# FTB Minecraft server hardware requirements/possible server build



## Ensefalon (Dec 21, 2016)

Me and a large group of guys all play sandbox games like minecraft and usually have large LAN parties in a special room...This might not be the place for me to be posting a thread like this but this is the only forum I stalk regularly.
I'll provide a list of mods on request
I plan on using 104 mods and a world generated on amplified running 1.7.10
I have many server options for me to choose from but nothing modern from today's xeon families after 2011
I was wondering also if my dell poweredge 1950 gen II, 2x Dual core Xeon 5160's @3.00 ghz with 24GB of RAM and 4x 36GB 15K RPM in RAID 10.
I am not limited in any way in both internet speed or network speed.
What are both the minimum and recommended specs for hosting a minecraft server with 104 mods and would my server be a thoughtful consideration to put in mind?
Quick edit: Any hardware recommendations are appreciated


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## silentbogo (Dec 21, 2016)

http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Server/Requirements/Dedicated#Console

Forget about poweredge, and forget about paid VPS hosting. 

I think I've only played Minecraft once, but from what I know, I seriously doubt that even with all the mods your group will exceed requirements for 12+ player server.
My opinion: for less than 10 people you should try one of the embedded platforms first, like something based on Celeron J1900 or N3150, put 8GB RAM and a 60GB SSD in it - see how it goes.
You should be able to make it under $100 if you go with used HW. Plus it will be quiet and consume no more than 15W from the wall (for the entire system).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135391


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## FYFI13 (Dec 21, 2016)

Soe time ago i tried to host Vanilla MC server on a laptop with Pentium N3520. With 7 players on experience wasn't the best... MC server can utilize 1 CPU core/thread only.
I'd say either get a CPU with strong single core performance (Pentium G3258/G4400) or just pay for proper hosting and forget about all hassle. SSD is a must.


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## Ensefalon (Dec 21, 2016)

silentbogo said:


> http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Server/Requirements/Dedicated#Console
> 
> Forget about poweredge, and forget about paid VPS hosting.
> 
> ...


Here's the limiting factor with it...I would be limited RAM wise and also the ability to scale or to make hardware changes. SSDs burn out, I will have no ability to raid drives. I really like your idea...I should probably put some money towards some new processors for that PE 1950 ii


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 21, 2016)

I host a FTB infinity server on a linux VM using a ramdisk and it runs perfectly fine. All you really need is 16GB of ram and a quad core to get a smoother experience for your players.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 21, 2016)

Last I checked, Minecraft is still single threaded.  So multi-core Xeons aren't going to be the best option.  A higher clocked desktop processor, with tons of RAM, and an SSD would be the best option.

I'd go with an i5-6600K or even the older generation i5-4690K/4670K.  You can probably pick up the previous generation stuff pretty cheap.  Toss 16-32GB of RAM in it, and a 120GB SSD in for the OS and a 240GB in for the Minecraft world to live on.  And fear SSDs, they don't burn out quickly.  The modern ones you'd have to write to them, at full speed, for years before they'd start to wear out.


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## FYFI13 (Dec 21, 2016)

newtekie1 said:


> Last I checked, Minecraft is still single threaded.  So multi-core Xeons aren't going to be the best option.  A higher clocked desktop processor, with tons of RAM, and an SSD would be the best option.
> 
> I'd go with an i5-6600K or even the older generation i5-4690K/4670K.  You can probably pick up the previous generation stuff pretty cheap.  Toss 16-32GB of RAM in it, and a 120GB SSD in for the OS and a 240GB in for the Minecraft world to live on.  And fear SSDs, they don't burn out quickly.  The modern ones you'd have to write to them, at full speed, for years before they'd start to wear out.


Even i5 4690K is waste of money, G3258 single core performance is exactly same.


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## silentbogo (Dec 21, 2016)

If you, guys, say Minecraft is single-threaded, then I will definitely agree on G3258 or maybe even 3260 (couple of $$ cheaper).
I think there is still no CPU that can match that IPC in single-threaded tasks without overclocking. 

BTW, if you are in US, you can also check out G3260T. 
There are lots of them on eBay, priced under $40 (leftovers from AIO PC upgrades).
It's underclocked, but still quite adequate for a 35W CPU.
All together, with an SSD it can be powered even by the cheapest 60W PicoPSU, which translates to almost no overhead to your monthly power usage.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 21, 2016)

FYFI13 said:


> Even i5 4690K is waste of money, G3258 single core performance is exactly same.



The doubled cache size does help single threaded performance.

Plus, the extra cores do help if you run other things in the background, like mapping software, and world backups. The software I used to generate map images of the world was multi-threaded, so it ran a lot faster on the 6-Core I used compared to the dual-core I started with. Then there was the SQL database running for the anti-grief mod, and the management software running to manage users and permissions.


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## Ensefalon (Dec 22, 2016)

newtekie1 said:


> The doubled cache size does help single threaded performance.
> 
> Plus, the extra cores do help if you run other things in the background, like mapping software, and world backups. The software I used to generate map images of the world was multi-threaded, so it ran a lot faster on the 6-Core I used compared to the dual-core I started with. Then there was the SQL database running for the anti-grief mod, and the management software running to manage users and permissions.


How much cache is recommended? I'm trying to get a decent pair of Xeons that can manage the minecraft server load, but I am limited to models of socket 771, the 5000-5400 series of xeons. Recommendations?


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 22, 2016)

Here is what I got running. This is currently hosting two identical FTB servers with some extra mods (201 mods total). Below that is what resources its using without any players connected to the server.


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## newtekie1 (Dec 22, 2016)

Ensefalon said:


> How much cache is recommended? I'm trying to get a decent pair of Xeons that can manage the minecraft server load, but I am limited to models of socket 771, the 5000-5400 series of xeons. Recommendations?



Don't get Xeons, you can't overclock them.  Hell, if you are using hardware that old, get a Q6600 or a Q9650 and push them to over 3GHz.  A Quad-core is nice to have to handle the background tasks associated with Minecraft servers, but any more than that is largely wasted.  You want a high clocked Quad-core.

If anything, start with a G3258 and overclock that in a Z97 motherboard.  When that starts to bog down, grab a cheap used i5-4670k/4690k off ebay.  You can already pick them up in the low $150 range.


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## Ensefalon (Dec 22, 2016)

newtekie1 said:


> Don't get Xeons, you can't overclock them.  Hell, if you are using hardware that old, get a Q6600 or a Q9650 and push them to over 3GHz.  A Quad-core is nice to have to handle the background tasks associated with Minecraft servers, but any more than that is largely wasted.  You want a high clocked Quad-core.
> 
> If anything, start with a G3258 and overclock that in a Z97 motherboard.  When that starts to bog down, grab a cheap used i5-4670k/4690k off ebay.  You can already pick them up in the low $150 range.


I'm trying to avoid spending over a hundred dollars on a minecraft server alone...I'll reuse my previous router/web caching proxy server (HP DL360 G5) and put some X5460's at 3.16ghz.

For server use...I don't want to overclock, I'm looking to squeeze as much life out of my server as possible.

Vmware is utter crap when it comes to hosting dedicated gameservers


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## Ensefalon (Dec 22, 2016)

brandonwh64 said:


> Here is what I got running. This is currently hosting two identical FTB servers with some extra mods (201 mods total). Below that is what resources its using without any players connected to the server.


May I ask what hardware you are using?


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 23, 2016)

Ensefalon said:


> May I ask what hardware you are using?



It run on a HP dual socketed 48 core 300+ GB of ram ESX host. The specs are in my picture of the VM I am running. The VM is running ubuntu and I have both minecraft servers on a 4gb ram disk each.


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## 7uppi (Jul 4, 2018)

Now I kind of hope that some of you guys will see this message even though it is a couple of years since this thread was last active.

But my question is;
Now as of mid 2018, is a G3258 still a good option?
I have made a little build and was wondering if it is looking okay, or too much?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/shWcMZ


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## Vario (Jul 4, 2018)

7uppi said:


> Now I kind of hope that some of you guys will see this message even though it is a couple of years since this thread was last active.
> 
> But my question is;
> Now as of mid 2018, is a G3258 still a good option?
> ...


If you are purely hosting a MC server its probably fine but if you want to do anything else on it you'd probably want a quad core.  You can buy a G3258 off ebay for around $25.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 4, 2018)

Vario said:


> If you are purely hosting a MC server its probably fine but if you want to do anything else on it you'd probably want a quad core.  You can buy a G3258 off ebay for around $25.



I agree.  I'd say if you aready have the motherboard or processor, go with it.  But if you are buying the motherboard and processor, I'd go with something a little newer that uses DDR4.


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## Toothless (Jul 4, 2018)

7uppi said:


> Now I kind of hope that some of you guys will see this message even though it is a couple of years since this thread was last active.
> 
> But my question is;
> Now as of mid 2018, is a G3258 still a good option?
> ...


Honestly could sell the board and cooler, get a lower, non-overclocking board and Hyper 212 and save some cash.


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## Ensefalon (Jul 4, 2018)

newtekie1 said:


> I agree.  I'd say if you aready have the motherboard or processor, go with it.  But if you are buying the motherboard and processor, I'd go with something a little newer that uses DDR4.


Why DDR4? DDR2 might be slow as a shit stain running down my dad's ass crack but the cas timings DDR2 has are, W A Y better


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## Toothless (Jul 4, 2018)

Ensefalon said:


> Why DDR4? DDR2 might be slow as a shit stain running down my dad's ass crack but the cas timings DDR2 has are, W A Y better


Not sure where ddr2 came from but the guy has ddr3.


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## Ensefalon (Jul 4, 2018)

Toothless said:


> Not sure where ddr2 came from but the guy has ddr3.



My point still stands that memory throughput is not as important as individual dimm CAS timings due to the amount of commitable read and writes a minecraft dedi does to RAM


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## hat (Jul 4, 2018)

Not really. All these things come together to result in the actual *access time* of the memory. 

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/memory-performance-speed-latency

The timings of current DDR4 memory may seem ridiculous to those of us who got started with DDR1 or DDR2, but those timings are only one part of the puzzle.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 4, 2018)

Ensefalon said:


> Why DDR4? DDR2 might be slow as a shit stain running down my dad's ass crack but the cas timings DDR2 has are, W A Y better



Because DDR4 has an upgrade path, and the latency on DDR4 can actually be less than DDR3.


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## 7uppi (Jul 5, 2018)

Heh. I might have misstyped something in my first comment. The thing is, I don't have anything. I am planning to buy everything at some point, and build it from scratch.

Now because I have to buy everything, any good idea for the hardware needed, if I am also planning to run other servers. It should be noted, that I am not going to run more than one server at a time.


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## Caring1 (Jul 5, 2018)

i3-8100 CPU and a decent socket 1151 Motherboard, build up from there.
I'd suggest Asrock Motherboards as my personal preference.
Asrock H310M-HDV/M.2


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## 7uppi (Jul 5, 2018)

Caring1 said:


> i3-8100 CPU and a decent socket 1151 Motherboard, build up from there.
> I'd suggest Asrock Motherboards as my personal preference.
> Asrock H310M-HDV/M.2



Do you think the CPU will be good enough to host something like a minecraft server?
And also, the mobo is great for a compact server build. Will definitely look into that mobo. One last thing, how much RAM would you suggest, and just go for 2400MHz?


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## Caring1 (Jul 5, 2018)

An i3 is fine for a server, the fact it is a quad core at 3.6GHz means it should be better than the CPU you originally listed, also 2400MHz Ram is a good choice as the CPU dictates what Ram can be used.


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## 7uppi (Jul 5, 2018)

Caring1 said:


> An i3 is fine for a server, the fact it is a quad core at 3.6GHz means it should be better than the CPU you originally listed, also 2400MHz Ram is a good choice as the CPU dictates what Ram can be used.



So something like 16GB, or even more? A server can take quite a lot, right? I mean when people are running in different directions as an example.


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## Caring1 (Jul 5, 2018)

16Gb should do to begin with, just to test the waters so to speak, if that seems insufficient then the maximum that board can carry is 32Gb, but DDR4 isn't that cheap yet that you want to fill it up if trying to make a cheap build.


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## 7uppi (Jul 5, 2018)

Caring1 said:


> 16Gb should do to begin with, just to test the waters so to speak, if that seems insufficient then the maximum that board can carry is 32Gb, but DDR4 isn't that cheap yet that you want to fill it up if trying to make a cheap build.



AYea. I know about the prices. I think I will start out with 16GB then. Thanks for the help.



Caring1 said:


> 16Gb should do to begin with, just to test the waters so to speak, if that seems insufficient then the maximum that board can carry is 32Gb, but DDR4 isn't that cheap yet that you want to fill it up if trying to make a cheap build.



I was actually just thinking about if it would be better to go for the i3-8350K to get a higher clock speed, and the availability to increase it?


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## 7uppi (Jul 6, 2018)

Do any of you now if minecraft server still is single threaded?


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## Luicfer_009 (Oct 30, 2020)

Hey, I'm aware I'm responding to this thread very late but I've been doing research into this for quite some time now and I'm also looking to build a dedicated Minecraft server machine.
Through my time running servers simply through forge I've discovered that it's very single-threaded dependant - but on medium-sized modpacks that I want to run (~80 mods) the amount of RAM dedicated to the server is more of a pretty good guess than an exact science.

I created this parts list - however most of the parts I'm intending to get second hand
The reason for the relatively high 32GB of RAM, and I actually intend to get 64GB, is because I'm running a Linux OS called MineOS - It's incredibly low profile so it uses nearly no system resources to run leaving it all to the server, it has a remote access web client for control and you can FTP into it to configure server files.
This OS can run multiple servers at the same time, I don't know how that works with ports but I'll get into that when I get into it

Anyways - here is my parts list I hope this helped anyone with a similar issue. I'd love to hear opinions on the parts list from people who've run dedicated machines for Minecraft in the past.\





						System Builder
					






					uk.pcpartpicker.com


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## Ensefalon (Oct 30, 2020)

OP Here, I've had_ two years_ to experiment so far regarding Minecraft Server Performance since I posted this thread.

*JUST TO BE CLEAR: *I am speaking of *Minecraft Java Edition*. The version I've experimented most with is* 1.7.10*(And the most mod abundant)

Many people ask if Minecraft is single threaded, short answer: yes, long answer: Somewhat. 

Java Minecraft demands fast CPUs, however, older gen high clock speed server(3.00+ Ghz Xeon) CPUs WILL NOT outperform later gen lower clock speeds(2.4-3.0 Ghz). This is due to lithography, switch speeds, transistor counts, CPU enhancements, clock boosts, hyperthreading, and better non-FSB and rather the QPI memory interface.

I've heard a huge debate take place regarding memory. Calculate access times. I used mirrored memory on my HP DL 380 G5 for my minecraft server for a while and definitely helped with paging speeds and the sort. The lower the cas timing, and the higher the clock speed, the better you are off. "Why?" you might ask. *Minecraft is written in a language that uses a JDK as old as the hills and memory garbage collection and management speeds with JDK 8 is absolutely abysmal and I recommend that you DO NOT! Do NOT! Buy 64 Gigs of RAM and devote minecraft to 60 of those Gigs! The JVM will chug as it handles all of that memory. More RAM is definitely not better unless it is being used by a server that ACTUALLY needs it. *You can make better use of your pricey purchase simply by putting the server on a RAM disk and doing periodic backups to local disk or LAN if you do not have a sufficient hard disk drive.

It's up to you to determine the best bang for your buck. *Do research*. It takes the most amount of time but I tell you that any and every owner of a server/datacenter goes through and does the math down to TDP calculations.


Look for RAM with the highest speeds and lowest possible CAS latency. Use this calculator to determine best fit
Look for the latest gen CPU family with the highest possible clock speeds and computational aides(Hyperthreading, high clock boosts
Don't overclock your CPU. It may seem like a great idea but the reliability of a server far exceeds its performance in almost every case. No amount of performance boost can replace damaged hardware. Again up to you, but I myself as a server room manager, do NOT recommend such practice.(Downtime = less players)
I like mirrored memory. Don't know why. Java is an enterprise language built for enterprise hardware. If supported, use it. However your mileage may vary in terms of performance gain.
1 SSD will always outperform 8x 10K SAS Drives in RAID 10. RAID configurations are nice, but for something so instantial as minecraft, RAM disk and fast memory will always outperform any RAID array/disk configuration.
Use an OS that JVM likes. WIndows is fine, and the easiest to manage. There is not however, any substantial advantage to running another OS you're unfamiliar with. Windows schedules tasks accordingly and is not that much of a resource hog except for the gig of ram it uses as a heating pad.
Personal preference, consumer gear is nice, but usually lacks in reliability. I've had the same servers since 2013 that I've taken with me from house to house I lived. Cheaper than consumer hardware too.
My seven cents. Be wise. A server from 2009 will do just fine. If you're trying to turn a profit with a machine, invest in latest gen DELL 1U and pop in some nice SSDs and it'll be well worth the minimal electric bill. Granted, if you can handle the noise

Long live god and his son

Amen





7uppi said:


> Do any of you now if minecraft server still is single threaded?





Luicfer_009 said:


> Hey, I'm aware I'm responding to this thread very late but I've been doing research into this for quite some time now and I'm also looking to build a dedicated Minecraft server machine.
> Through my time running servers simply through forge I've discovered that it's very single-threaded dependant - but on medium-sized modpacks that I want to run (~80 mods) the amount of RAM dedicated to the server is more of a pretty good guess than an exact science.
> 
> I created this parts list - however most of the parts I'm intending to get second hand
> ...


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