bit-tech's Multi-Core Gaming Server - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 5th Sep 2006, 15:42

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/..._server/1.html

RTT · 5th Sep 2006, 15:47

Spacecowboy92 · 5th Sep 2006, 15:52

Nice system. Too bad I have a wedding at 5. I mean who has a wedding at five in the evening on wendsday?!?!

specofdust · 5th Sep 2006, 16:00

I shall be there, and, the system looks lurvly

- I can't imagine the power in that thing, but I can assume it's rather enjoyable to use.

Enak · 5th Sep 2006, 16:00

Show off!

Atomic · 5th Sep 2006, 16:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enak

Show off!

Not half!

BioSniper · 5th Sep 2006, 16:08

damn. I dont think I'll be able to download CS:S quick enough as I've not re-dwnloaded it since format

::EDIT:: Only 900MB or so to download, which is good. The bad however is that I'm only on a 1MB connection. Oh yeah.. that and I suck at CS:S anyway :P

Is the prize.. the server? (wishful thinking)

genesisofthesith · 5th Sep 2006, 16:11

"Right now, we can't tell you exactly what our gaming server is running - not until the Intel Developer Forum at the end of September"

So does that mean it's not a cloverton ES?

planki · 5th Sep 2006, 16:14

doh, might have to start playing cs again!

Lazlow · 5th Sep 2006, 16:16

The server looks great - hoping to visit it tonight when I get in from work.

One minor point:

Quote:

Originally Posted by article

maybe WinXP, just for a laugh! - and get Quake 4 up and running on that.

I had XP as a games server and found the max connections limit of XP limited it to 10 players.

LAGMonkey · 5th Sep 2006, 16:17

FREAK out!!! I cant wait till my 10meg line is up and running to get back into CS again.

w00000

gideon · 5th Sep 2006, 16:28

why don't i have counterstrike

ahh well good luck for the others

Ramble · 5th Sep 2006, 16:35

Why am I on a laptop??

Damn you Bit-Tech!

Rascal · 5th Sep 2006, 16:40

Nice hardware spec, but why on earth did you install windows 64bit as the base operating system?? Runing VMware is absolutely a good thing to do, but is severely hampered by not using it as the base operating system itself. Did you do this because of the VMware ESX licencing cost? coz you are loosing out on a big chunk of performance by not truely virtualising.

VMware ESX should be the base OS with windows 2003 64bit running as a virtual alongside linux etc.

Seems like a big waste of 8GB ram and 8 or so cores.

The other oversight seems to be the lack of SAS drives. Disk I/O is incredibly important when virtualising, particularly when you have multiple VM's residing on the same physical disk. SATA is inadequate for a server of this nature.

Lastly, where is the 4th SATA drive...I see only 3 external bays, is the other on an external SATA connector or internally mounted?

Explanation please...as it's an interesting project.

....sorry to be picky, but you want to build a cheetah right, not an elephant.

atanum141 · 5th Sep 2006, 16:42

Christ almighty!

I shall be there!

ozstrike · 5th Sep 2006, 16:51

Woah. I remember there being some hints of something to do with a bit-tech server, but this is just awesome. Hopefully it'll be advertised on the front page more, as the old one wasn't really well publicised and so was nearly always empty.
Nice one guys

Tim S · 5th Sep 2006, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozstrike

Woah. I remember there being some hints of something to do with a bit-tech server, but this is just awesome. Hopefully it'll be advertised on the front page more, as the old one wasn't really well publicised and so was nearly always empty.
Nice one guys

Force refresh the front page

WilHarris · 5th Sep 2006, 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rascal

Nice hardware spec, but why on earth did you install windows 64bit as the base operating system?? Runing VMware is absolutely a good thing to do, but is severely hampered by not using it as the base operating system itself. Did you do this because of the VMware ESX licencing cost? coz you are loosing out on a big chunk of performance by not truely virtualising.

VMware ESX should be the base OS with windows 2003 64bit running as a virtual alongside linux etc.

Seems like a big waste of 8GB ram and 8 or so cores.

The other oversight seems to be the lack of SAS drives. Disk I/O is incredibly important when virtualising, particularly when you have multiple VM's residing on the same physical disk. SATA is inadequate for a server of this nature.

Lastly, where is the 4th SATA drive...I see only 3 external bays, is the other on an external SATA connector or internally mounted?

Explanation please...as it's an interesting project.

....sorry to be picky, but you want to build a cheetah right, not an elephant.

Three words - work in progress

Definitely taking your comments on board, we have lots of work to do on the server before we're done with it!

Spode · 5th Sep 2006, 16:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rascal

Nice hardware spec, but why on earth did you install windows 64bit as the base operating system?? Runing VMware is absolutely a good thing to do, but is severely hampered by not using it as the base operating system itself. Did you do this because of the VMware ESX licencing cost? coz you are loosing out on a big chunk of performance by not truely virtualising.

VMware ESX should be the base OS with windows 2003 64bit running as a virtual alongside linux etc.

Seems like a big waste of 8GB ram and 8 or so cores.

The other oversight seems to be the lack of SAS drives. Disk I/O is incredibly important when virtualising, particularly when you have multiple VM's residing on the same physical disk. SATA is inadequate for a server of this nature.

Lastly, where is the 4th SATA drive...I see only 3 external bays, is the other on an external SATA connector or internally mounted?

Explanation please...as it's an interesting project.

....sorry to be picky, but you want to build a cheetah right, not an elephant.

Hi There, cheers for replying (especially as you've registered especially to do so).

I'm sure it was mentioned in the review that this is being done in joint with Trusted Reviews, which is where I'm from if you don't recognise my name straight away.

I compeltely agree with your sentiments. I didn't want to install Windows as the base OS. However, some of this hardware is still in alpha, and we had a few issues with the RAID setup. As this wasn't finalised and would probably involve a re-install at some point, we figured this would do for the moment. We'll be following up on the article once we get these issues figured out and virtualization going ahead fully.

I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a virtualization geek (yet), and I was under the impression VMWare it had to be installed on to an OS in the first place (I was going to put Fedora x64 on there). Looking up ESX, it would seem a considerably better way of going. Now it's just a matter of finding the funds for the license

As far as SAS, for running gaming servers - I wasn't convinced the IO was going to be particuarly important as it'll be mainly running from memory? No?

ozstrike · 5th Sep 2006, 16:58

I thought I remembered Tim hinting at something

Edit: ah I see the advert on the front page now. Is that going to be a semi-permanent thing, or are you going to find other ways to publicise it?

5th Sep 2006, 15:42	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	bit-tech's Multi-Core Gaming Server http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/..._server/1.html __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

5th Sep 2006, 15:52	#3
Spacecowboy92 Gettin' Lazy Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Winchester, UK Posts: 757	Nice system. Too bad I have a wedding at 5. I mean who has a wedding at five in the evening on wendsday?!?! __________________

5th Sep 2006, 16:00	#4
specofdust Banned Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Aberdeen, UK, EU Posts: 7,615	I shall be there, and, the system looks lurvly - I can't imagine the power in that thing, but I can assume it's rather enjoyable to use. __________________ Like marmite, only no-one hates it Mmm bop!

5th Sep 2006, 16:00	#5
Enak Also known as Kane Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Hertfordshire, UK Posts: 830	Show off! __________________ Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, Pentium 4 3GHz, 2Gb DDRRAM, Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS+ 512MB, Matrox TripleHead2Go, 3x Iiyama 4637 18.1" TFTs, Audigy 2 ZS, Matrox RT.x100, Silentmaxx Acoustic Case

5th Sep 2006, 16:08	#7
BioSniper I Mod, Therefore I Own Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Somewhere in the south Posts: 3,460	damn. I dont think I'll be able to download CS:S quick enough as I've not re-dwnloaded it since format ::EDIT:: Only 900MB or so to download, which is good. The bad however is that I'm only on a 1MB connection. Oh yeah.. that and I suck at CS:S anyway :P Is the prize.. the server? (wishful thinking) __________________ My Flickr :: Bit-tech Flickr Wii: 1792 1527 2926 7945 :: Xbox Live: BioSnipr :: PSN: Biosnipr Last edited by BioSniper; 5th Sep 2006 at 16:13.

5th Sep 2006, 15:47	#2
RTT bwarp Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Berkshire Posts: 12,985

5th Sep 2006, 16:11	#8
genesisofthesith complete spanner Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: swansea, wales Posts: 533	"Right now, we can't tell you exactly what our gaming server is running - not until the Intel Developer Forum at the end of September" So does that mean it's not a cloverton ES? __________________ My sweetest downfall

5th Sep 2006, 16:14	#9
planki ... Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: nottingham Posts: 1,121	doh, might have to start playing cs again! __________________ Whoopa

5th Sep 2006, 16:17	#11
LAGMonkey Group 7 error Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Canada/Saudi Posts: 1,449	FREAK out!!! I cant wait till my 10meg line is up and running to get back into CS again. w00000 __________________ ---------------LAG out!--------------- http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com 100% Brainless]

5th Sep 2006, 16:28	#12
gideon Multimodder Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: behind my screen Posts: 135	why don't i have counterstrike ahh well good luck for the others

5th Sep 2006, 16:35	#13
Ramble Ginger Nut Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Exeter, Devon/Wantage, Oxfordshire Posts: 5,235	Why am I on a laptop?? Damn you Bit-Tech! __________________ Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky are beaming down to the planet. Guess who's not coming back.

5th Sep 2006, 16:40	#14
Rascal What's a Dremel? Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 2	why? Nice hardware spec, but why on earth did you install windows 64bit as the base operating system?? Runing VMware is absolutely a good thing to do, but is severely hampered by not using it as the base operating system itself. Did you do this because of the VMware ESX licencing cost? coz you are loosing out on a big chunk of performance by not truely virtualising. VMware ESX should be the base OS with windows 2003 64bit running as a virtual alongside linux etc. Seems like a big waste of 8GB ram and 8 or so cores. The other oversight seems to be the lack of SAS drives. Disk I/O is incredibly important when virtualising, particularly when you have multiple VM's residing on the same physical disk. SATA is inadequate for a server of this nature. Lastly, where is the 4th SATA drive...I see only 3 external bays, is the other on an external SATA connector or internally mounted? Explanation please...as it's an interesting project. ....sorry to be picky, but you want to build a cheetah right, not an elephant.

5th Sep 2006, 16:42	#15
atanum141 I fapped to your post! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: London Posts: 7,538	Christ almighty! I shall be there! __________________ Welcome to Thunderdome, B*tch XBL: atanum141

5th Sep 2006, 16:51	#16
ozstrike yip yip yip yip Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Lake District, UK Posts: 2,922	Woah. I remember there being some hints of something to do with a bit-tech server, but this is just awesome. Hopefully it'll be advertised on the front page more, as the old one wasn't really well publicised and so was nearly always empty. Nice one guys __________________ Last.FM \| Flickr \| Enter the POTM! \| Blog

5th Sep 2006, 16:58	#20
ozstrike yip yip yip yip Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Lake District, UK Posts: 2,922	I thought I remembered Tim hinting at something Edit: ah I see the advert on the front page now. Is that going to be a semi-permanent thing, or are you going to find other ways to publicise it? __________________ Last.FM \| Flickr \| Enter the POTM! \| Blog