Questions on Operating Systems, Firewalls and more...

[nevar]

Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to read my post. I've got a few questions that I think majority of you have the answers too. Firstly, just like to start out saying that this is for a community of tf2, css, and cs gamers. I feel like we are in a spot to consolidate the servers onto one of my very own boxes by colocation.

The setup:
- Dell Optiplex 755
- Windows XP Professional
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor @ 2.4GHz
- 2GB of DDR2 ram.
- 2(two)80GB 7200rpm hard drive.

Q.1 What are some advantages to having a windows server operating system over Windows XP Professional.

Q.2 Do you guys use a hardware based firewall over a software(zonealarm or the like) to monitor and protect your servers while at the datacenter?

Q.3 I was thinking of purchasing 2 Western Digital Raptor 80GB 10k sata drives and running them in raid 1 as added protection. Will I see a real difference in map changes swapping the 7200rpm drives to 10k raptor drives?

Q.4 What do you think about 95th percentile as far as running a gaming server?

I'll have a few more questions but this will be a great start. Thank you again for viewing my post and answering some questions.

[CentralFrag]

1. Server was built for ... well ... servers. And XP is built for home / business computer use. Overall Server is more stable than XP and would be a bit more reliable. Some may argue otherwise but yeah.

2. As long as you know what your doing Windows Firewall is fine.

3. If your colocating servers having a raid setup is definitely nice to have because most colocations will charge an arm and a leg if they have hands on help there at the datacenter. If your colocating then I would recommend spending the money on the drives, might as well.

4. Bandwidth is all dependent on how many servers your expecting to host, what rates, games, mods etc.

[nevar]

thanks for the quick reply.

I've read here once before that windows server 2008 allows for higher frame rate over w2k3. We might have 1 or 2 at most private war league servers in the not so near future. I am fine with 500fps as i've never really noticed the difference between them so is there anything wrong with running windows server 2003 web edition or is standard a better option?

What's the difference between 2 different colocation package styles such as the 95th percentile or bulk bandwidth(if that's the correct term) that sell for a set number of GB a month. A company in question is one that's out of Indiana that sells Desktop Colocation 3300 Gigs of bandwidth at $69.95 a month. I am kind of leery, but that amount of bandwidth per month would be more than enough for what we need. I assume that the bulk bandwidth is probably oversold or is not guaranteed. Any thoughts?

[CentralFrag]

Well ideally your frame rates should be right at what your tickrate is. Read this thread: http://forums.srcds.com/viewtopic/17096 They are removing the higher frame rates here soon.

And 95th percentile means you pay the max for your 95% bandwidth max usage.