Hi gang, looking for a bit of advise in setting up a game server for a LAN I host a my place every school holidays. The games I'm looking at are pretty old school, Battlefield Vietnam, BF2, C&C Generals (if I can find out about that one) etc.

 

What sort of spec should I be looking at? I've been testing a 1RU server (8 core baytrail, 32gb ram max, room for 2x3.5 or 4x2.5 hdds, plus onboard raid and sub (could VMware from sub key) at work that's pretty cheap and roughly the size of a Cisco switch that I thought could be usefull or possibly a HP N54L micro server ( dual core Turion, 16gb ram max, 4x3.5, 1x5.25 -have seen a 4x2.5 bay that'll fit). The hp is looking at $270 plus ram and hdds whereas the 1ru is looking around $800 plus ram and hdds. I like the idea of the 1ru but disk size is a concern as ideally I'd like it to double as my iTunes library as well.

 

Another reason for hosting one at my place is my internet speed is terrible. Modem syncs at 2.5Mbps and with 2 computers, 1 Apple TV, 2 tablets and 2 phones all sharing the link before I start including the LANers you can see that lag is a big factor against going online. Heck it lags when all other devices are off and it's just me on there!

 

Any advise or links to server setups would be very appreciated.

Well it depends how many people you are having over. Your everyday run of the mill computer should be able to handle low enough numbers, especially with old skool games.

Average around 8-10 ppl

well yeah, not that I have too much experience in the matter, but definitely any run of the mill box could host it. I think I used an old 2005 Win XP HP computer as a server once for BF2