WI_Hedgehog
Guru
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2022
- Messages
- 674
Minecraft is a single-thread server, so a single CPU for home use is fine. $$$ wise, you're farther ahead in your build with 1 screaming fast CPU vs. 2 slower CPUs. If Mincraft was multi-threaded that situation would be different, but it is not. Now, if you're spinning up a bunch of Virtual Machines running 17 Minecraft servers, that's a different scenario.Now that I have a second. About to go blow snow for 6 hours. I'm thinking a single cpu system for now sounds like a better idea for me then a dual cpu based system. My untrained and zero experience brain is telling me that a second cpu is pretty much useless for a file sharing Minecraft system. I am open to being wrong about this.
So C602 vs C612 is just cpu and ram? If so, that's about what I was thinking. In a overly simplified nutshell.
Just to pick your brain. If you were to pick one of those boards, what would be your strongest recommendation and a brief why please. I'm in entirely new waters for me and looking for guidance. Also, why is the ecc mem listed with specific board models? I don't see that in consumer grade stuff and it has my attention.
Cooling. How do you keep the cpu's cool if its not in a rack mount system? Can these be, for example, watercooled? My current one is and in a custom wooden enclosure. It'll be in a Minnesota basement. So, cooling it shouldn't be, fingers crossed, a big problem.
And a fyi. I'm not expecting to have this up and running for about 6 months. I do hope to have stuff ordered and tested out by then. The whole "make sure the hardware works first" thing and play with the software a lot before I move all saved stuff over. This is a whole new journey. So, slow and steady.
The Intel C612 Chipset uses less power, is smaller/faster, and supports newer hardware than the C602, such as USB 3.0 (vs. 2.0). The other bigger differences are CPU and memory support. The memory probably isn't that concerning given the price/performance, but the CPU of course is.
ECC isn't typically found on consumer-grade equipment. I deal with this all the time at work where people running large Excel spreadsheets have RAM errors and corrupt the sheets--they really need to be on workstations with ECC, but management "didn't see the need" until last week when they put 15 hours (or more, who knows) into writing a spreadsheet that corrupted; fortunately they had saved it only on their USB thumb drive so there are no network backups to recover and they can now see the issue as it appears they missed an important tax deadline. (Irony is a dish best served cold, in large portions.) (ECC post)
We usually keep CPUs cool by putting 5 small dots of thermal compound on them and attaching a tall heatsink with heatpipes and fins, no fan. Server cases tend to have enough directed airflow to keep the heatsink cool. This is far different than on a gaming rig, and far more reliable. We do not overclock CPUs because electron tunneling makes CPUs highly unreliable.

Slow and steady will save you a bunch of money and frustration; good idea.