Gaming Cafe: I need advice

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

I'm planning to start a Gaming Cafe business and as of now, I have this build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($175.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61M-S1 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($41.97 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($130.66 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($21.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $425.58
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-13 06:06 EDT-0400)

I won't be needing any HDD, OS, and Optical Drive as I will be doing a diskless setup. I need suggestions on a durable keyboard, mouse, monitor, and headphones. Also, if you want to change anything on my build, just tell me.

*notes:
*I need my build to be as energy efficient as possible.
*Most of my customers will play League of Legends and DotA 2. So I want them to get constant 60+ FPS on max settings @ 1080p. I know the build is a little overkill for DotA 2 and LoL but I want them to be future proof from graphics upgrade from these games.
*The PC units will run 24/7
*The room temperature will be 24 °C

Thanks is advance!

diazalon · Oct 13, 2013

james77 :

Pretty good build but maybe upgrade to 8gb of ram and if you want a really energy effcient build then upgrade the psu to an 80 plus gold psu which would run cooler and quieter also. Since its running 24/7 your gonna want to have good cooling so maybe have some gentle typhoons in there since they are some of the best 120mm fans on the market and maybe an aftermarket air cooler for the cpu like the Dark Knight Night Hawk or just a medium sized one,

JOHNN93 · Oct 13, 2013

do not buy the parts from the INTERNET.there are companies that do not sell to people and are in charge of installing network and upgrading PC's in banks. i work in this type of company and before 3 days we installed 34 pc in a gaming cafe with the same processor and the processor was sold to them for 40 $ shipped directly from Intel including vat and the pc had a 650 ti boost and 8 gb of ram for 400 $ with a 630 waat psu wasn't necessary but they wanted it.

diazalon · Oct 13, 2013

JOHNN93 :

What are you talking about? He can just order form these sites and build it..

JOHNN93 · Oct 13, 2013

diazalon :

im talking about buying something better with less money prebuilt the same possessor he will give 175 $ it cost us only 30 $ 400 $ for a i5 3350p asus b75 motherboard 2 x 4 gb 1600 kingstone blue 500 gb wd 650 ti boost 630 waat psu cooler master elite 342 windows 8 pro and 1 year support.?
i think if he finds a company he can get something better with the same money and they will set it up for him.

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

JOHNN93 :

diazalon :

im talking about buying something better with less money prebuilt the same possessor he will give 175 $ it cost us only 30 $ 400 $ for a i5 3350p asus b75 motherboard 2 x 4 gb 1600 kingstone blue 500 gb wd 650 ti boost 630 waat psu cooler master elite 342 windows 8 pro and 1 year support.?
i think if he finds a company he can get something better with the same money and they will set it up for him.

I understand what you are talking about. However, I don't live in the US so I will be buying the parts here in a local store at my country. I have already told them that I will be buying a lot of units so I got a fairly large discount.

manofchalk · Oct 13, 2013

Looks like a good rig for its purpose, cant really knock it for much except its RAM. Though if that becomes necessary its an easy upgrade.
Careful with that H61 board, the older LGA1155 chipsets (H61 and P67) arent compatible with Ivy Bridge without a BIOS update. Chances are good it will ship with it already updated, but you will want to check.
If you spend a bit extra for a CX500 PSU, that will give you two PCIe connectors which would allow you to throw a stronger card in there if the need ever arises. Maybe a pricing tier for the strength of the machine, if they play LoL get a weaker machine for cheaper, if they play BF4 they can pay more for a stronger machine.

Keyboard: I would be looking at mechanicals. Cherry MX keyswitches are rated for far more key-presses than a membrane switch, and the tactile resistance and sound is very gamer-y and so would advance the impression your trying to make. Would get MX Browns or Reds for your usage, Blues would be way too loud en masse and Blacks I feel are kind of pointless.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129022
Seems a good option I think, though over time the lettering may wear off. For that reason it could be worth getting something backlit for the laser engraved keycaps (and the coolness factor)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129013

Mouse: Would think a smaller mouse may be better, people with large hands might be put off having to claw grip it, but its better than alienating anyone with small hands. Thumb buttons are a must I think. A LAN Cafe in my area uses Corsair M60's or M40's if you want a place to start looking.

Headphones, no clue to be honest. Definitely will want something with a mic.

Monitor, bog standard 1080p TN monitor. Only decision really is size.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236295

EDIT: What have you got setup on the networking side? I imagine with say, 20?, machines all pulling their data off a central server your going to need some impressive storage performance on your server and some wicked networking equipment. It may be unfeasible, but have you looked into cloud gaming technologies like Nvidia Grid or Radeon Sky?

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

diazalon :

About the ram: Yes I will consider a RAM upgrade later on, but not now. The extra 3 watts per computer unit will have an effect in my electricity bills.

About the PSU: I did some computations and came up with a decision of not upgrading to a gold rated PSU. Based from my computations, the extra money spent on a gold rated PSU is not worth it. The point wherein the gold rated PSU will cost less than a bronze rated PSU due to energy efficiency will take some years. And with those years, I can just invest the money somewhere else and earn more.

As of now, I have already bought 1 unit and having it tested by two people for a whole 24 hour of non stop gaming. I will be observing the average and maximum CPU and GPU temps. I bought a really cheap case which is the Gigabyte GZ-PC. It has an 80mm rear fan that seems to work fine. We'll see how it goes. If the temp reaches 80 °C then I might get a different case, get extra fans, or get a CPU cooler.

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

manofchalk :

Looks like a good rig for its purpose, cant really knock it for much except its RAM. Though if that becomes necessary its an easy upgrade.
Careful with that H61 board, the older LGA1155 chipsets (H61 and P67) arent compatible with Ivy Bridge without a BIOS update. Chances are good it will ship with it already updated, but you will want to check.
If you spend a bit extra for a CX500 PSU, that will give you two PCIe connectors which would allow you to throw a stronger card in there if the need ever arises. Maybe a pricing tier for the strength of the machine, if they play LoL get a weaker machine for cheaper, if they play BF4 they can pay more for a stronger machine.

Keyboard: I would be looking at mechanicals. Cherry MX keyswitches are rated for far more key-presses than a membrane switch, and the tactile resistance and sound is very gamer-y and so would advance the impression your trying to make. Would get MX Browns or Reds for your usage, Blues would be way too loud en masse and Blacks I feel are kind of pointless.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129022
Seems a good option I think, though over time the lettering may wear off. For that reason it could be worth getting something backlit for the laser engraved keycaps (and the coolness factor)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129013

Mouse: Would think a smaller mouse may be better, people with large hands might be put off having to claw grip it, but its better than alienating anyone with small hands. Thumb buttons are a must I think. A LAN Cafe in my area uses Corsair M60's or M40's if you want a place to start looking.

Headphones, no clue to be honest. Definitely will want something with a mic.

Monitor, bog standard 1080p TN monitor. Only decision really is size.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236295

EDIT: What have you got setup on the networking side? I imagine with say, 20?, machines all pulling their data off a central server your going to need some impressive storage performance on your server and some wicked networking equipment. It may be unfeasible, but have you looked into cloud gaming technologies like Nvidia Grid or Radeon Sky?

About the keyboard: Thanks for that, I will definitely be getting a fully backlit cherry MX keyboard.

About the mouse: I personally liked the corsair m60 and will go back to the store and look for them tomorrow morning.

About the monitor: I was looking at an LG 21.5" monitor. I'm not sure about their durability but they look nice and is also priced well.

About the networking: I'm not really sure how the networking will work but my contractor babbled about CCboot and gigabit ethernet. Well, it's up to her to work with that.

manofchalk · Oct 13, 2013

If you want to get technical, a 6Gb/s SATA connection is starting to bottleneck SSD's, so Gigabit Ethernet is without doubt going to bottleneck as far as pure read/write speeds are concerned. However the main advantage of SSD's is their Access Times being effectively nothing (<.1ms) compared to a HDD (~2ms), which isn't going to be limited by bandwidth restraints.
Besides, the don't make NIC's with multiple Ethernet connections for nothing, nor do they make 10Gb/s cards for nothing.

I would look into getting a HDD RAID 5 or 6 array with SSD caching drives. That's what springs to mind when I think of the kind of storage setup you would need, though that would depend on your storage needs. Its probable that you could construct a HDD Raid array thats fast enough to not need SSD's at all.

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

manofchalk :

Update about the networking: I called her up and she said something like this.
10 Boxes of XP CAT6 UTP Cable 305 Meters
500 Pcs of RJ45
15 Units of TPLink TL-SG1016 16-Port Gigabit Switch
I still don't have an idea what those are hahaha. But I will forward to her your posts and see what we can improve. I really appreciate your help by the way.

manofchalk · Oct 13, 2013

You have a lot of cable and a lot of Ethernet plugs (RJ45), I see a lot of time in your future dedicated to making Ethernet cables

A switch is what directs traffic within a network, basically data comes from your server into a switch, where it is then sent to where it needs to go.

How many computers are you planning on running? Seems a large number of switches for the network.

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

manofchalk :

My original plan was 200 units. However, I think I will just be going for 150 so that there will be more space as I will be implementing a food and drinks order system. Speaking of food and drinks, should I get a spill proof keyboard?

*With regards to the food and drinks, the stuff that might spill are: Hot drinks, Cold drinks, Ketchup, Mayo, Mustard, and Broth from cup noodles.

manofchalk · Oct 13, 2013

Ahh, an inherent downside of mechanical's is they are harder to clean compared to membranes. A membrane you can just run under water and leave to dry, mechanical you have to get a bit more into it.
http://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/mechanical-keyboard-guide/#cleaning

I only know of one washable keyboard, and they are fairly rare and expensive.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=113_1005&products_id=21113
That, and it looks to use a chiclet keyswitch, typically found in slimmer laptops.

After using a mechanical for a while, membrane keyboards begin to feel really mushy, hence my disdain :lol:

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

manofchalk :

Then, I guess I'll still go for the mechanical. I'll just have them cleaned on non peak hours and replace them when they break. Because customers' satisfaction is my main priority. I would rather put extra effort than make play on non gaming keyboards.

james77 · Oct 13, 2013

The only questions left unanswered are:

How durable are LG monitors? Can they work 24/7?

What are some durable headphones suitable for a gaming cafe?

I will just make a separate thread for these questions.

Big thanks to manofchalk, JOHNN93, and diazalon for helping out. That post that has helped me the most was manofchalk's post about the keyboard and mouse. I will select that as best solution. =)

manofchalk · Oct 13, 2013

Thanks for the BA.

LG monitors, cant really say. I would imagine that they would fare better than other brands (except maybe Samsung) because LG and Samsung manufacture the vast majority of LCD panels and so can keep the best for themselves. Though that wouldn't prevent its PSU blowing, which actually happened to a Benq monitor of mine (very, very old) recently. I think it would come down to just pure luck.
If you really want to look into it, I would start looking at RMA rates of different monitor models. Maybe even drop into any local computer shops and see if they have any opinions, no doubt they have seen plenty of dead monitors come through.

Gaming Cafe: I need advice

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