Topic: Optimal Hardware for SME Server?

[Joe Bob]

Xmas is coming and Santa wants to know what the idea hardware configuration would be for a rock'n SME server.

Used for: hosting game server (SOF2, UT2K3, COD) and some web serving

What would be the best:
Hard drive size, speed, and buffer?
Amount and speed of RAM?
CPU type and speed?

I assume Santa can afford a decent NIC, etc.  He really just wants to know how far he ~needs~ to go to get some bang for the buck.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Xmas.

[Andy MacDonald]

Considering that the bandwidth bottleneck is going to your network card and game servers are better with more ram.  I'd stock up with ram. More players, more ram.
If you're going to go full gigabit on your network, then be concerned about hard drive speed. If not, don't bother.
I have a dual pentium pro which serves pages on 100meg network pretty fast.
Remember that the perception of faster computers for non enterprise gear is largely related to your susceptibility to advertising.

[RayG]

I have a low rent SME box built from a VIA EPIA-800 motherboard with 256meg of RAM, a 60 gig hard drive, a $7.00 realtek NIC, and a home made lexan box. The EPIA-800 is running the VIA C3 processor (celeron clone) at 800 Mhz.

I'm not big into gaming but have had Unreal Tournament running on the box for a year or so. With 5 users coming in over the cable modem and 3 on the LAN, there is no performance degredation as compared to two LAN users playing head to head. UT2K3 most likely requires a bit more horsepower for the same performance. And you may need more processor speed and RAM for more users. But the server has MUCH lower requirements than the client machines.

[Arne]

Have also built a SME box based on a 1000 Mhz Via C3 and a Microstar mATX card with 256 MRam and a 120 Gb Seagate Barakuda HD. I don't use a prosessor fan and the hd is rather silent, so there is allmost no sound at all and the performace is really not so bad. Haven't tried with games.