Buying a new server for colocation. Which of these two?

[gamesfirst]

Hi!

well, i have a GSP company and im going to buy a new one Server.
I have these 2 options:

intel Xeon I7 W3520
12gb ram DDR3 1600mhz
1tb disk


OR, for about 900 extra dollars (one time pay, im BUYING for colocation, not renting), i can get this:

Dual Intel Xeon E5520
16Gb Ram DDR3 1066 ECC
1tb Disk.



Note that im currently colocating my servers on a 100mbits dedicated link with unlimited bandwith

The OS that im running is DEBIAN X64

so, here goes the questions:

1) What do you think, is it worth it to buy the Dual Xeons for about extra 900 dollars?

How many servers slots i will be able to run in games like CS and CSS with each server?

thanks in advance!

[loopyman]

I really like this build :
Dual Intel Xeon E5520
16Gb Ram DDR3 1066 ECC
1tb Disk.

For game servers this is nearly perfect except the RAM seems a little high, I would say roughly 8GB should be plenty for the number of game servers that box can host... 12GB if you want to be safe.
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=40200

You should be able to host at least 2x 100 tickrate 1000fps match servers per core just fine. You have a total of 8 cores on that server ( 2x 4 core processors ) So for a total of 16x 100 tickrate 1000fps match servers ( ~10 slots )

The I7 is nice but the hyper threading doesn't increase performance of game servers too much, just helps with load balancing a bit.

I have always thought highly of the i7's and such with their hyper-threaded and their "logical cores" ( threads ) but then again its still just a quad core...

[gamesfirst]

Thanks a LOT!. i appreciate your answer very much!

[loopyman]

No problem, feel free to +rep
http://forums.srcds.com/reputation.php?uid=11061

[cookies911]

EDIT: SEEMS LIKE I haven't been keeping up with Intel's CPU's


Loopy, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't intel state that they are dual core CPU's? and it doesn't support HT? If thats the case, I WOULD GO FOR THE i7, the dual xeon's just doesn't justify the price.

Everything i typed under here, doesn't apply to your server box, but i hope you may find it useful.

Mind if I clarify some things? Not sure if its a typo, but E5220? But on DDR3 RAM? I want one!!

Ok, i believe its the E5520, I would most def go for the E5520. Should be able to host 3-4 11 slot 1000FPS 100TICK CSS based servers per logical core.

You get 8 logical cores per CPU = 16 . The above caculation is based upon cpu load, Though i would only recommend 2 servers per logical cores. In theory this would also mean 4 servers per core, the Nahelems performs load balancing very nicely

And as to you ram usage SRCDS under windows uses about 200-300 MEGS of RAM under heavy usage. 300x32 = 9600
32 = 2 servers per logical core ( 16x2 )

So that box would hold decent amounts of clients. Take this caculation with a grain of salt, though.

Good luck!

[dualcore1289]

Loopy you rep whore. . .

[gamesfirst]

yes, my bad, it is E5520, NOT 5220

[loopyman]

Crap, again mistake... Stupid numbers
Second build is once again better than first...
Edited first post to correctly show the right processor under the Intel information.

I suppose 2 per logical core seems okay...


Also, this is the final edit... Sorry... Re-reading stuff.

[BehaartesEtwas]

errr.... both the E5520 and the i7 are hyper threaded.... and the i7 is *way* faster. also the RAM is faster in your first setup, so I don't see any points for the second.
(and HT isn't really bad, it just doesn't help much. it can be disabled if it should make problems...)

[ilinx]

2nd one; 8 cores = more cores = more servers, perhaps you wont be able to run as many per core like the i7 will, but you'll have double the cores to make up for it imo

[loopyman]

Then again is the $900 extra cost justified...

[BehaartesEtwas]

ah sorry, I didn't see the "dual"...

but then it depends on what you want to run on the server. big servers will not benefit from extra cores. so if you want to host a few big (many slot) servers, the first one will still be better. for medium sized publics or war server the latter will be better.

[cookies911]

Personally. I would go for the new X5660s But thats just me.

[loopyman]

(05-13-2010, 04:52 AM)cookies911 Wrote:  Personally. I would go for the new X5660s But thats just me.

If I had endless money, I would too.

[dualcore1289]

Depending on which server you buy, depends on your business. Is it growing rapidly? Is it just getting by? Are you getting 5+ client signup's a day? Everything is taken into consideration when purchasing servers. If your small, and am not growing fast 20+ clients a month, then go with a single quad, and work from there. Quad's are pretty powerful and will run a good bit of servers. Later down the road, as you see your growing faster, and need better hardware, then invest in the dual quads.