Can i Use MyCloud WD as an Online Game Server for Androids and iOS Systems ?
and if so, is 16TB enough ???
Can i Use MyCloud WD as an Online Game Server for Androids and iOS Systems ?
Can i Use MyCloud WD as an Online Game Server for Androids and iOS Systems?
That'd be a bad idea.
First, it's impossible for anyone to answer concretely, since it'd entirely depend on the nature of the game server you are trying to run or wanting to write.
Second, it'd be a bad idea, because the MyCloud WD has a terrible CPU and very little RAM.
Some quick googling shows that it uses a "Mindspeed Comcerto 2000 (M86261G-12) dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 @ 650 MHz", and 256 MB DDR3 RAM.
That means slow RAM, and not very much of it, and a slow CPU with not many cores.
The MyCloud WD is optimized for LAN or remote internet access for saving/writing/streaming files. This means it's designed to be energy efficient and quiet.
Usually, what game servers need is good stable CPU speeds, many cores, and lots of good RAM. MyCloud WD doesn't provide any of that.
16 TB of space is much more than you need. Different pieces of equipment are optimized for different things - with the MyCloud, you'd be paying for storage you don't need, but be missing RAM and CPU speed you do need. The MyCloud is probably good for what it was designed for, but it's not good for what it wasn't designed for - and it wasn't designed for game servers.
Your desktop computer would make a much better server, even if it was five or six years old (even a modern cheap laptop would be better - though I'd rather buy a cheap desktop for a dedicated server). Even a ten or twelve year old desktop would do better, hardware-wise, provided the hardware wasn't damaged. Ofcourse, you could buy a modern tiny desktop for the same price as the MyCloud and it'd do better than the six-year old desktop.
But even if you bought a brand new desktop, I still don't know what you are wanting to run on it, so I don't know if it'd be good enough.
Saying "a game server" is the same as saying "a software". Some game servers require alot of good hardware, others only require very little.
All I know is that, whatever kind of game server you are running, a MyCloud wouldn't be a good choice. If you don't want to spend any money (perfectly reasonable!), see if any family members (or people on Craiglist) are giving away any old desktop computers you can fix up - if it's 2010 or later, you're in luck! If it's 2007 or later, it'd still be better than ruining your nice MyCloud to make it into a bad server.
A third reason why MyCloud would be a bad game server: It doesn't come with any server software but file server built in.
If you use the built-in software, you'd have to let every game player read and write your storage disk as they see fit.
It probably wouldn't be long until bad actors put illegal downloads and malware on the disk, and your players figured out how to change the files of other players.
It is possible to install custom software on the device, if you are comfortable doing things like that, and from there, you could build and install your own game sever.
But that seems like a lot of work, for very little gain, for the reasons Servant laid out above.
If you use the built-in software, you'd have to let every game player read and write your storage disk as they see fit.
It probably wouldn't be long until bad actors put illegal downloads and malware on the disk, and your players figured out how to change the files of other players.
It is possible to install custom software on the device, if you are comfortable doing things like that, and from there, you could build and install your own game sever.
But that seems like a lot of work, for very little gain, for the reasons Servant laid out above.
I've got one of those. :-)
Agreed with servant and hplus about how bad they would be for a regular game server.
I've done some hacking on it to enable some of my own scripts and processing. The device is fairly erratic for processing, I suspect that is mostly because of its aggressive low-power settings. If it has already spun up for processing it tends to be okay for a while, but it has other problems.
Any time I have it do serious work for an extended time the device tends to overheat. It is fine for short scripts like waking devices remotely or serving a few web pages, and it mostly works okay for longer-term tasks like big FTP transfers.
In practice even a moderate amount of work (such as an hour of streaming video from the device) can be enough for it to overheat. I stream movies from my own DVD rips and the device is usually able to make it through a single movie, but more than that is asking too much. It is good at the intended purpose of a network file system and hackable always-on lightweight server, but don't ask it for much more.
That being said, you can put together a Raspberry Pi 3 plus a MicroSD card, plus some USB stick storage, plus a cell phone charger for power, for about $50.
Or pay a little extra and get a complete kit.
It comes with WiFi and Wired Ethernet. You can also plug in a display and keyboard into it, temporarily, while setting it up, and then manage it through SSH.
It's a vastly better server platform than the MyCloud device. Faster, too, and with more memory. However, it's still not a GOOD long-term server platform, but it's the best you can get for $50 :-)
Btw: If your hard drives are USB compatible, you can also use a Raspberry Pi as a home storage server.
Or pay a little extra and get a complete kit.
It comes with WiFi and Wired Ethernet. You can also plug in a display and keyboard into it, temporarily, while setting it up, and then manage it through SSH.
It's a vastly better server platform than the MyCloud device. Faster, too, and with more memory. However, it's still not a GOOD long-term server platform, but it's the best you can get for $50 :-)
Btw: If your hard drives are USB compatible, you can also use a Raspberry Pi as a home storage server.
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