Server discussion

[Piglet]

We've boiled down the options to four at the moment. These are in my order of current preference:

1. AMD server with CPU a little faster than the one rented for the test, hosted in the UK near me
2. Intel server with CPU the same as the one rented for the test, hosted in the UK near me

This server is currently hosted in that datacentre near me: https://miasma.rocks/mon2.php?s=4

3. Intel server with CPU the same as the one rented for the test, hosted in the Nederlands where the test was done

The Warfare server is currently running from there: https://miasma.rocks/mon2.php?s=1

4. Remain on the old VPS server.

The Freon and iCTF servers are currently hosted there: https://miasma.rocks/mon2.php?s=0 and https://miasma.rocks/mon2.php?s=2


In order to do any of the options 1-3 we need a little more in donations to pay for the hosting costs. It will be around £360 a year to run once the hardware is bought.

I'm willing to buy the hardware myself for the community, and for option 3 Nardaq_NL has offered to pay for the hardware himself - however if anyone wants to help specifically towards the physical machine, please let me know.

For options 1 and 2 the payments out would be in Sterling (£/GBP). For option 3 the payments out would be in Euros (€/EUR)


If anyone is interested in helping, the donation link is at the bottom of the page...or here: https://miasma.rocks/pages/donate.php

If anyone has any particular thoughts about this, please post in this thread

[Piglet]

For information, we have about a month and 4 days left on the test server - so will be reverting back to the VPS (option 4) when the rental runs out.

Edited to add a month! Yay.

[Piglet]

Thank you to James T Kirk who just donated - and to Thor who donated earlier in the week (I'd not spotted that email!).

Updated with player name

[Piglet]

Breaking news...we have a little longer on the test server than we thought we had, but it's definitely time to decide what to do next.

[Grim_Fandango]

AMD all the way.

Option 1 has my vote.

[Piglet]

How does the server it'd go in play for you? Would be useful to get that more populated to check everything feels good (it will) .

The machine that game server is on isn't powerful, but it shows the routing and ping we'd get to the datacentre location.

https://miasma.rocks/mon2.php?s=4

[holyspam]

Pig can you post the cpu models for each machine?

[Piglet]

1. AMD server custom built by the datacentre owner in a 4U chassis, hosted in the UK near me: AMD Ryzen 5 3600  - CPU Mark 2806

2 & 3. Dell (probably) Intel server with CPU the same as the one rented for the test: Intel E-2174G - CPU Mark 2687

4. Remain on the old VPS server: Intel E5-2697 v3  - CPU Mark 1997

CPU Mark scores higher is better. Single core score only counts as UT is single-core only.

[Piglet]

Oh - and the development server I have is an Intel Xeon E3-1240 V2 - CPU mark 2027

[holyspam]

Ok after some research the Ryzen is MUCH faster than both Intel options in single thread, probably because the Intel can't hold its turbo at 4.7 forever, plus the amd  has 50% room to spare even with 4 servers running.
Also Intel's max turbo is useful only for 1 core loaded, if you run a second or third server clocks will drop according to some internal bins limited by time so benchmarks can be misleading
Amd max turbo is calculated according to power usage/temperatures so unless you're loading all cores it won't drop clocks more than 200mhz

There are 1-2 edge cases where the intel are much faster but these are synthetic benchmarks so I don't trust them much

[Piglet]

Yup.

The only downside I can see to the AMD is that unlike the Intel chips it's not intended for being hammered 24*7, and it needs a bigger case which would up the cost for hosting anywhere but in my local datacentre. The first of these shouldn't be a problem as hammering 24*7 isn't the use case for the server. The second could be a problem if we find problems with the datacentre...which is why I'm keen on people trying the UK Freon server to see the ping.

I'm very close to giving the nice datacentre chap the nod to start spending my money.

If we go this route (to any physical server) we'll need to get regular donations for co-lo hosting, this website, and DNS charges over the year - with a little extra to cover any maintenance needed on the machine.

If I buy the machine with my own money we'll need donations of about £40 (+paypal fees) to pay the initial hosting fee, then an average of a little over £40 a month regularly after that to be ready to pay the next bills as they come in

[Piglet]

I've sent the email for option 1 - the AMD option.

We have a little more time than expected to prepare.

[holyspam]

You could pick the ryzen pro 3600, which has some extra tech related to servers and is certified for use in such environments.
Thermally, this could fit in 1U with a low profile cooler and RAM, using PCI-E riser cables for a small GPU if it can't run headless and a 250w mini psu.
Now technically speaking i have no idea how they use this stuff in datacenters.

[Piglet]

Looks like that chip isn't yet available, and the extras appear to be for corporate desktops.

[Piglet]

AMD Server is being ordered today. Exciting.

The warfare server is paid to the end of the month. The VPS is available for longer than we are likely to need.

I'll need to knock up an announcement for the servers to let people who don't follow developments here know about the changes...and invite regular donations to help cover hosting and ongoing costs.

It would be brilliant if we could get more donating small amounts on a monthly basis.