The following is what I use for serving UT2004.
- Server Version: 3339
- Operations System: Windows XP Professional SP2
- Motherboard: MSI 745 Ultra (SiS 745 Chipset)
- CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1900+
- Cooling: ThermalTake Volcano 7, standard PSU fan for exhaust cooling
- RAM: 3 sticks 256 MB DDR PC2700 Crucial CL 2.5
- Storage: 30GB IBM DTLA-307030 ATA100, 40 GB Seagate ST340014A, 80 GB Western Digital Caviar WDC800JB-00FMA0
- Video Card: Creative Labs Annihilator Pro 32MB DDR (nVidia GeForce 256DDR)
- CDROM: LG HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4102B CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
- Sound: Creative SoundBlaster 5.1 X Gamer
- Mutators: UT2Vote49, UT2k3Style, Lightning Guns Only, Talking Icon, UTEXtra12 (hitsounds, brightskins)
- Connection: 3.0Mb/256Kb Cable
- Router: Linksys BEFW11S4 4 port Cable/DSL router
- LAN: 3Com 3C905B-TX 10/100 NIC
I used to have a slower 450MHz AMDK6/2 system which was fine until I tried playing invasion.... During invasion, the server needs to compute the location of many monsters (like bots). On about the 6th wave, everybody's ping would go to 800ms. So, I decided. The AMD solution seemed obvious as I didn't want to dump a lot of money in to a server.
All in all, the performance has been great, but I was very disappointed in how much noise the ThermalTake Volcano 7 made. It was like a helicopter in my office!! It did come with a thermal varistor that would speed up the fan when it sensed processor heat. So, it was relatively quiet during boot up and for about the first 5 minutes of operation. I removed this varistor and replaced it with a plain resistor that would constantly operate the fan at about 3000 RPM. This provides adequate cooling and makes about 1/10 the noise as 4500 RPM. Man is this a loud CPU Cooler!