Run games off a Server onto my gaming rig?

[kylerock96]

Hey, does anybody know how I can load games onto a windows home server, and run it onto my gaming computer? I am fully watercooling my build,a dn I need to remove the HDD cages, so all I would have room for it the SSD for the OS, and maybe a single HDD for a few things like steam or whatever.

 

[Noah]

wat

 

[Prog]

Like Onlive, where the game is run remotely, or like a cloud, where the game is stored remotely?

 

[XCVG]

I'm assuming you mean running them from a remote server but on the local machine. I think it's possible, but there might be slowdowns or glitches depending on your network speed. It would be better just to find a spot for the hard drives, or fork out the cash for one big one.

You might want to consider putting all your games on the local disk and putting everything else (videos, music, documents) on the server.

 

[kylerock96]

About what speed do you think i will need? Right nos i will have a few games on a 500gb hdd, but when i move out my net speeds will. Be 30+ upload, so i think ill be fine there.

 

[ttsgeb]

http://www.wintuts.com/Map-Network-Drive

If it's on a server NAS wired directly to your computer with a gigabit ethernet card in each dedicated to the connection between them, you will get minimal loading times for the configuration...
Or you could set an external ESATA drive on top of your desktop. Actually, do that. It's better.

 

[bic]

Map the network drive to a drive letter on your desktop and make sure it will automatically re-map when you log in. Then install Steam and all the games that go with it to that drive letter and they'll appear on the network share on your Home Server.

To move an existing copy of Steam, you might be able to copy the whole steamapps directory tree to the server, then map that share to the steamapps folder on your desktop. It shouldn't be able to tell the difference if you do it right.

Do you have extra 5.25" drive bays? You could get a front mounted 5-in-3 or 3-in-2 cage for your tower then run a RAID 5 once hard drive prices come back down.

I'm assuming you already have the Windows Home Server, and aren't contemplating buying one just to you can get all your drives out of your PC. (That would just be ridiculous.)

What are you running that requires water cooling? Two Nvidia Fermi cards and an AMD Bulldozer?

 

[vskid3]

Wait, are you meaning over a home network or the internet? Over the internet would be really slow unless you have a sweet connection on both ends.

I don't see why you can't just load the games on the single hard drive that can fit in the case. 500GB is a lot of games, and if that isn't enough, just swap it with the hard drive in the server (which I assume is bigger than 500GB, or else it wouldn't solve your problem). And I don't think I've seen a single watercooling setup that didn't have room for hard drives.

 

[kylerock96]

Im watercooling 2/3 HD 7970's (one now,more when prices drop a bit) and a bulldozer chip, using a quad rad on top and a dual rad on bottom, for the dual rad (in the nzxt switch) i need to remove all hdd cages.

 

[DefectX11]

Im watercooling 2/3 HD 7970's (one now,more when prices drop a bit) and a bulldozer chip, using a quad rad on top and a dual rad on bottom, for the dual rad (in the nzxt switch) i need to remove all hdd cages.

WTF are you running with dual 7970's? Seriously. I need to know what exactly you are running. In most cases a single 590 will max out any game.

What you do with 12 independent monitors is beyond me. Moreover, what you do with that power is far beyond me.

 

[samjc3]

Why on God's green earth would you want, let alone actually buy a bulldozer chip? Intel sandy bridge is undeniably superior. And I imagine that buying 7970's right now is a silly thing to do at best. Nvidia 6 series should be coming soon, which entirely possibly will drive prices down some.

 

[DefectX11]

There's a trade off- either you get an AMD with no drivers or a Nvidia that burns up

But really. With Ivy bridge coming out really soon, SB prices are going to be dropping, with the added bonus of your processor not being crappy.

 

[bic]

Take the money you would use on the watercooling system (please please PLEASE tell me you weren't planning on buying a Windows Home Server just for this), sock it away, and buy a decent Ivy Bridge setup once it comes out.

Or maybe just buy a new case.

 

[Zero]

Why on God's green earth would you want, let alone actually buy a bulldozer chip? Intel sandy bridge is undeniably superior. And I imagine that buying 7970's right now is a silly thing to do at best. Nvidia 6 series should be coming soon, which entirely possibly will drive prices down some.

Trust me, we tried reasoning with him before in the chat. He ended up calling us fanboys even though we presented concrete proof and I actually own more than one AMD CPU.

 

[DefectX11]

I bought a full 4 core rig with AMD and ATI. It came to something under $300 and was a pile of garbage.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

A computer you paid less tham $300 for was a pile of garbage?

 

[samjc3]

A computer you paid less than $300 for was a pile of garbage?

[/quote]
I believe the connotation here is that its flax compared to equivalent Intel.

 

[DefectX11]

A computer you paid less tham $300 for waa a pile of garbage?

[/quote]
I believe the connotation here is that its flax compared to equivalent Intel.[/quote]

Thanks.
Also adding in it was $300 BECAUSE it was AMD. And used.

 

[kylerock96]

Im not getting ivy bridge because i already have the bd chip, i will be running dual7970'4s because i bought one and my uncle got me one, and finally, ivy bridge IMO wont be as good and piledriver in the near future.

 

[bic]

In that case the most sensible solution is to buy a new case that can accommodate your hard drives, both video cards, and your watercooling system. Alternately you could get an external JBOD enclosure and fill it with drives if your motherboard has eSATA.

Pulling your game data off a remote computer over the network will be much slower than loading from local disks. I really don't recommend doing that. (eSATA runs at full internal SATA speed, because that's literally all it is.) The server is a great place for offline backups though, especially if it has its hard drives set up in RAID 1 or 5.