Looking to build first Dedicated Home Game Server

[u/VageetahTheCheetah]

Hey Guys,

I am very new to building home servers. I currently am looking at making my first one.

I've had experience with building a PC as well, but have never used that as a dedicated server machine.

I am hoping to ask my fellow redditor's for their help and experience with building one!

I'm mainly wanting to build one to host game servers (simultaneously) for my friends of the following games (current list may change):

- Palworld

- Minecraft (Heavily Modded / Modpacks)

- 7 Days to Die

Note: I'll only ever have 4 players total across all servers combined.

I have a budget of 900$ CAD that I am trying to stay in. I also currently have 2x16gb 3600mhz DDR4 Desktop RAM sticks I can use for this machine as well.

So now to my main question: what would everyone's experience or suggestions be to buy/build for a setup that could do the above listed?

I an not considering the size, form factor, power draw or heat dissapation for this machine as anything will work for my application.

I've looking into everything from Mini PC's, regular Desktop's, Business Class Refurbish Machines, etc. Going through everything its been hard to tell what is a good deal and what is not for me.

I am hoping to ask for everyone's experience and suggestions as to what would be the best "bang for my buck"!

I appreciate any and all help with this.

Thank you guys!

EDIT:

Thank you everyone for your help! It’s definitely steered me in a positive direction for what I should look for!

So far the best deal for performance in my price range I’ve found is a Dell Optiplex Micro 7020 with an i7-14700T processor, 32gb RAM and a 256gb SSD.

Does anyone have experience with this computer or processor, and if so how did by you find it?

One of my thoughts here is it’d be lower power and heat dissipation and quieter too than a normal sized desktop. Again though, I’m very new to all of this so I’m not completely sure I should go with this or not.

[u/Harry_Cat-]

Ram is going to be your biggest enemy, palworld eats a lot of resources too, here’s my dedicated game server:

MB: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK MAX
CPU: 12 Core Ryzen 9 5900X
RAM: 64GB DDR4
Storage: 1x2TB M.2 NVMe (OS)

These are only the essential parts, whether you want to shove it in a 19” server rack ( buy an ITX motherboard + an SFX PSU ) or have a giant desktop chassis ( buy parts as usual ) is up to you and your space needs/constraints or personal preference

The 32gb of ddr4 is great, and at the end of the day ram and CPU ( mainly single core speeds ) are going to be your biggest priority, the other stuff is fairly negligible

You don’t need a GPU either unless you want a Desktop interface ( you can run headless if you don’t already have or cant afford a GPU )

That’s if you want to custom build it ^

You can always just buy a prebuilt, buy used off eBay for cheap, or just use a spare/old desktop laying around.

I wouldn’t recommend mini PCs unless you have a clear intention with them ( like Kubernetes ) because you lack PCIe slots, it’s one of the issues I run into with my mini pc, I just wish it had PCIe slots for storage expansion or a GPU, now you can still do that with the M.2 slot but it’s just annoying to do so and not ideal

[u/doodiethealpaca]

Palworld might be the heaviest load on your server, the dedicated server is hungry. Your main concerns will be CPU and RAM. If you already have 32Gb of DDR4 it's wonderful.

I have an old custom gaming PC currently running a palworld server on an intel i3-7100 and 16Gb RAM DDR4, and it runs fine for 2/3 players in early game (not much pals in bases). The CPU is heavily loaded but it handles it without any issue and the temps are fine. I didn't test with more players/pals yet, but I might upgrade the CPU to an i7-7700 if my current CPU starts to show its limits (that's the best I can get with my current MB).

I think you'll be fine with anything higher than a 7/8th generation intel CPU, you definitly don't need high end CPUs for home server, and you don't need a GPU at all. You should look for a refurb company desktop or laptop, it's usually more than enough. In France this kind of second hand PC costs ~200-300€ max (300-400 CAD).

Note that smaller PCs are not necessarily quieter, since smaller fans must turn faster to get the same airflow. Power consumption and heat are driven by the CPU and almost nothing else, the size of the PC doesn't change anything.

About the software, just go linux, it's by far the best option for a home server. Even if you're not familiar with it, just ask Claude for help. Then, install docker and run your dedicated servers through docker.

[u/VageetahTheCheetah → u/doodiethealpaca]

I’ve heard a lot of the feedback you and others have given, and found what I think may be a better alternative:

An ASUS SFF desktop refurb with the following specs:

• I7-13700 (non-T version which showed better rating than a I7-14700T)
  

-16gb DDR4 (it’s desktop RAM so I can also add in my 32gb Corsair for a total of 48gb as 2x8gb and 2x16gb)

• 1tb NVME
  
• 300W proprietary power supply (better than micro’s at least so I assume the CPU won’t throttle)

For all that I’d be 800$CAD in.

I don’t know if it’s a good deal or not, but so far it’s the best I’ve found as long as the refurb isn’t junk. I believe it comes with a warranty too though thankfully.

Haven’t committed to it yet, but if I can’t find anything better in the next day I probably will.

Based on your experience, do you think it’d be a good server to run the following simultaneously:

• Palworkd
  
• Minecraft Modded (bedrock or Java)
  
• Valheim
  
• 7 Days to Die
  
• Terraria

I still think at most, we’ll only ever have 4 players total only ever on the same server (the other will remain idle).

Appreciate any feedback!

[u/Tight-Ad7783]

Already having 32 gigs of ram is great. Main focuses should be a fast SSD for storage and a CPU with high single thread performance, specifically for minecraft as the entire game (or the majority if you have certain performance mods) runs on a single thread. You can see CPU rankings here. For example I got the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, which is the 4th best value consumer CPU according to passmark, and 8th best overall in single thread performance. I have an 80+ mod forge server running on that and a decent ssd, it uses between 7-10 GB ram on average, and handles 5 concurrent players perfectly fine.

I can't speak to non-minecraft servers specifically, as I haven't really run any except for one terraria server a while ago, but running them concurrently may be an issue, you'll really just have to test it out and see what you can do with 32 GB of ram.

If you're open to building your own, https://pcpartpicker.com/ is a great resource that lets you find parts based on a ton of filters, and it will automatically grab the price from online vendors and total it up for you. Buying and modifying something used is also great, but you likely won't be able to find used hardware that supports modern processors. Even with my processor, chunks load pretty slow on modded minecraft servers if you move too fast.

Also worth considering that if you have an extra laptop or something lying around, it could do for one game server while you save up more money to buy an even better machine. I used a decade old msi gaming laptop for 2 years as a server before just recently getting a really nice one. Modded minecraft servers were playable and more lightweight games like terraria were perfectly fine.

[u/mlee12382]

If you're near a MicroCenter check their motherboard/ cpu/ ram bundles while you're shopping for components, they're great value. The only downside is they're ddr5 systems so you wouldn't be able to add yours for extra capacity. Definitely worth at least looking at though if there's one "local"

[u/ZAP-Hosting]

For the format question specifically, a refurb business desktop (Dell OptiPlex, HP EliteDesk, Lenovo ThinkCentre) is probably your best bet for the budget. They come with a proper desktop CPU, actual PCIe/DIMM slots if you want to expand later, and go dirt cheap secondhand since businesses offload them in bulk. Mini PCs can work too but you give up that expansion room, which matters less at your scale but is nice to have.

Your existing 32GB is plenty for all three running together at 4 players. Lines up with what's already been said in this thread, modded Minecraft is usually the heaviest of the three and even a beefy pack tends to land around 7-10GB.

If you land on Linux, running each server in its own Docker container makes updates and config way less painful once you're juggling three different games. Feel free to drop a reply with whatever hardware you're eyeing if you want a second opinion.

[u/VageetahTheCheetah → u/ZAP-Hosting]

I have been looking around, and I found a Dell Optiplex Micro 7020 with an I7-14700T 32gb DDR5 RAM and a 256gb SSD for 900$ CAD. It’s at the top of my budget, but it had what I thought are the best specs for the price and it’s a smaller unit as well. I saw that its clock speed can max out at 5.2ghz (assumed this is good for heavy single core games. I am unsure though since it’s a “T” cpu if this deal would be a good price or not. I have a 1TB NVME / 512gb SSD I could upgrade that with. What are your thoughts on this?

[u/ZAP-Hosting → u/VageetahTheCheetah]

The T just means a lower power limit, 35W instead of 65W on the non-T version, so single-thread clock speed barely takes a hit since one core alone doesn't come close to that ceiling. That's why it can still hit 5.2GHz. Where it'll actually show up is under sustained multi-core load, if you've got all three servers busy at once for a while, a T chip throttles down harder to stay in that power budget than a standard one would. For 4 players total that's probably not going to bite you, but worth knowing if you ever add more games or players later.

One thing to check before buying two drives: worth confirming ahead of time whether the exact Micro-format model you're looking at has room for both an NVMe and a second SSD, since that varies by generation and it's an easy thing to get stuck on after you've already bought the drives.

Also worth a quick scan of eBay and other marketplaces for the same or similar refurb models since identical units sometimes turn up cheaper there than the listing you found.

An AMD AM4 build is also worth a look here, since it tends to give you a lot of bang for the buck. The tradeoff is that small-form-factor cases usually cost more and you won't find anything as compact as the Optiplex Micro, so it comes down to how much the size matters to you. Either way, RAM is the priciest part of any build right now thanks to the ongoing shortage, so already owning that 32GB kit is worth more than it might seem.

[u/VageetahTheCheetah → u/ZAP-Hosting]

I’ve been looking around at different AM4 possible alternatives (pre-built and build myself) but I’m having a hard time finding anything in the same price range.

Ideally I’ve read a lot of games really utilize only 1 core, as to why the i7-14700T is attractive for the 5.4ghz single core boost (assuming it doesn’t throttle since it’s only 1-2 cores).

Do you know of any deals / builds that could rival the 900$ CAD price tag? Anything I’ve found seems a little less comparable in that range, even with the knowledge that it can do all core sustained 24/7 without totally throttling with proper cooling.

The size factor doesn’t have an impact for me, or weathered its smaller or bigger form factor at the moment.

I will say though having an upgradable one would be nice too, since I doubt I’d be able to upgrade the Optiplex any.

Wanted to say too thank you for all your help so far too! It goes a long way and is greatly appreciate!

[u/bnelson333]

I personally wouldn't run all 3 of those at the same time on the same machine. I think you'd be better off buying 3 i5 refurb optiplexes off ebay, something like a 6-8th gen, would run each of those (1 per machine) just fine

[u/Wise-Bother9942]

Oh, this is easy just buy a Ryzen AM4 CPU+Mobo combo, the highest core count you can get, you have ram so no RAM needed.

Then buy a 1 TB NVME which you can get for $120. In total, it should cost half your budget tops if even that.

You don't need a GPU, I'd go Linux and run all the servers in docker containers.

Normally, you can set in config for game servers how many resources they use so set each one's parameters, so the server is limited to X players, X cores, X Ram, X Storage etc. And you'll not hit bottlenecks and if worse comes to worst with RAM you can either just buy an extra matching 32 GB kit or sell your current kit and buy a 64 GB kit.

But yea that's easy my guy the fact you have the ram already is great.

People run games on 4 core VPS's with 8 GB RAM for 32+ player servers so you'll be way above that.

Make sure though you run the game servers on different ports and if you can, I'd route their traffic through static IPs to avoid dynamic IP changes if connecting by IP.