Building a Steam server

[The VCR King]

Later I plan to build a server and use it to host a TF2 server in Steam, and before I go planning I have some questions...

1. Do I need a SERVER tower or can I make do with an old desktop PC formatted to run server/VM?

2. If I bought a PC with an older processor, would a Pentium II support my server needs?

3. I like how this old machine on eBay looks. Will it work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sun-Microsy...338608?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item2c91107fb0

 

[voyagerfan99]

None of what you have in mind will host a TF2 server. You can use a regular desktop, yes, but it needs to be fairly current and up to date spec wise. Even when I ran a Minecraft server on some old ProLiant servers (from around 2003/2004) the server still lagged.

 

[fade2green514]

if it were me I'd get a xeon with some ecc ram & running 32+gb of ram. but hey, who wants to do things right nowadays?

that old ebay thing will probably not even run Microsoft word well. lol

 

[voyagerfan99]

that old ebay thing will probably not even run Microsoft word well. lol

It would run Windows 98 and that's about it.

 

[Geoff]

Later I plan to build a server and use it to host a TF2 server in Steam, and before I go planning I have some questions...

1. Do I need a SERVER tower or can I make do with an old desktop PC formatted to run server/VM?

2. If I bought a PC with an older processor, would a Pentium II support my server needs?

3. I like how this old machine on eBay looks. Will it work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sun-Microsy...338608?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item2c91107fb0

Are you serious? For $200 you can buy a much better computer, honestly you should have to pay to get rid of that server, no one would pay that for it.

A regular desktop would work, but as voyagerfan said it needs to be somewhat current to host a full game lobby. You will also need a decent internet speed, what is your upload/download speed?

 

[beers]

lol, the Sun you listed doesn't even have an x86 processor..

I would just run it on a VM. Then, when you discover your home ISP's upload both sucks enough not to facilitate a reasonable amount of clients but also presents all users high latency through excessive Internet hops, you can just rent a dedicated server from somewhere instead.

 

[The VCR King]

My speeds:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3945688348.png

 

[Geoff]

My speeds:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3945688348.png

Those are awful speeds. You aren't going to be able to host a full game server with 400Kbps upload.

 

[Darren]

My speeds:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3945688348.png

I honestly can't tell if you're kidding or not. You couldn't even host a 3 person Minecraft server with that, let alone a full TF2 server.

 

[OvenMaster]

Most ISPs frown on home users operating servers. Mine (Verizon DSL) specifically forbids it in their Terms of Service.

 

[Agent Smith]

Just buy a dedicated server. https://www.gameservers.com/game_servers/team_fortress_2.php