Whats the difference between a server and a Computer?

[mafiaboy]

I need a new machine to host my wow server because there's too many players online.

I saw people selling servers with XEON processors and computers also, although the servers tend to be less costly.

What is the difference?

+rep to whoever gives a good comparison and tells me which one is usually most cost effective and which one is better when hosting a wow server.

thnx,
Mafiaboy

[aznboy]

What is a difference between them:
Computer
hold up to 4gb
Take up little energy
Need to have dedicate server
Meant to just surf web and play online game
Not to build it yourself a good comp is at alienware.com

Server
Hold up to 12-16 gb(depend where you buy it)
Has two energy box double the computer
Dont really because server is really powerful
Powerful enought to hold over 5k ppl
Found a good one at Dell.com

[Minstrel]

A computer is or can be a server.

The Dell you played WoW on at your friend's house is probably a regular old consumer built computer. That computer acts as a client to the WoW server. The Software is stuff you use everyday, like games, word processors, and media players, plus the operating system. 'Consumer' computers.

A server provides a service to clients (like that Dell), which could be anything from a simple webpage, to email, to a game server. They have more robust hardware and software (A highly optimized server operating system, built of of Linux/Unix or Windows) because they need to provide services to lots of computers and people at once, which places high demand on them.

Now, a server doesn't have to have fancy hardware and software to operate as a server, it really just needs the software/hardware that will allow it to do its job, like a small CS server doesn't need much to keep it's user happy and lag free. However, if you're providing a service to a LOT of people (Like a huge WoW server or a website that gets millions of hits a day) then faster, more dynamic hardware and software is the only way it'll work.

High Performance Consumer Computer

- Beefy Graphics Card
- Dual-Core Processor
- 2+ gigs of Memory
- Large Hard Drive
- One reliable Power Supply
- Fancy dvd burner, etc.

Now a high-performance server may have...

- Onboard, cheap, video output
- 8+gb of memory
- Several SCSI/SAS hard drives (hot swap, 10K+ RPM) Loud!
- Ridiculous bandwidth
- Multiple power supplies for redundance (Hot Swap)

Etc, etc.

Really it all depends on what job the server is doing.

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For your WoW server, what are you running it on now? (Hardware, Software?), and how many people exactly?