Game Server Hosting on Bare Metal: Minecraft, Valheim, Palworld

Cloud VMs share CPU and RAM with other tenants. When your Minecraft server hits 20 players and the host is overloaded, tick rate drops and players lag. Bare metal eliminates that problem entirely — you get dedicated hardware, consistent performance, and the freedom to configure everything yourself.

Why Bare Metal for Game Servers

Dedicated Resources

Game servers are CPU-bound and memory-hungry. A shared VPS might advertise 4 vCPUs, but those are timeslices on a shared physical core. During peak hours, your server competes with dozens of other tenants. Bare metal means every CPU cycle and every byte of RAM is exclusively yours.

Low Latency

Virtualization adds 1–3ms of overhead per network packet. That does not sound like much, but game servers process thousands of packets per second. On bare metal, packets hit the network stack directly — no hypervisor in the way. Players feel the difference in responsiveness.

No Throttling

Cloud providers throttle CPU credits when you exceed sustained usage. Game servers run at high CPU utilization 24/7. On shared hosting, that means throttling within hours. On bare metal, your server runs at full power continuously.

Server Requirements by Game

Setting Up Minecraft on Bare Metal

Deploy a RAW server and install Java:

npx rawhq deploy --plan raw-4
ssh root@your-raw-ip

apt update && apt install -y openjdk-21-jre-headless
mkdir /opt/minecraft && cd /opt/minecraft
wget https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/server.jar -O server.jar
echo "eula=true" > eula.txt

Create a systemd service for automatic startup and restarts:

# /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service
[Unit]
Description=Minecraft Server
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/minecraft
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xmx4G -Xms2G -jar server.jar nogui
Restart=always
User=minecraft

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

useradd -r -s /bin/false minecraft
chown -R minecraft:minecraft /opt/minecraft
systemctl enable --now minecraft

For modded servers, use Paper or Fabric instead of vanilla. Paper provides significantly better tick performance — essential for servers with 10+ players.

Setting Up Valheim on Bare Metal

Valheim uses SteamCMD for installation:

apt install -y steamcmd
mkdir /opt/valheim

steamcmd +force_install_dir /opt/valheim \
  +login anonymous \
  +app_update 896660 validate \
  +quit

Start the server with your world configuration:

cd /opt/valheim
./valheim_server.x86_64 -name "MyServer" \
  -port 2456 -world "MyWorld" \
  -password "server-password" -public 0

Valheim is single-threaded for world simulation, so clock speed matters more than core count. The raw-4 plan provides enough headroom for 10 concurrent players with room for world expansion.

Setting Up Palworld on Bare Metal

Palworld is the most resource-hungry of the three. Install via SteamCMD:

mkdir /opt/palworld

steamcmd +force_install_dir /opt/palworld \
  +login anonymous \
  +app_update 2394010 validate \
  +quit

Configure the server settings:

cd /opt/palworld
# Edit DefaultPalWorldSettings.ini for player count, difficulty, etc.
./PalServer.sh -port=8211 -players=16 -useperfthreads -NoAsyncLoadingThread -UseMultithreadForDS

For 16+ players, use the raw-8 plan (8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM). Palworld leaks memory over multi-day sessions, so schedule a nightly restart via cron.

Cost Comparison: Bare Metal vs Game Hosting Services

Managed game hosting services charge 3–5x more for the same resources, and you lose root access. On RAW, you get dedicated hardware, full SSH control, and the ability to run multiple game servers on one machine.

Performance Tips

• Use NVMe storage: World saves and chunk loading are I/O intensive. NVMe is 5–10x faster than spinning disk
• Set CPU affinity: Pin your game server to specific cores using taskset to avoid context switching
• Schedule restarts: Most game servers accumulate memory leaks. A daily 4 AM restart keeps things snappy
• Firewall everything: Only open the game port and SSH. Use ufw to block everything else
• Automate backups: Cron job to tar the world directory every 6 hours. Store off-server
• Run multiple servers: A raw-8 can run Minecraft, Valheim, and a small Palworld server simultaneously

The Bottom Line

Game hosting services charge a premium for a control panel and one-click installs. The actual setup takes 10 minutes on bare metal, and you get dedicated resources that never throttle, full root access, and costs that are 60–80% lower. If your community has outgrown shared hosting, bare metal is the obvious next step.

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