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Page 2 of 5 The Hardware
Before I continue on to discuss about the components I chose to build the server with, it’s important to keep in mind that any number of other combinations of components can be used. I happen to have these parts and feel they would make good use in a server so I’m using them. Some of the components I’m using aren’t necessarily the best choice for you. Make sure you take a look at your options and your goals. Let’s check out the hardware.
The Processor: AMD 1.0GHz Socket A Athlon
The 1GHz Athlon is an excellent processor for a server. It’s readily available on the market and doesn’t put a hole in your pocket. My main reason for choosing this processor is because it’s relatively cheap, and performs like a champion.
A tried and true component among enthusiasts, the 1GHz Thunderbird outperforms everything except higher grade Thunderbirds and Pentium 4’s. However, those CPUs have a higher price/performance ratio than the 1GHz.
The Athlon is a good server processor because generally, the server will be doing a lot of integer intense processing with some floating-point calculations on the side. If you’re setting up a game server, the floating-point power of the Athlon is unmatched and comes in hand during those fierce battles. If you’re setting up the other types of servers, integer performance is right at hand, when you need it, exactly how you want it. Thunderbirds are known to be the all around best performer in every category that’s thrown at it. You shouldn’t have any slowdowns if you go with one of these babies.
The Motherboard: MSI K7T Pro
A server needs to be stable and have the highest up time possible. With that in mind, the board I chose for the server is the MSI K7T Pro. The K7T is a proven performer and is the most stable, KT133 based board. Although it’s not the fastest motherboard I could have picked, on a server, it’s often more wise to choose stability over performance. However, the K7T has a nice blend of speed and stability with more emphasis on stability.
The only gripe I have with MSI boards is that they have big honkey capacitors. These things are huge on an MSI board and sometimes when I'm in the process of removing a heatsink, I’m afraid I might accidentally break one off as they are very softly connected to the board. Other than that, having six full PCI slots is a definite plus for a server board.
Since we’re building a home or small office server, the K7T Pro serves us well. If you want to go high end, look into server and workstation boards from Tyan. Tyan boards come with extra features such as redundant power supply connectors, 64bit PCI slots and dual processor support. The Memory: 384MB Toshiba PC133
Brought to us by Centon Technologies, we have one 128MB stick and one 256MB stick. What’s the reason behind my choice for Centon? High quality, lifetime warranted memory modules. Toshiba manufactures the chips on the modules, and it makes the highest quality memory available.
Obviously, we’re concentrating a lot on stability so choosing high quality memory modules come as no surprise. Bad RAM can really mess up a server big time, causing random crashes and data corruption or worst.
We’re going with a nice 384MB size for our server. 384MB gives us extra headroom above 256MB but stays under the high costs of using 512MB. For a home and small office server, 384MB serves us well.
The Graphics: Hercules 3D Prophet 2 Ultra
You can use any AGP graphics card you want for your server really, as it won’t be a gaming machine. However, if you want the game server to accommodate a member of your team, go with a recent graphics card like a GeForce2 MX at least. This will enable you to do regular server functions while allowing some play time should you run out of client machines to play on.
I happen to have a GeForce2 Ultra on hand so I’ll be using one.
Quite an overkill for a server, but this server is going to be able to do everything, not just website hosting and FTP serving.
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