Setting up a lan party room.

This is really an off the wall question for me, and I'm not really sure where to post it, so I went for the closest related option. I'm interested in setting up a 'LAN center' I want to call it. A room with desk area, networking, and the other nuances that'd make it accomodating. I'm starting to have quite a few pcs of my own, and figured it'd be nicer for my friends to have a setup here of my own providing so they don't have to lug around their PC for playing (unless they insist).

As that is my idea, I want to hammer out the fine details such as some affordable yet elegant desk options, what networking hardware and software might be necessary, power supply suggestions as I dont want to lose any rigs, and just some general tips. Any start will do, so please let me hear what you have to say.

That switch might be somewhat overkill...you can get yourself some cheaper 8-10-12 port 10/100 switches (explain to me why a small 'home' LAN needs more bandwidth than this) and just plug them into 2 ports on your home router. This will easily suffice; we do this exact setup for LANs up to 20 people, except we use 3 switches, not 2. In a switched network, you don't suffer from broadcast collisions due to each PC having their own collision (non-collision, actually) domain. Fast and reliable LAN transmission...which is the point of any network...just steer clear of hubs...they aren't worth the money.

Look at mounting switches on the underside of tables with either double sided adhesive tape (the super sticky kind)or most have screw-hole mounts and maybe some wiring looms for the cabling. Then you can just poke the Cat5e up over the sides/between tables.

Central game/file server is a good idea if people bring their own rigs...make sure the drive is shared with at least read rights...provide another 'write' drive to upload patches, files, maps, etc... Its a pain to wait on 5 people to play LAN when you have to install and patch a game every time...at least make it easily accessible. With that...look into making .ISOs of your games (you know, for backup ) so that you can install from a network share...use Alcohol or Daemon Tools to install and mount the images. Beware though, Vista doesn't like emulated hardware/software

I agree with Riser on the issue of power, we have tripped many-a-breakers during LANs. If this is something you are looking into long term, or might sell your house with a 'dedicated' office, looking into hiring an electrician to wire you some more dedicated circuits to the room. You will be glad you did.

Edit: added some links.

Switch (we use these-cheap and effective.http://www.monoprice.com/products/ [...] 1&format=2

Cabling, w/connectors http://www.monoprice.com/products/ [...] p_id=10208

...or you could just cut and crimp your own...cheaper here than at Best Buy or somewhere else...