My Dream Server is a Gaming PC

[CA3LE]

Over the decades I've always strived to have the fastest servers I can afford to host TestMy.net.  My journey with hosting has taken me into a colocated datacenter where I pay for cabinet space, power & internet connection and bring in my own equipment.

 

When I first started using colo I built everything out with brand new, current generation servers and networking gear.  Over the years I added servers and built up a High Availability Proxmox cluster.  Adding servers I found that eBay was definitely my friend.  Now I could afford servers that only a few years earlier often went for nearly 10X what I was able to get them for "off lease".  Each time I added a new server, it was more powerful than the previous.

 

Over this time I'm adding more resources, things are getting faster.  Even my first servers were full solid state, employing arrays of 4 Samsung 850 Pro SSDs.  But things really started flying with the advent of Optane storage.  A game changer... really, it was too good. (and now it's gone.)

 

Fast forward to 2024.  I get a generous donation of servers, the person doesn't care what I do with them, they're just happy to give them to me.  They're newer than my servers, 2nd version into the next generation of CPU.  So quite a bit newer.  I get one of them setup with the same Optane storage I run in my current master server and start benchmarking. 

 

It's not really faster and doesn't justify switching servers.  Sometimes it was slower.  I assume because my servers are higher clock speed, highest end of the CPU SKU.  Scratching my head, I really thought being so much newer I'd get a much better result.

 

I take the storage out and pop it in a gaming rig... another machine recently donated to me by a friend.  This PC happens to have hardware from the same year as the server I just tested.  I run the same tests and had to do a double take.  Not only was it faster on the gaming rig, it was WAY faster.  This made me reimagine my server topology.  Maybe it was time to build with consumer hardware.

 

Here I had a setup that was a fraction of the cost that was out performing in real world scenarios.  The better single thread performance and higher clock speed, faster memory... it all makes sense. There's more competition in the consumer market, things cost less.

 

So I sold those servers to someone who can better utilize their resources.  Extremely nice servers but for my use case here, they had too much of everything.

 

As soon as they were sold I ordered parts for my next build.  Promptly put it together and got to testing.  Minimum, 2.5x faster at everything.  Average is 3x faster and in some cases I've seen over 6x faster.  It has completely blown me away.

 

What is the magical setup?  Nothing much really, minus storage I think it cost my about $900, including a piKVM setup to remotely control the machine.  Much less than any of my used enterprise servers cost me.

 

Here's my build.

 

• AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8-Core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor
• G.SKILL Ripjaws S5 Series (Intel XMP 3.0) DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) 5600MT/s CL28-34-34-89
• Optane 905p (zpool) and Samsung 960 Pro (OS)
• ASUS Prime B650-PLUS WiFi
• ID-COOLING IS-40-XT Black - 47mm Height Low Profile CPU Cooler
• EVGA 750 BP, 80+ Bronze 750W PSU
• Rosewill 2U Server Chassis RSV-Z2900U
• BTF-LIGHTING WS2812B 2PCs 19in Individually Addressable 
• 2GB Raspberry pi4
• Geekworm KVM-A8 (kit for building a piKVM)
• 10G network card

 

It's only a 65 watt TDP CPU! very easy to cool in a constrained (or SFF) build like this.

 

A single half dollar sized CPU out performs all of my dual Xeon systems.

 

Yes, I can't run a terabyte of RAM with this setup but I don't need to.  My current systems are 128GB, I figure I only really really need 64GB with this CPU backing the system. 

 

Especially in single thread performance the new Ryzen system blows all my other systems away.  This type of gain will be felt everywhere, especially in mysql queries and responsiveness.  It still excels in multithread and even has a larger cache than my Xeons.  It really wins for me on every level.

 

And yes, RGB was a requirement.  I never put RGB in a computer, not really my thing.  But I figure this is a gaming PC at its core so for $13, why not.  I can control them in linux but it adds a bunch of unnecessary packages, I like my base PVE to be as simple as possible.  So default rainbow it is.

 

 

 

I haven't been necessarily doing it wrong all these years.  Without the low TDP and high performance of the 9700X this build would be more challenging.  These are recent developments.  There's basically zero redundancy in this server.  So, it also helps having a PVE cluster that has a bunch of reliable machines, to back up this consumer grade hardware.  

 

I can't wait to bring Lambo into production!

[Frank225]

Amazing and cool !

 

A Life time dream.

Thanks for posting

 

I was a fan of AMD, they are excellent and less expensive than Intel. The chinese already have 7nm chips. The 3B6600, for example, is claimed to perform at par with Intel 12th—and 13th-generation CPUs thanks to its new eight LA864 cores with a clock frequency of just 3 GHz

 

My family PC for Gaming have I7 8700K recommeded at the time by Tom´s Hardware.

 

I am not a gamer and my 2023, ASUS Notebook have 

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz   2.59 GHz
RAM:    16,0 GB

Graphic card 8 GB

SSD: 952GB

Display 15.6"

240Hz 3ms

G SYNC
Pantone colors 

Windows 11

PORT 1 Gbps.

USB adaptor 2,5Gbps

My favourite F1 team was Williams

https://www.formula1.com/en/information/williams-year-by-year.6wHlJglT3USpmIbETtAYzW

Ferrari is beautiful and have long history

Cheers

 

 

[CA3LE]

7 minutes ago, Frank225 said:

The chinese already have 7nm chips.

 

Check this out, the Ryzen 7 9700X is built on a 4 nm production process using 8,315 million transistors.

 

I don't feel like it's getting the love it deserves.  The latest AMD chips are truly amazing.

[Frank225]

I have stoped making my home computers at the time of AMD Sempron 2400, 2600, 2800. ASUS Motherboard, The Windows was 98 or XP,  kaspersky antivirus Kingstom RAM, Seagate and Western Digital Disk. ASRock motherboard are good and might be less expensive
 

4nm might be made in Taiwain or Malaysia 

 

Poliovirus has a diameter of 30 nm, Flu - about 100 nm

 

Thank you for update, keep on rocking.

Led Zepelling - Stairway to Heaven 

 

 

[xs1]

@CA3LE what are you running for a GPU in that rig? or AGPU...> 

 

 

My setup is pretty dated.. i just dont use the pc much anymore so I haven't really sunk any money into upgrades (especially the platform) in many years..

 

ASUS Prime X370-Pro AM4 ATX Motherboard

AMD RYZEN 7 1700 8-Core Base Clock 3.0GHz OC @ 4.1 GHz 
NZXT KRAKEN X73 RGB 360MM AIO LIQUID COOLER W/LCD DISPLAY
G.SKILL TridentZ RGB 32GB 288 Pin DDR4 SDRAM 3200 MHz
XFX QICK 319 AMD Radeon RX 6800 16GB
CORSAIR HXi Series HX1200i 1200W 80 PLUS PLATINUM Full Modular
Thermaltake Core P5 ATX Open Frame Panoramic Viewing Tt LCS Certified Gaming Computer Case

[CA3LE]

Just the integrated GPU.  It's a virtual machine server with no need for GPU.  I only need graphics to get into the bios, set up the machine and remotely manage at the base machine level.

 

If I ever have a need for GPU I run it on one of my local machines. 

 

This puppy is built for a very specific workload.

 

Will be racked at the datacenter in a few days.  Just waiting on one more network card...

[Frank225]

@CA3LE
@xs1

hello
I loved your machines!

I think my family member have inexpensive homebrew PC tower to play games online with cheap GTX 1070, carbon mouse ($150), keybord, ($150)  Asus 24" display 144 Hz, 1ms. CPU I7 8700K, ($400) 650W PS ? 

 

The first Internet speed was 200/100Mbps with a switch to reduce the bandwidth for better bufferbloat. The speed now is 1000/400Mbps (gift) to be loyal to MEO - Altice Company since 2017.

Cellphone is Apple 14 pro.

 

I don´t  play games and have the old ASUS ROG Zephyrus M Thin Portable Gaming Laptop with:

 

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q 8GB GDDR6 (Base 1080 MHz Boost 1305 MHz TDP 90W)
• Latest 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H Hexa-core Processor
• 240Hz 3ms 15 6” Full HD (1920x1080) IPS Type Pantone Validated Display
• 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM | 1TB PCIe SSD | Windows 10 Home | Gigabit Wave 2 Wi-Fi 5 (802 11ac 2x2)
• Ultra-slim 15’’ metal chassis gaming laptop 18 9mm thin 4 4poundss
• ROG Intelligent Cooling thermal system with dual 12V fans anti-dust technology and adjustable fan modes
• ROG Aura Sync System with RGB Keyboard

 

My smartphones are Xiaomi and Samsung 5G, $200 (two hundred) each. 

 

take care

 

https://gameserverping.com/

 

DSLReports is almost dead?

 

[mudmanc4]

On 2/16/2025 at 2:45 PM, CA3LE said:

Over the decades I've always strived to have the fastest servers I can afford to host TestMy.net.  My journey with hosting has taken me into a colocated datacenter where I pay for cabinet space, power & internet connection and bring in my own equipment.

 

When I first started using colo I built everything out with brand new, current generation servers and networking gear.  Over the years I added servers and built up a High Availability Proxmox cluster.  Adding servers I found that eBay was definitely my friend.  Now I could afford servers that only a few years earlier often went for nearly 10X what I was able to get them for "off lease".  Each time I added a new server, it was more powerful than the previous.

 

Over this time I'm adding more resources, things are getting faster.  Even my first servers were full solid state, employing arrays of 4 Samsung 850 Pro SSDs.  But things really started flying with the advent of Optane storage.  A game changer... really, it was too good. (and now it's gone.)

 

Fast forward to 2024.  I get a generous donation of servers, the person doesn't care what I do with them, they're just happy to give them to me.  They're newer than my servers, 2nd version into the next generation of CPU.  So quite a bit newer.  I get one of them setup with the same Optane storage I run in my current master server and start benchmarking. 

 

It's not really faster and doesn't justify switching servers.  Sometimes it was slower.  I assume because my servers are higher clock speed, highest end of the CPU SKU.  Scratching my head, I really thought being so much newer I'd get a much better result.

 

I take the storage out and pop it in a gaming rig... another machine recently donated to me by a friend.  This PC happens to have hardware from the same year as the server I just tested.  I run the same tests and had to do a double take.  Not only was it faster on the gaming rig, it was WAY faster.  This made me reimagine my server topology.  Maybe it was time to build with consumer hardware.

 

Here I had a setup that was a fraction of the cost that was out performing in real world scenarios.  The better single thread performance and higher clock speed, faster memory... it all makes sense. There's more competition in the consumer market, things cost less.

 

So I sold those servers to someone who can better utilize their resources.  Extremely nice servers but for my use case here, they had too much of everything.

 

As soon as they were sold I ordered parts for my next build.  Promptly put it together and got to testing.  Minimum, 2.5x faster at everything.  Average is 3x faster and in some cases I've seen over 6x faster.  It has completely blown me away.

 

What is the magical setup?  Nothing much really, minus storage I think it cost my about $900, including a piKVM setup to remotely control the machine.  Much less than any of my used enterprise servers cost me.

 

Here's my build.

 

• AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8-Core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor
• G.SKILL Ripjaws S5 Series (Intel XMP 3.0) DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) 5600MT/s CL28-34-34-89
• Optane 905p (zpool) and Samsung 960 Pro (OS)
• ASUS Prime B650-PLUS WiFi
• ID-COOLING IS-40-XT Black - 47mm Height Low Profile CPU Cooler
• EVGA 750 BP, 80+ Bronze 750W PSU
• Rosewill 2U Server Chassis RSV-Z2900U
• BTF-LIGHTING WS2812B 2PCs 19in Individually Addressable 
• 2GB Raspberry pi4
• Geekworm KVM-A8 (kit for building a piKVM)
• 10G network card

 

It's only a 65 watt TDP CPU! very easy to cool in a constrained (or SFF) build like this.

 

A single half dollar sized CPU out performs all of my dual Xeon systems.

 

Yes, I can't run a terabyte of RAM with this setup but I don't need to.  My current systems are 128GB, I figure I only really really need 64GB with this CPU backing the system. 

 

Especially in single thread performance the new Ryzen system blows all my other systems away.  This type of gain will be felt everywhere, especially in mysql queries and responsiveness.  It still excels in multithread and even has a larger cache than my Xeons.  It really wins for me on every level.

 

And yes, RGB was a requirement.  I never put RGB in a computer, not really my thing.  But I figure this is a gaming PC at its core so for $13, why not.  I can control them in linux but it adds a bunch of unnecessary packages, I like my base PVE to be as simple as possible.  So default rainbow it is.

 

 

 

I haven't been necessarily doing it wrong all these years.  Without the low TDP and high performance of the 9700X this build would be more challenging.  These are recent developments.  There's basically zero redundancy in this server.  So, it also helps having a PVE cluster that has a bunch of reliable machines, to back up this consumer grade hardware.  

 

I can't wait to bring Lambo into production!

I thought you were shipping this thing to me ? 😆

[spudler_t]

This is cool, Ive been using or around Testmy.net for a long time, I assume my slower memory recall (Personal) Is due to getting older but it seems like back when I first started using The site I do not remember picking servers or maybe 2 or so  been awhile

 

I have my PC 99% for iRacing and I have

ASUS STrix Z-490 E Gaming MB 

i7-10700K 5.2Ghz All Core

32Gb Corsair 2600 DDR4

ROG Strix RTX 3060 Ti OC V2 

Corsair 280MM AIO

 

Every item was either from iRacing driver sale or Ebay

 

The most shocking is the GPU it is a Diamond or a Winnining silon ticket 

as it easily runs at 2100Mhz GPU with 18002Mhz Vram about a 35% boost over V1 cards In mAx power for sure

 

 

[CA3LE]

On 3/1/2025 at 6:02 AM, mudmanc4 said:

I thought you were shipping this thing to me ? 😆

 

Sorry man, for some reason it got installed in my datacenter. 😜

 

This server is running TestMy.net now and I definitely feel the difference.

 

Had a few networking issues over the weekend.  My pfSense server had issues, something bugged out.  It was my oldest VM, maybe it had some kind of legacy setting somewhere causing issues.  The backups were jacked as well, so I just deleted it and put up a new one...

 

Not really a big deal, that pfSense router is really only for my internal, non-production network and none of TestMy.net services run through it.  So not a big deal, right?  WRONG!  Side effects are real.

 

I didn't realize that before I had specifically setup pfSense without IPv6.  With the default install it ran normally... until I got to my datacenter and reset my switches.  I do this sometimes when I visit, just to get a fresh boot on them.  Well, most things came back up normally but TMN was down.  Everything indicated that it should be up, I'm getting pings all over the place as expected.  Why isn't it working?

 

Very stressful situation.  This should have been a routine visit to quickly rack the new server.  But now, nothing is working right!  To make matters worse I'm on my laptop where I'm already not as comfortable working.  Connected with hotspot on my phone and I realize that I only have a USB-C cable for my phone and no USB-C on my laptop.  My battery's at like 30%.  So now it feels like Mission Impossible.

 

I was running in circles at this point, so I took my hands off the keys and thought for 5 minutes.

 

... then came up with...

"Default Route."

 

I look closer at the networking on the host and client.  I then see an IPv6 address assigned to an adapter that should only have an internal IPv4 address.  This device is connected to a VLAN.  So traffic was trying to route out the adapter connected to VLAN.

 

The gotcha is when an IPv6 address is assigned on the same adapter as an IPv4 address that takes an isolated route.  Another fix is to tell the adapter "never use as default route".

 

A different VM had a spare network adapter that wasn't configured, had been sitting like that for years.  When this happened, it did DHCP, got an IP and then default routed to that adapter.  In that case it was an IPv4 address.  Same kind of issue, a little different.

 

So I worked out a few kinks.  When it came down to it, lambo joined right into the cluster, replicated my VMs and migrated them without issues.

 

The lesson for me, when you're flustered... take a step back and think.  The answers often surface.

[CA3LE]

On 3/1/2025 at 4:11 PM, spudler_t said:

i7-10700K 5.2Ghz All Core

 

That's the CPU I have in the gaming rig that started the idea to build this Ryzen server.  

 

Great CPU.

 

On 2/16/2025 at 12:45 PM, CA3LE said:

This PC happens to have hardware from the same year as the server I just tested.  I run the same tests and had to do a double take.  Not only was it faster on the gaming rig, it was WAY faster.  This made me reimagine my server topology.  Maybe it was time to build with consumer hardware.

 

[CA3LE]

I wanted to point this out too... been thinking about this for a long time.

 

This is a classic TestMy.net emoji that I use a lot.  

 

Keep in mind, it's not devil horns.  It's "I love you".  See the thumb sticking out.  

 

 

 

[Frank225]

TSMC chips factory will be build in Colorado USA

 

[spudler_t]

The take a Step back and think or just call it a night and come back tomorrow has worked in some  Very strange ways,

IS great advice when do auto repair work as well.

I have had so many incidents where I have been  Puzzled by a situation and believe it or not had a dream about it and when I woke up tried the idea in dream and go figure it fixed the issue.  Many auto issues as well as figuring out problems with the Co2 Lasers I used to run pre 2008 

[spudler_t]

7 hours ago, Frank225 said:

TSMC chips factory will be build in Colorado USA

 

Is this what was talked about in the white house earlier?? 

[Frank225]

7 hours ago, spudler_t said:

Is this what was talked about in the white house earlier?? 

yes, and today in New Orleans, the land of Fats Domino and Louis Armstrong and many others is Mardi Gras day "March 4, 2025". 

 

 

 

 

[xs1]

On 3/3/2025 at 12:58 PM, CA3LE said:

 

Sorry man, for some reason it got installed in my datacenter. 😜

 

This server is running TestMy.net now and I definitely feel the difference.

 

Had a few networking issues over the weekend.  My pfSense server had issues, something bugged out.  It was my oldest VM, maybe it had some kind of legacy setting somewhere causing issues.  The backups were jacked as well, so I just deleted it and put up a new one...

 

@CA3LE

I was wondering why it was down... thought about contacting, but than realized I think I only have you on messenger..   Honestly not sure if I still had your # lol. 

[spudler_t]

On 2/20/2025 at 10:21 PM, Frank225 said:

@CA3LE
@xs1

hello
I loved your machines!

I think my family member have inexpensive homebrew PC tower to play games online with cheap GTX 1070, carbon mouse ($150), keybord, ($150)  Asus 24" display 144 Hz, 1ms. CPU I7 8700K, ($400) 650W PS ? 

 

The first Internet speed was 200/100Mbps with a switch to reduce the bandwidth for better bufferbloat. The speed now is 1000/400Mbps (gift) to be loyal to MEO - Altice Company since 2017.

Cellphone is Apple 14 pro.

 

I don´t  play games and have the old ASUS ROG Zephyrus M Thin Portable Gaming Laptop with:

 

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q 8GB GDDR6 (Base 1080 MHz Boost 1305 MHz TDP 90W)
• Latest 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H Hexa-core Processor
• 240Hz 3ms 15 6” Full HD (1920x1080) IPS Type Pantone Validated Display
• 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM | 1TB PCIe SSD | Windows 10 Home | Gigabit Wave 2 Wi-Fi 5 (802 11ac 2x2)
• Ultra-slim 15’’ metal chassis gaming laptop 18 9mm thin 4 4poundss
• ROG Intelligent Cooling thermal system with dual 12V fans anti-dust technology and adjustable fan modes
• ROG Aura Sync System with RGB Keyboard

 

My smartphones are Xiaomi and Samsung 5G, $200 (two hundred) each. 

 

take care

 

https://gameserverping.com/

 

DSLReports is almost dead?

 

Funny how you mentioned yo do not play games back in 2008 I was building the armor plating for the MRAP (Mine resistant Ambush Protected) Vehicles The same Tan 4X4 Ones we left in Afghanistan they have shown on the news Moving those plates by hand I ended up rupturing a disc in lower back and smashed a nerve  disabling me so I was attempting to get a degree in Machine technology, doing CNC Programming on CNC Lathes and Mills but ended up realizing I could not stand for the 4+ Hours at a time needed to do that. anyway to make a Short story long I got a ASUS ROG G73 SW top of the line Gaming Laptop (Late 2010) yet never played a single game till 2019 when I came across iRacing LOL 

[LigmaBalls]

bro i always wanted something like that i use a dell optiplex 7050 micro as a beam ng drive server and as my gaming pc that was actually good

Device name    DESKTOP-6IE4HL1
Processor    AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core Processor               3.20 GHz
Installed RAM    32.0 GB
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch    No pen or touch input is available for this display

RTX 2080 MSI Sea Hawk x

https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-RTX-2080-SEA-HAWK-X/Specification