• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Xeon recommendation for hosting small Minecraft server

Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
99 (0.07/day)
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
System Name Black Box II
Processor Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wifi
Cooling Chromax Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB (4 x 8GB) TeamGroup 3200MHz
Video Card(s) XFX Merc RX 6900XT Limited Black
Storage WD Black SN770 (1TB), Crucial P1 (1TB)
Display(s) LG 34UC79G-B, BenQ GL2760-B
Case CoolerMaster CM 690 III
Audio Device(s) Speakers: Altec Lansing 251 | Microphone: Tonor Q9
Power Supply Corsair RM1000x
Mouse Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard Corsair K70 Core
The current server runs off of a i3-4130 and I would need to find a low power i5 or i7 (S-suffix) in order to upgrade the cpu as the computer is a HP Prodesk 400 G2.5 SFF. These don't seem to be common where I am located. The server is not modded; there are a few datapacks I am running but those do not change the gameplay much. The server really only has 5 people online at the same time maximum but my friends keep requesting people to be added so I would like some more capable hardware.

Recently I managed to find a Chinese X79 motherboard for 25 maple rubles.
20210823_143748_HDR.jpg

I am not sure whether it would be good to have more cores or to have higher clocks and I am generally unfamiliar with Xeon nomenclature. If I could get some advice on what would be better suited to running the sever or some recommendations as to what model of Xeon I should get, I would be really grateful!

Thanks for reading through this post!
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,615 (2.46/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 7800x3D
Motherboard x670e Asus Crosshair Hero
Cooling Corsair H150i RGB Elite
Memory 2x24 Klevv Cras V RGB
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx, 2x AOC 2425W, AOC I1601FWUX
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
I'm running a server on a stock x5675, 6x4GB and Java is the bottleneck. Had 6+ people at once on and ran perfectly fine.

I could see a 1660v2 being all good.
 

johnspack

Here For Good!
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
6,035 (0.96/day)
Location
Nelson B.C. Canada
System Name System2 Blacknet , System1 Blacknet2
Processor System2 Threadripper 1920x, System1 2699 v3
Motherboard System2 Asrock Fatality x399 Professional Gaming, System1 Asus X99-A
Cooling System2 Noctua NH-U14 TR4-SP3 Dual 140mm fans, System1 AIO
Memory System2 64GBS DDR4 3000, System1 32gbs DDR4 2400
Video Card(s) System2 GTX 980Ti System1 GTX 970
Storage System2 4x SSDs + NVme= 2.250TB 2xStorage Drives=8TB System1 3x SSDs=2TB
Display(s) 1x27" 1440 display 1x 24" 1080 display
Case System2 Some Nzxt case with soundproofing...
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar U7 MKII
Power Supply System2 EVGA 750 Watt, System1 XFX XTR 750 Watt
Mouse Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum
Keyboard Ducky
Software Archlinux, Manjaro, Win11 Ent 24h2
Benchmark Scores It's linux baby!
Joined
May 28, 2020
Messages
752 (0.46/day)
System Name Main PC
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Motherboard ASUS X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)
Cooling EKWB X570 VIII Hero Monoblock, 2x XD5, Heatkiller IV SB block for chipset,Alphacool 3090 Strix block
Memory 4x16GB 3200-14-14-14-34 G.Skill Trident RGB (OC: 3600-14-14-14-28)
Video Card(s) ASUS RTX 3090 Strix OC
Storage 500GB+500GB SSD RAID0, Fusion IoDrive2 1.2TB, Huawei HSSD 2TB, 11TB on server used for steam
Display(s) Dell LG CX48 (custom res: 3840x1620@120Hz) + Acer XB271HU 2560x1440@144Hz
Case Corsair 1000D
Audio Device(s) Sennheiser HD599, Blue Yeti
Power Supply Corsair RM1000i
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair Strafe RGB MK2
Software Windows 10 Pro 20H2
Keep in mind Minecraft is frequency and RAM-dependant for the most part, core count isn't needed unless you're running instances.

IIRC the server .jre is single-threaded or uses like the first two cores only, something like that. So getting the fastest single-thread CPU you can get is your best bet, then pair that with a decent amount of RAM (depending on how many players, and whether you'll run mods/plugins).
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
99 (0.07/day)
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
System Name Black Box II
Processor Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wifi
Cooling Chromax Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB (4 x 8GB) TeamGroup 3200MHz
Video Card(s) XFX Merc RX 6900XT Limited Black
Storage WD Black SN770 (1TB), Crucial P1 (1TB)
Display(s) LG 34UC79G-B, BenQ GL2760-B
Case CoolerMaster CM 690 III
Audio Device(s) Speakers: Altec Lansing 251 | Microphone: Tonor Q9
Power Supply Corsair RM1000x
Mouse Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard Corsair K70 Core
I'm running a server on a stock x5675, 6x4GB and Java is the bottleneck. Had 6+ people at once on and ran perfectly fine.

I could see a 1660v2 being all good.
Hunt in there: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311&_nkw=1680+v2&_sacat=0
Nevermind, get first one. Or else go 12 core, but you don't really need that.
A E5-1650v2 is easier to find and cheaper, yet only 200mhz slower.

Given what the OP is doing, an E5-1620v2 would be a solid choice too!
Keep in mind Minecraft is frequency and RAM-dependant for the most part, core count isn't needed unless you're running instances.

IIRC the server .jre is single-threaded or uses like the first two cores only, something like that. So getting the fastest single-thread CPU you can get is your best bet, then pair that with a decent amount of RAM (depending on how many players, and whether you'll run mods/plugins).


Thank you all for your responses!

I should have mentioned my budget! It is only around $50 CAD. Right now I think I have narrowed it down to two options: the E5-1620 v2 for around $30 or the E5-2637 v2 for around $50. They are both 4C/8T CPUs with a TDP of 130W.

ProcessorClock/TurboCacheBus SpeedQPI links
E5-1620 v23.7/3.910MB0 GT/s0
E5-2637 v23.5/3.815MB8 GT/s2

I am not sure what the differences in Bus Speed and QPI links are and how they would affect performance, could someone explain?
Would these extra features be worth the extra $20?

Thanks again!
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,615 (2.46/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 7800x3D
Motherboard x670e Asus Crosshair Hero
Cooling Corsair H150i RGB Elite
Memory 2x24 Klevv Cras V RGB
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx, 2x AOC 2425W, AOC I1601FWUX
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
The 26xx you can dual socket. In this case you want 16xx chips as it had a higher clock and can't do dual socket.
 
Joined
May 28, 2020
Messages
752 (0.46/day)
System Name Main PC
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Motherboard ASUS X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi)
Cooling EKWB X570 VIII Hero Monoblock, 2x XD5, Heatkiller IV SB block for chipset,Alphacool 3090 Strix block
Memory 4x16GB 3200-14-14-14-34 G.Skill Trident RGB (OC: 3600-14-14-14-28)
Video Card(s) ASUS RTX 3090 Strix OC
Storage 500GB+500GB SSD RAID0, Fusion IoDrive2 1.2TB, Huawei HSSD 2TB, 11TB on server used for steam
Display(s) Dell LG CX48 (custom res: 3840x1620@120Hz) + Acer XB271HU 2560x1440@144Hz
Case Corsair 1000D
Audio Device(s) Sennheiser HD599, Blue Yeti
Power Supply Corsair RM1000i
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair Strafe RGB MK2
Software Windows 10 Pro 20H2
Thank you all for your responses!

I should have mentioned my budget! It is only around $50 CAD. Right now I think I have narrowed it down to two options: the E5-1620 v2 for around $30 or the E5-2637 v2 for around $50. They are both 4C/8T CPUs with a TDP of 130W.

ProcessorClock/TurboCacheBus SpeedQPI links
E5-1620 v23.7/3.910MB0 GT/s0
E5-2637 v23.5/3.815MB8 GT/s2

I am not sure what the differences in Bus Speed and QPI links are and how they would affect performance, could someone explain?
Would these extra features be worth the extra $20?

Thanks again!
QPI link is the links between CPUs - more links, more data can be transferred between which increases performance in multi-CPU workloads
The bus speed is how fast these links are.
In your case, multiple CPUs isn't needed or wanted, so those figures are irrelevant. Get the 1620 v2 as it has higher frequency anyway
 
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
27,940 (6.70/day)
I should have mentioned my budget! It is only around $50 CAD. Right now I think I have narrowed it down to two options: the E5-1620 v2 for around $30 or the E5-2637 v2 for around $50. They are both 4C/8T CPUs with a TDP of 130W.

ProcessorClock/TurboCacheBus SpeedQPI links
E5-1620 v23.7/3.910MB5 GT/s1
E5-2637 v23.5/3.815MB8 GT/s2

I am not sure what the differences in Bus Speed and QPI links are and how they would affect performance, could someone explain?
Would these extra features be worth the extra $20?
See the bold/underlined changes. Those are the differences. The QPI links are the number of pathways that the CPU can use to "talk" to the memory, the PCIe bus and other system components. The more the merrier and the faster the better. And yes, they are worth the extra $20. The 2637v2 is easily the better CPU for the paces you'd put it through as a Minecraft server.
 

silentbogo

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
5,542 (1.37/day)
Location
Kyiv, Ukraine
System Name WS#1337
Processor Ryzen 7 5700X3D
Motherboard ASUS X570-PLUS TUF Gaming
Cooling Xigmatek Scylla 240mm AIO
Memory 4x8GB Samsung DDR4 ECC UDIMM
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio
Storage ADATA Legend 2TB + ADATA SX8200 Pro 1TB
Display(s) Samsung U24E590D (4K/UHD)
Case ghetto CM Cosmos RC-1000
Audio Device(s) ALC1220
Power Supply SeaSonic SSR-550FX (80+ GOLD)
Mouse Logitech G603
Keyboard Modecom Volcano Blade (Kailh choc LP)
VR HMD Google dreamview headset(aka fancy cardboard)
Software Windows 11, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Recently I managed to find a Chinese X79 motherboard for 25 maple rubles.
I hate these boards for many reasons, but for low-budget minecraft server it's perfect. DDR3 ECC is cheap and CPU prices are at their lowest.
I've built a little server for work based off HP Z620, and at the time it was a lot cheaper and nearly twice as powerful as the nearest desktop Ivy bridge.
Something like Xeon E5-2620 can be found as cheap as $10. Got my 2660 for under $20.
4x4GB DDR3 ECC REG cost me $50 or so, and it's easier to find cause it's abundant and has very little use outside server space. Sometimes (in my case, when local market gets over-saturated), you can get it even cheaper. At one point I was tempted to get a 128GB kit for $120, but for some reason prioritized other things.

If you have under 10 players, then it's a total overkill and you won't benefit from all the cores, but the main advantage of LGA2011 rig is price. I mean, it's a beast under $200.
You can potentially set it up as VM host, run Windows+Minecraft on one VM and use the rest of your resources for other interesting things.

HP Prodesk will also work, but even if you had a local CPU upgrade - it won't be cheap. Went through the same ordeal with my army of Lenovo M93p's.
You can give it a try on stock i3 - it should be fine if you aren't planning on having many players or large worlds.
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
99 (0.07/day)
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
System Name Black Box II
Processor Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard ASUS TUF Gaming X570-Plus Wifi
Cooling Chromax Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB (4 x 8GB) TeamGroup 3200MHz
Video Card(s) XFX Merc RX 6900XT Limited Black
Storage WD Black SN770 (1TB), Crucial P1 (1TB)
Display(s) LG 34UC79G-B, BenQ GL2760-B
Case CoolerMaster CM 690 III
Audio Device(s) Speakers: Altec Lansing 251 | Microphone: Tonor Q9
Power Supply Corsair RM1000x
Mouse Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard Corsair K70 Core
Thanks once again. I have decided to get the E5-1620 v2 in part because the motherboard only has two memory channels. Thank you everyone for the help!
 
Top