Purchase advice

Hello, I got a Dell R420 for free and thought I could run Ark gaming servers on it. I cannot because Ark on Windows requires running the GUI which requires running with a GPU. Even with all 24 cores as a test, it ran horribly and crashed more than ran. vGPUs seem to be the way to best achieve this. My goal is to run 14 VMs with 12 gaming VMs with a single app running. The OS has to be Windows10 as my kids play on Xbox and I play on PC. I’ve read around and have a worry that what I don’t know could cause me to waste time and money. So I’m asking a knowledgeable group. I’ve told ya the goal and now what I believe I should buy. Please inform me on where my knowledge needs to be adjusted, thanks.

This is personal usage and so high end is not where I am going when buying this server. Even going the server route for gaming is kinda high end if you think about it. It is surely cheaper to rent than do it this way. But this way I get to have side VMs that I do need anyways. So…

1). Which license model? I believe I should go with GRID application licensing. $10/yr for each of the 12 vGPUs.

Dell R720 with 2x 2.4 GHz 8-core or higher GHz
16GB RAM per VM

2). Which card? GRID K1 Kepler using 1GB application profiles

Yes, K1 is an older card. Given my usage, doesn’t this make sense to use this card when going $2k for a card isn’t in the arena? I simply need the cheapest way to use vGPUs and this seems to be possible. But, IDK.

3). Which VM host OS? I used ESXi before with light usage. No expert here. But as my posiible card choice is a K1, am I best to go Citrix? Or is ESXI just fine using older NVIDIA vGPU driver inside of VmWare VMs? It seems the GRID 4 version is the latest driver and which Hypervisor best supports that version comes from people’s knowledge, not marketers or how to videos. History of tech is of value.

Where am I wrong on my setup? What are you thoughts? I appreciate your time, thank you!!!

Yes, K1 is an older card. Given my usage, doesn’t this make sense to use this card when going $2k for a card isn’t in the arena? I simply need the cheapest way to use vGPUs and this seems to be possible. But, IDK.

YOU can also get to know more about from https://apkraid.com/

Here are some of the requirements for dedicated server hardware that will help you ensure you can host the latest titles. These should be the basics for most 32-player games, but you’ll likely need more capacity to play 64-player games or higher. Please Note: If there are more players on the server, the more pressure will be on the hardware. jigsaw puzzle

  • 64-bit Windows * OS (or Linux *, with compatible games)
  • A mechanical solid-state drive (SSD) is not the best choice for server operation. Lower speed and continuous read-write operations can cause problems
  • RAM is at least 8GB, optimal is 16GB or more
  • Intel® 4-core CPU, minimum clock speed of 2.5GHZ