I plan on making the desktop into a dedicated multiplayer server for Minecraft.
I guess my major question is whether with these changes this old computer will be capable of being a dedicated server? (not currently using that platform for anything at the moment except as a paperweight)
The desktop is old and cluttered. Its an HP Pavilion 753c, it currently has 512 MB of RAM and a Pentium 4 single core processor (max clock at 2.53 Ghtz, potentially overclocked at 3) and a 100 GB HDD. Here's what I'm planning; take out the 512 MB stick and upgrade the memory to 2 GB (I think that's all the poor thing will be able to handle) of RAM with potentially 1 GB's worth of swap on the HDD. After that I'm going to wipe the drive and freshly reinstall XP as the OS (I don't think it will be able to handle 64 Win7, the only Win7 OS I have. I have a Linux Mint 10 live cd, but I don't think that's an optimal OS for doing this sort of thing).
At that point I plan on making the desktop into a dedicated multiplayer server for Minecraft.
I guess my major question is whether with these changes this old computer will be capable of being a dedicated server? (not currently using that platform for anything at the moment except as a paperweight)
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I am not sure about bukkit, but I think the vanilla server is somewhat multithreaded. With the memory limitation you probably would not notice it though. Your best bet is to try it out and if it fails, then think about upgrades.
Always use linux if you can for a server.
It is not strong enough most likely. You need 1GB of RAM for the server at the minimum, and that is for only like 5 people. As long as you are not on dialup you should be fine for bandwidth. processor might work but with those specs you are looking at a 5 person server, tops, and that will probably be with lots of lag. You do not want your server to touch the pagefile or it will grind to a halt.
Yeah that's what I figured with the memory. Looks like I'll need to drop the money on upgrading to 2 GB of RAM. What clock speed should I shoot for in terms of CPU power? I need to know whether or not I should upgrade my processor, cause I'm definitely sure I can squeeze 2.5 Ghtz out of the current one I have in there.
*Also, I thought Java was still optimized for single core, wouldn't that be beneficial for minecraft? Or am I still just thinking along the lines of the client instead of server? I guess what I'm getting at is if the software for the server runs on the same Java base as minecraft does or whether those two processes are independent...
*Also, I thought Java was still optimized for single core, wouldn't that be beneficial for minecraft? Or am I still just thinking along the lines of the client instead of server? I guess what I'm getting at is if the software for the server runs on the same Java base as minecraft does or whether those two processes are independent...
Don't forget bandwidth and internet speeds, those factor a ton in servers.
Very true. My home network is solid, although I suppose that the fact that my network assigns dynamic IP addresses may pose a problem.
