From web hosting to game hosting

A dedicated box for dedicated servers

At some point after I had my web server set up, I started to look into the possibility of also hosting dedicated game servers. I couldn't get the thought of hosting a Valheim server out of my head, and I was loving the idea of designing and building a custom management dashboard and baking it into my existing UI.

Initially I was considering hosting the game servers on the same machine that served my website, but as I started to look more into it, I realized that I wanted a separation of concerns. Setting up the web server had opened my eyes to mini PCs, and at first I was looking to find a pre-built solution that would fit my needs. Specifically, I was aiming to balance cost, performance and noise level in a meaningful way, but I struggled to find the right fit for my exact needs.

After researching further, I eventually decided to go for a DIY build instead, as this seemed to offer the best compromise and overall value for money. It also gave me the opportunity to further my learning and build my very own computer for the first time, which I was quite excited about. With the increase in AI data center buildouts, RAM prices were going through the roof, but I was lucky to find a good deal on eBay for brand new, unsealed DDR4 memory.

The full build ended up costing me around 7500 NOK, which was more than I had planned on spending initially, but considering the market at the time it wasn't too bad. I was honestly just happy to have acquired all the necessary components before the price increases could put a stop to the whole venture.

Assembling the machine itself was a fun experience and I learned a lot in the process. In short, it's important that you ground yourself initially and as you go along with the build. Static electricity can, worst case, end up frying your components. You need to be careful when installing the CPU and you need to be intentional with the amount of cooling paste you apply to it. More is not better, there is a sweet spot. For the remaining components, you just "click" them in place into ready-made slots on the motherboard and finish up by wiring them correctly to the board.

On the software-side of things, I chose to mirror my web server configuration, running a headless setup with the same quality of life mechanics including auto-updating, auto-rebooting (when required) and auto-booting after a power loss. I also expanded on my existing system monitor to include game server metrics, allowing me to track overall system performance and health.

Finally, I designed and built a dedicated Game Server dashboard, enabling admin users to manage installed game servers right in the browser.