building a server, specs?

[G1_plattipus]

i have a computer graveyard in my basement, and i'm thinking about putting together a CS:S server. none of the stuff is top of the line, but a lot of it is decent. the question is, what are the minimum specs i need to run a 20 person max server? any clues.

 

 

ps - i swear i will stop asking annoying questions after today.

[bear^]

annoying questions?

 

booo that

 

yer questions arent annoying

 

thats what these forums are for (at least 1 section...)

 

hehe

 

i used to run a reg cs server... so im useless now... sry

 

[Mad Bean]

I moved this to let the guru's help you the best Platty.

[Guest zerodamage]

Well 2 of the most important parts of running a server is the ammount of RAM and the CPU. You would want at least a Gig of RAM and as for CPU, I do not know what you have.

[appalachian_fox]

Man, I can't find it now, but I used to know a site that had base specs for an x-player server, and then told you the average system load of each player, so you could do some math and get some bare minimums for any number of players (that the software will support, of course). I'm trying to find it now, but no luck so far.

 

--edit--

 

All I've seen on the Steam forums is a recommendation of a little above standard requirements for playing it:

 

Min:

  1.2 GHz Processor

  256MB RAM

  DirectX 7 graphics card

  Windows 2000/XP/ME/98

  Mouse

  Keyboard

 

Preferred:

  2.4 GHz Processor

  512MB RAM

  DirectX 9 graphics card

  Windows 2000/XP

  Mouse

  Keyboard

 

The graphics card, of course, is irrelevant, because you won't be playing on the server. Something halfway decent is nice if you want to monitor it by console, but you're not playing on it.

 

Processor requirements are probably pretty strenuous, I'd try to be in the 2.0 GHz range just to be sure. Mostly the server is going to be doing math.

 

Along that train of thought, I'd imagine at the spatial resolution Source runs at, there needs to be a good bit of RAM to avoid pagefiling. 512 MB at least, I wouldn't second-guess ZD at a gig, either, if you had it available.

 

The servers that game hosting companies sell, from my small sampling of them, seem to be in the 3.0 GHz range, and 2-3GB RAM. However, I don't know if they rent dedicated server space, ie, one physical machine for one logical game server. That's not necessarily the case, and if so, these hosses host multiple games.

 

Hope that helps a bit, and hope someone can help more.

Edited January 12, 2005 by appalachian_fox

[mrX]

You'll need at least 1mb up/down bandwidth to squeeze in 20 slots. If you're running from home, you likely don't have that. I used to tinker with the beta servers for 1.6 and could only comfortably run a 10 man server on a 470ish up/2500 down line.

 

If you want it to be stable, run linux. If you run windows, you should use a server version of it, although it will run on 98 and XP.

 

1 gig of ram is minimum. We saw the effects of less at Fragfest. Pings are worse the less ram you have.

[appalachian_fox]

Cool, thanks X...Good question, now I'm intrigued

[G1_plattipus]

alright sounds good thanks for teh answers. i could probably scrounge something together that wouldnt be half bad. but your right about this being at home and not having enough bandwidth....so probably around 10 max if i start doing this.

[G1_plattipus]

okay so apparently i'm no smart computer person...but i wanted to run a test server on my current rig and i can't even get it up and running. i followed a few guides (for old CS) and didn't get anywhere.

 

if anyone here wants to n00b explain how to setup a server i would be a happy man. i tried "create server" in the game, and no luck at all even when trying to LAN with my roomate (and all the ports forwarded what i thought was properly). i then downloaded the dedicated server and fiddled around with that for awhile, also no luck (yes i was sending him my external IP number).

 

my router is a linksys wrt54g (i'm directly connected not wireless), using some hacked firmware "Alchemy-6.0-RC1.w42 V2.04.4.8sv"

 

i just want to run it for 3 of my buddies, my roomate, and some stupid bots.

[mrX]

http://www.srcds.com/

[G1_plattipus]

what are the chances of me being able to host a game for me and 3 buddies, with like 6 bots, on the same machine i am playing the game with?

 

EDIT: 3.4p4 with a gig of ram

Edited January 21, 2005 by G1_plattipus

[mrX]

You could run that kinda server just fine. Depending on your internet connection, you could prolly run 6-10 players, plus as many bots as you want like this (a listen server is what it's called btw).

 

Remember, if you have a router to open up the ports to allow incoming connections. If I'm remembering right, it's just port 27015, but not for certain.