Best value CPU/mobo/RAM combo for dedicated game server?

[The Rock]

Friend of mine is looking to put up a dedicated gaming server, which would ONLY run dedicated server programs (obviously). No one would ever play directly on the server, thus there is no need of high-end 3D horsepower. But since I don't know jack about dedicated server progs, I assumed CPU would be the biggest worry here. Anyone recommend a good CPU/mobo/RAM combo for running dedicated servers of the following games (most likely under XP Pro):

Day of Defeat / Half Life
UT
Medal of Honour: Allied Assault
Red Faction

Ideas guys?

[Wombat]

RAM, RAM, RAM. And not a Via MB. You're goign to need lots of NIC-to-CPU/RAM communication, so that bandwidth will matter.

[Tjalfe]

If RAM and CPU - NIC - RAM communications is the key, then an Intel 875 or hacked 865 system with PAT technology, onboard Gigabit NIC and dual channel DDR400 would do the trick... mind you it is not necssarily an economical solution

[Paddy]

I have a P2-350 with 512MB RAM and a G100 running slackware.

It works great, although it does start to get laggy playing CS with 9other players...

[Liquid Snake]

The CPU is probably the most important factor. RAM is almost as important; though in the case of RAM, it's usually not the speed of the RAM that matters, but the amount. Mobo is also important (it has to be stable!). NIC is also something to consider, though most game servers probably won't even max out 10Mbps.

The requirements will differ from game to game, but I think a 1GHz machine and 512MB of RAM is a good starting point.

[Gurm]

I'd opt for one of two things:

1. Athlon XP + Boatloads of DDR + SiS 748.

2. P4 + Boatloads of DDR + Intel Chipset.

As for WHICH Intel Chipset... *shrug* price is a key factor here. As was already pointed out, you're not gonna be maxxing out ANY bus except the CPU<->RAM.

- Gurm

[The Rock]

I probably should have clarified something else: even though there will be 4-5 dedicated server progs running at the same time, only ONE of them will be in use at any one time. This will be a private server, and we'll only be playing one game at a time. We were considering using my friends 1G Athlon + 1gig old ram. I think since we'll only be hammering one server prog at a time, this will be sufficient, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Wombat]

What about bandwidth?

[The Rock]

The server will be running off of a 3 meg cable modem. I believe the UL is 800k on it.

[Wombat]

Which isn't great. probably 8v8 games as the limit, so the machine won't be too stressed. That all depends on the game though.

[The Rock]

Eeek! Correction: a 3 meg DSL modem, not cable. That should be MORE than enough for a decent sized match. Hell, we've done 8vs8 over a 10Mbps LAN without issue, while the guy who served was playing on the server.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by The Rock
The server will be running off of a 3 meg cable modem. I believe the UL is 800k on it.

Nexland has just released a Twin boradband router. Don't know if it will work with your service but if bandwith aggregation sounds nice to you, you can always try it... plus it has an additional RS232 port for PSTN or ISDN backup...