Ingredients needed in building your Gaming server

Here is the list of the minimum you will need to build your gaming server:

Hardware parts:

CPU: - How fast a CPU do you need? That depends on the number of players you expect to support. On an estimate, you can support up to 8 players with 1000 MHz Pentium 3 processor. You can support up to 16 players with 2.3 MHz Pentium 4 processor and up to 32 players with 3.0 GHz processor.

RAM: - When it comes to memory, more is always better, as it will help protect against performance drops. With above processors you will need a minimum of 384 MB RAM. Try to get at least DDR SDRAM. You can also take latest RD RAM, but that may be very expensive. If you wish to support more then 32 players then you will have to increase memory. As the processor for more then 3GHz series does not exists. Some people even consider having 1 GHz of memory that helps them to maintain high number of players without hindering performance. This also helps them to multiple games from one server machine.

Hard drive: The other thing that plays a vital role is the hard disk drive. A 7200 RPM hard disk is must. You can have a 40 GB hard disk to run one or more games as it is not a big issue as with RAM.

Multiple hard drive controllers or striped (level 0) RAID (optional): For performance reasons, it is recommended that you run no more than one type of game on a single machine. For a host with limited resources, it can be adjusted in such a way that the performance is not affected. You can increase the power of the system's CPU and add a second hard drive, either on a different controller or in a RAID Level 0 (striped) array. Some vendors may also want to offer an extra but seldom played game on the same package then the host can have multiple game servers run on a single machine. These hardware upgrades will help to prevent disk contention from slowing the performance of either game.

Softwares: The fist software you need is a powerful Operating system. The requirements of a game server are relatively modest. Most game servers are rated to run on any version of Windows, even Windows 98. But for stability purposes, it is recommended that you consider Windows 2000 Professional the bare minimum requirement. I used Windows XP Professional. Some hosts also prefer to run on Linux for greater safety.

Game server software: You will need to install game server software first. You can obtain free and licensed server softwares from internet. See that the software is a dedicated one.

Game client software: The client software needs to be obtained on licensed basis. A host will need to acquire one license for each person who will be concurrently playing the game. The game is installed on client's PCs, which are connected to the server via the LAN.