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Home Server Or VPS? One Family's Math

Posted by timothy on from the your-bandwidth-may-vary dept.

toygeek writes "Which is cheaper: Running a server from home, or renting a VPS (Virtual Private Server)? We're trying to pinch pennies where we can, and my son Derrick suggested upgrading an extra PC we have and running his Minecraft server at home. Would it save enough money to be worth it? I wanted to share the results of my analysis with my Slashdot brethren." The upshot in this case? "Overall it is VERY cost effective for us to run the home server."

4 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. Free Hardware by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    The problem with his analysis is that he assumes the hardware is free. Also, not many people pay a marginal rate of $0.066/kW-hr for electricity.

    1. Re:Free Hardware by dec3 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Price of electricity clearly depends upon where you live. I recently moved to Ohio (from California) and find that $0.0649/kW-hr is a pretty normal price (depending upon who you selected as an energy provider and when you locked in your rate, etc., etc.)

      I know from a California point of view, 0.066/kW-hr might seem really cheap, but California has its own problems when it comes to power.

  2. Server on residential internet service by GrBear · · Score: 4, Informative

    The costs calculated are likely flawed, as is the performance. First off, the majority of ISP's forbid running any type of server (with a world facing connection) on a residential package service.

    Secondly, as one who used to run a Tekkit server for some friends on a co-located (i5-3550k/8GB RAM) Ubuntu server, Minecraft requires good upstream speed to host more than 3-4 connections. Even at 10Mbps upstream, having more than 5 people on started to lag everyone slightly.. the more users of course, the worse it got.

    It's one thing to run a intranet for XMBC, but whole different ballgame once you start have a world facing server.

  3. Re:Uh.. bandwidth? by jb11 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Also keep in mind that many ISPs frown on running home servers. If the server gets popular it could be a problem for the provider.