Best CPU for hosting a ~100+ server?

Discussion in 'Bukkit Discussion' started by TowelieDOH, Jan 10, 2013.

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  1. Hey guys,
    I'm currently running my server off a core i7 2600k @ 4.2ghz (very adequate cooling + it's in a datacenter where ambient temps are always at ~20-25*c), with 32GB ram but with more than 80 players, my server's TPS starts droping to as low as 3.5 (although that only happens with ~100 players).
    I am looking to upgrade the server completely (not only the CPU) and would like to hear suggestions for a good single-threaded performer.
    I was currently considereing a 3930k but from the interwebs, i hear 3770k might be a tad better for singlethreading.
    The only thing this machine will be running will be a 100man minecraft server with ~62 plugins and CentOS (and a MySQL server which will be used by the mc. server).
    My entire budget for the machine is ~1800$

    PS: The tps have gotten this bad since 1.4, before that i didn't have this problem.
     
  2. Offline

    drtshock

    I would suggest tweaking your server, I run off much cheaper hardware and can run way more players at a solid 20tps for 3 days without a restart.
     
  3. Offline

    Mortalsinn

    Have you looked at your plugins? most of the time it's plugins to blame for TPS drops, not hardware. I have a dedicated box (Intel Xeon E3-1270) with 32 gigs of Ram and a 160 gig SSD with 59 plugins currently and I can host 120 users with TPS staying at around 15 - 18. Even the smallest plugin poorly coded or out of date plugin that doesn't work well with new bukkit versions can cripple a large server.

    I find any plugin that uses the PlayerMovementEvent can cause some pretty serious lag at times.
     
  4. Yes, i have looked at the plugins and i couldn't find anything worrying. However, it seems 80% of the cpu usage is due to the Minecraft encryiption/decryption.
    Also, i've noticed something weird happening with the load jumping from a core to another constantly.

    drtshock - can you give more details please? (such as how many players do you run , what's your hardware, what are your launch params.
    Mortalsinn - my server is a dedicated box aswell (hardware owned by me, collocated by the datacenter). I don't have a SSD mainly because i run the worlds in a RAMdisk. Can you please specify your java launch params. ?

    I've attached my timings.txt (obtained by doing /timings separate with bukkit).
    timings.txt


    PS: I am aware about Plugin 35's large timings, it's a proprietary plugin and the dev is working on a new release now to fix that. However, it doesn't seem to affect the lag much (tried disabling it and testing without)

    Plugin 26 = MobArena
    Plugin 37 = Paintball
    Plugin 10 = MyHome (hasn't been updated in ages)

    Edit: I'm using CraftBukkit 1.4.6-R0.4
     
  5. Offline

    drtshock

    x3430 xeon processor @ 2.5ghz, 16gb ddr3 ram, 7200 rpm hdd. I own it and have it at a datacenter as well. I have had 125 people on with 20tps no problem running 42 plugins (but it depends on the plugins).
     
  6. Were the 125 people on one server or multiple servers running on the same machine?. Sounds a bit SciFi to me.
     
  7. Offline

    drtshock

    They were all on one server. I allocated 13gb of ram to one server and I also have mumble, mysql and a small web server running off of that same machine. Not sci fi :)
     
  8. Sorry but i just can't believe that.
    First of all, your server cpu has well... poor single-threaded and multi-threaded performance and you claim to be running 20TPS @ 125 players? that's unheard of.

    Your cpu:
    [​IMG]

    My cpu:
    [​IMG]

    Not to mention that your cpu is from an older generation and has 8mb of cache (which is the same ammount as mine)
    I'm not claiming my server is perfectly optimized, i'm sure i could pull more by reducing the number of plugins (whereas you have ~40, i have almost ~60) but from hosting 3 minecraft servers on 3 different machines i've learned that you simply can't run 100+ slots with 20TPS. Sure, that might be the peak for the first 5 minutes after the server starts, but really soon it drops under 10
     
  9. Offline

    Mortalsinn

    My start line:

    java -d64 -Xincgc -Xms24576M -Xmx24576M -jar craftbukkit.jar nogui

    By the way... I should mention I don't use Bukkit, I use Spigot and the performance gain is amazing.
     
  10. How is the Spigot update frequency?
     
  11. Offline

    Mortalsinn

    Spigot is updated as bukkit is updated, there is almost no delay. It's a lot more flexible. You can adjust timings for almost anything. Out of the box with no tweaks I noticed a considerable performance boost.

    Don't get me wrong, I still support bukkit. With out bukkit there would be no spigot but once my server grew past 75 users online at once + my 59 plugins I started noticing some serious slow downs and spigot so far has solved this.
     
  12. I see. My problem is that i use a serious of bukkit patches to change stuff like villager trading rates and changing to spigot would mean redoing those patches. But i guess i'll give it a try xd
     
  13. Offline

    drtshock

    I know I have an older cpu, but it was cheap and I don't beg people to donate so I don't have a ton of money to spend. I use spigot as well and it's not unheard of to have 125 players at 20tps. It's very common if you know what you're doing.
     
  14. I run a minecraft server since 2010, and i like to think i know what i'm doing. We have 2 plugin devs and a web designer who work for us pro-bono, and we don't beg players for donations.
    Before you jump to conclusions, please think. I don't beg for donations, i simply offer players that possibilty and explain them that without their donations we wouldn't be able to proffesionally host all the servers we have now (which include 4 minecraft servers, 2 terraria servers, a gmod server, a tf2 server, hosted on 3 different machines (#1: core i7 2600k 32gb, #2 core i5 2500k 32gb and #3 Xeon E3-1230, 16GB).
     
  15. Offline

    drtshock

    Not trying to get in a fight, and I didn't mean to come off like I was bashing you, my apologies. I was generalizing that most server owners beg for donations, buy expensive hardware and don't know what to do with it.

    I would suggest trying spigot as that gave me a huge performance increase. I was having the same issues before switching to that.
     
  16. Alright, don't want a flame war either.
    I haven't tried spigot yet but i've used CraftBukkit++ in the past which proved to have an unstable update schedule and reliability issue.e Also, it's not very easy for me to switch to spigot because we have custom bukkit patches
     
  17. Offline

    drtshock

    TowelieDOH

    Understandable, but in my opinion it would be worth it. It was definitely worth it to me to change. Without switching anything but the craftbukkit.jar I went from having tps issues with 15 players to nothing with 100+ players.
     
    Dpa1991 and TowelieDOH like this.
  18. Thank you very much, will definitely give it a try.
     
    Dpa1991 and drtshock like this.
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