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Fitting a server with desktop hardware in a 1U rack mount chassis (fedia.io)
submitted 22 hours ago by to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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I have a server with desktop hardware (microATX motherboard and Core Ultra 7 265K CPU) which I use to run a Minecraft server. Its current physical location isn't ideal, so I'd like to put it in a rack mount chassis and move it to a server room I have access to through my university. However rack space in the room is limited, so it would be best if I can fit it into a 1U space.

From what I've heard the biggest issue with 1U is cooling, especially as the 265K can draw up to 250W. It seems like 1U microATX chassis do exist, like this one, but they don't look like they have good airflow, and I'm not sure where I would get a short enough heatsink. Could I realistically make 1U work, and if so what should I look for in terms of hardware? Or am I going to have to go with 2U?

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[–] [S] 1 point 10 hours ago

Yes, hosting providers do run servers on desktop hardware. See for example Bisect's dedicated server options which all have desktop Ryzen processors.

Smaller Minecraft servers can run just fine on standard server hardware, and I'm sure that's what most hosting providers use for their lower tier server plans, since you can cram dozens of Minecraft servers onto one machine. But the main limitation for larger servers is single-threaded performance, which desktop CPUs are just far better at.

Very large servers generally use server software like Folia which multithreads the game (like 2b2t) or split the server into many smaller servers (like Hypixel), which eliminates the single threaded performance issue but has some serious drawbacks.

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