Let me start off by saying before 3 hours ago, i really didn't know jack**** about servers, and still don't know a lot. I'm looking to buy a server, or server(s) but don't know where to start.
First, I'll start off with explaining what it is for: A friend and I are working to create an online text-based mmo game set in space, with the player building an empire, there a lot more to it then that but I'll make it short and sweet. We expect the game to have at least 20,000 players at it's launch, and grow to at least 100,000 players within 2-3 years. The game is mainly text-based, but it does have certain 3D elements added, for example we're going to be using a program to generate 3D planets, hundreds of thousands of them, at least 1 million. Every planet is going to be generated to be unique from all the others, and we also want to add a voice chat feature with voice messaging. will we need to run this on different servers?
I was searching on Dell.com today and looking at their servers, but really have no idea what to look for, there's blade servers, rack servers, and so on. a lot of these servers start as low as $1500 but have so many am additions to consider, some being in the $10,000 dollar range. I need to know what i'm doing before I buy, and know all of my options. Renting a server is not something we want to do, from the looks of it that's just throwing money down and drain and want to own our own servers.
What should I be looking for? what brand is better? How long will it last? quality over quantity or not?
Is it better to buy one super powerful server rather then 4-5 less powerful ones? Should I have external hard drives for backup? An air conditioned server cabinet? Back up power supplies? I don't want to buy some low-quality garbage, or buy something simply not powerful enough and have to replace it only weeks later. I want to buy something that will last me for around 3 years, something capable of handling the increase in players and future added features.
First, I'll start off with explaining what it is for: A friend and I are working to create an online text-based mmo game set in space, with the player building an empire, there a lot more to it then that but I'll make it short and sweet. We expect the game to have at least 20,000 players at it's launch, and grow to at least 100,000 players within 2-3 years. The game is mainly text-based, but it does have certain 3D elements added, for example we're going to be using a program to generate 3D planets, hundreds of thousands of them, at least 1 million. Every planet is going to be generated to be unique from all the others, and we also want to add a voice chat feature with voice messaging. will we need to run this on different servers?
I was searching on Dell.com today and looking at their servers, but really have no idea what to look for, there's blade servers, rack servers, and so on. a lot of these servers start as low as $1500 but have so many am additions to consider, some being in the $10,000 dollar range. I need to know what i'm doing before I buy, and know all of my options. Renting a server is not something we want to do, from the looks of it that's just throwing money down and drain and want to own our own servers.
What should I be looking for? what brand is better? How long will it last? quality over quantity or not?
Is it better to buy one super powerful server rather then 4-5 less powerful ones? Should I have external hard drives for backup? An air conditioned server cabinet? Back up power supplies? I don't want to buy some low-quality garbage, or buy something simply not powerful enough and have to replace it only weeks later. I want to buy something that will last me for around 3 years, something capable of handling the increase in players and future added features.
