Help me Configer Gaming PCs

[dard_thesorrow]

hello...

i need your help frens...

Actully i m planning to open GAME ZONE & Cyber cafe...

so i want to configer my PC (6 PC)

plz tell me how much hard disc space is needed?? RAM? Graphics card?

mother board? Processor?

and wat is Switch? (My fren told that i want to installed it for networking...)

wat is router? wat is difference between switch and router??

[puntoMX]

All depends on what games you are going to use on those computers and your budget. I personally would go with Valve Cybercafé Program (STEAM based) as it's easy to manage and not too expensive.

So, what is your budget?

[dard_thesorrow]

n wat abt the configuration...?

and i want to run all the (New)games... like (lula, NFS, Fallout, Wanted.Weapons.Of.Fate, diablo, nascar, footmal manger 2009, Etc............)

so how much graphics card i need (512MB OR 1 GB)??

how much ram i need ( 1GB OR @ GB)??

i m planning that i make one server and other PCs are Node (Client)... is it Gud and safe??

plz help me frens??

[puntoMX]

Okay, what you need is:

- Dual core CPU above 2GHz, Intel E5200 would be a perfect pick but a AMD X2 5200 is also nice

- ATI HD4670 or nVidia 9600GT and up, 512MB, no need for more

- 2GB up to 4GB of RAM

What you don't need, or better say to stay away from it, is:

- nVidia chipset on your motherboard

- Intel Celeron E1200/1400 for gaming unless you OC them to 2.66/3GHz

- Video cards with lots of RAM and no GPU power.

That's the start...

[majormashup]

I've been invloved in LAN centres for a number of years and would recommend smartlaunch for license/stock/software management. I've found it to be a little buggy with vista so go with xp if you can. The smartlaunch forums are pretty good for helping you set things up (license management is becoming increasingly difficult so I'd highly recommend you get adept at using .bat and .vbs scripts and familiarise yourself as much as possible with the windows registry)

The steam cafe management solution is a must have as well in my opinion as it does its own license management. It is also worth investing in a decent server and running smartlaunchs database on a virtual machine using mysql (linux is preferable) as opposed to the standard .mdb config (back up the VM regularly and do not allow any traffic other than to the db to that vm so that if your server goes tits up you can recover quickly)

I would also advise you are VERY strict on user file storage. Smartlaunch offers you to do this in a similair way to an AD roaming profile but due to the nature of your business you risk infection from malware as a lot of users will be accessing sites beyond your control (unless you are strictly gaming with no other web access)

Unfortunatley smartlaunch server only runs on windows but try and keep as much of the rest of your critical services running on linux to maintain stability of critical services (I would recommend running the SL server on your 'till' PC with the admin module and directing the DB and user files to a seperate debian\mysql\samba box if you can although this will also mean you have to run you CAS [steam cafe] server from your 'till' box)

I know this is a bit of a rant but I have fixed a lot of issues in a number of UK gaming centres and it is worth getting a decent topology in place to avoid your centre failing in future.

Feel free to PM me if you need. hope some of this helps.

Mashup

[puntoMX]

as a lot of users will be accessing sites beyond your control (unless you are strictly gaming with no other web access)

Use OpenDNS for that.

[Zenskas]

Hey puntoMX, just wondering why you recommend so much RAM? Why do you have 8GB?

1GB up to 2GB would be plenty not to mention 32bit Windows doesn't see all 4GB. If the computers are not loaded up with heaps of intensive programs and its mainly games then 2GB is fine. If you further tweak Windows for use with just certain things you can reduce RAM usage by a fair bit. On an average day my PC's RAM usage will be well under 1GB unless I am playing a game where 2GB is a little nicer but 4GB is far overkill unless you run HUGE programs. If you are going to run Vista Ultimate on there then 4GB may help a little but 2GB is still enough.

Hey I just checked my RAM usage just then... 15 tabs open in my browser+1 flash game, AVG running a scan, and all my normal background stuff running (nvidia drivers, audio drivers, windows services etc) and I'm using a little over 600MB RAM Still got 1400MB left ready to take on any large game. The games dard_thesorrow mentioned would not need more than 1400MB RAM.

EDIT: Now I'm onto something:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/709/3/

A fast gaming PC with Vista Ultimate SP1 64bit. An average performance increase of just 1.6% from 2GB to 4GB. What a waste!!! 1920x1200 res gaming and hardly any good except for a small boost in Crysis. Even with a hefty 64 bit OS 4GB makes a puny amount of difference

Anyway the CPU and graphics cards puntoMX has recommended are great and you would probably not need much hard drive space (250GB is heaps, you could get away with 160GB) as you only need the games and some programs on there...not a huge collection of movies and music.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Zenskas

[CoffeeFiend]

why you recommend so much RAM?

Why not? A 4GB kit is around $50, and a 2GB kit is $30 or so.

IMO that $20 is well worth it, some games will eventually make good use of it, and he's not gonna be running 32 bit XP forever either (I for one, am no longer using XP, nor a 32 bit version of Windows). It's worth it, even just for future-proofing (besides, I hate filling slots with tiny 1GB sticks, that you'll inevitably "discard" later on, as you buy 2GB sticks for an upgrade, what a waste!) Also, the benches you quoted might have been bottlenecked elsewhere (vid card perhaps, only glanced at it) -- most benches on the web are like that these days... And some other benches seem to show it's not a waste at all:

Similarly, I don't see the point in getting a 250GB drive (much less a 160GB), as you're only saving like $10 over buying a 500GB drive (space for large ghost images, large games and what not).

[Zenskas]

why you recommend so much RAM?

Why not? A 4GB kit is around $50, and a 2GB kit is $30 or so.

IMO that $20 is well worth it, some games will eventually make good use of it, and he's not gonna be running 32 bit XP forever either (I for one, am no longer using XP, nor a 32 bit version of Windows). It's worth it, even just for future-proofing (besides, I hate filling slots with tiny 1GB sticks, that you'll inevitably "discard" later on, as you buy 2GB sticks for an upgrade, what a waste!) Also, the benches you quoted might have been bottlenecked elsewhere (vid card perhaps, only glanced at it) -- most benches on the web are like that these days... And some other benches seem to show it's not a waste at all:

Firstly you could buy the one 2GB stick now then by the time you need 4GB you could buy another 2GB for less than $30. Maybe $20. Then your only spending $50 all together according to your prices.

Secondly the computer used for these benchmarks was a powerful one...Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770 CPU, Gigabyte X38-DQ6 mobo, XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 video card, 2GB & 4GB Corsair 9136C5 RAM. Definitely not bottle necked elsewhere. And the biggest performance increase was in crysis which is not mentioned by dard_thesorrow. Really you may even end up saving money if you wait till 4GB is necessary as the price of RAM will drop more and buying 2GB now and another 2GB stick later could cost less than buying a 2X2GB sticks right now. If you wanna save money, you gotta think like this. I have to agree with buying 500GB hard drives though now that I think of it. Just thought it might be a fair bit cheaper buying six hard 250GB drives in say a bulk buy. And I would say upgradeing to 4GB if you were gaming on an 8800GT at the large res of the benchmarks you posted may help that much, but the 8800GT is probably not powerful enough for gaming at 1920x1200 ATM and I doubt dard_thesorrow will have six monitor that big anyway. Plus that is only two games. Not nine as used in the benchmark I posted.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Zenskas

[go6o_kara]

Hi there. It very much depends on the monitors, right? And you are all forgeting that part. dard_thesorrow, you didn't specify a monitor, neither the budget. First, to say, my boss owns 11 internet/game cafes which makes about 360 PC's. All hardware problems goes to me . So I have an idea what is inside and how it works. And there are some important questions. Is it going to be a smoking area? And most important, do you plan further increase of the number of PC's?

Now we have a 22'' Full HD monitor 16:9, 16:10 for less than 150 euro. I talk about BENQ and ASUS models, some at 1920x1080, some at 1920x1200. And 19'', 20'' goes for around 120-130 euro. And if you take big screen, you need something to feed it properly. The 9600GT is very much CPU dependent, here the CPU cache doesn't matter this much. So my advise is for your tiny number of computers to do a little overclock, to raise the E5200(or E5300, if there is no more that 5-10 euro difference) to 3ghz. It will happen very easy even with the box fan. The only reason I talk about OC'ing is we talk for only 6 PC's. Little number->less problems. As I presume you aren't going any time soon for i7 platform, it is smarter choice to buy 4 gigs ram at 800mhz, no need for special timings here. If is not a big difference license a 64 bits Windows. As well I wander if Microsoft will allow you any more to buy XP for that purpose... But even if you can, do not. WHY? Because there are some games, and many more coming which just do not run on XP. Hard drive: 160gb is pretty much enough, but because of the very little price difference take 500gb. Somebody mentioned huge ghost images. Why pain in the a**? Make one image, keep it on the server, live nice and happy. Why bother with 6 images? After you apply one, the most you must do is change Windows serial number, so the do not overlap...

Also, the PC management program: we use custom one, made for us. And we are happy with that, 'cose it sweets our needs. Your choice will be something that works correctly with Vista and 64 bits. Sorry folks, we live now and here, not in the past.

About the switch: for now you can just buy a "stupid" one. It means a regular one, 8th ports. It will do: 6pc's, 1 bar pc for management, one router(preferably a PC with linux or ruteros for gateway/routing/LAN policy). When you get more than 12-16 pc's, then a "smart" switch with IP management is mandatory, else your LAN will be down on its knees.

Also, you may want to employ a copy/print/fax/scan services, it is recommended to put these machines on a separate pc, an ordinary one, equip it with a DVD writer and everybody will be satisfied. The gaming mashines do not need an optical device 99% of the time, for the remaining 1% you use the multimedia pc, which can also run some music in the cafe.

[majormashup]

...you would probably not need much hard drive space (250GB is heaps, you could get away with 160GB) as you only need the games and some programs on there...not a huge collection of movies and music.

I beg to differ. Due to the way most cafes manage their game licenses you will also need to store images of discs (ISO's etc) on the drives which will take up considerably more space. In addition to that the steam cafe system offfers you ridiculout amounts of games and remember you will be getting new games as time goes by with customers still wanting to play some of the older ones. I would go with AT LEAST 500gb and by a spare one or two with your build pre-imaged for rapid deployment incase of failiure (in my experience HDD's are normally the first thing to die)

oh and check out deepfreeze/drivesheild or similair to keep your build "as new" no matter what your customers decide to try and do to it

Use OpenDNS for that.

in an ideal world that's great but people pay to use net cafes so they can access what they want. I've found content filtering to be a pain from a customer service standpoint in the past.

[puntoMX]

... in an ideal world that's great but people pay to use net cafes so they can access what they want. I've found content filtering to be a pain from a customer service standpoint in the past.

Well, yes, but in this case you protect your business thus you better be not allowing every webpage that exists. The customers that complain can go find their crap somewhere else as it's for sure not straight. I´m using it now for over 2 years and I'm really happy with it, I can even resolve DNS requests fasten then by using the DNS server of my ISP.

...you would probably not need much hard drive space (250GB is heaps, you could get away with 160GB) as you only need the games and some programs on there...not a huge collection of movies and music.

I beg to differ. Due to the way most cafes manage their game licenses you will also need to store images of discs (ISO's etc) on the drives which will take up considerably more space. In addition to that the steam cafe system offfers you ridiculout amounts of games and remember you will be getting new games as time goes by with customers still wanting to play some of the older ones. I would go with AT LEAST 500gb ...

Correct, 500GB is needed for a "Steam Cafe", I use 50GB for the OS (Vista 64bit) and Office and the other 415GB (as a 500GB is really 465GB useful) for the games PLUS they are faster too then a 160 or 250GB drive.

Hey puntoMX, just wondering why you recommend so much RAM? Why do you have 8GB?

1GB up to 2GB would be plenty not to mention 32bit Windows doesn't see all 4GB.

Naa, 1Gb will kill the performance on Vista, 2GB will run smooth but if you really want to run a system without problems 4GB would be better, and for sure 64bit. Most people will not just play a game, at the same time they have YouTube open, some other webpages open, MSN messenger open, Microsoft Word and Excel and after that list they play a game with their friends. believe me, that's the average gamer here .

I use 8GB as I'm using photoshop a few times a week to print huge 300DPI printouts, mostly 60 by 160cm or 80 by 180cm. If it was just for gaming then 4GB would be enough. Ow, and I forget Virtual Machines, i run those too to test...

[Zenskas]

If you read my post I do agree with 500GB but I can tell you now I have 25 games sitting on my PC right now all large games which do not load anything from the CD plus about ten 700MB movies and a bunch of photos and music...and I'm only using 90GB ATM.

Correct, 500GB is needed for a "Steam Cafe", I use 50GB for the OS (Vista 64bit) and Office and the other 415GB (as a 500GB is really 465GB useful) for the games PLUS they are faster too then a 160 or 250GB drive.

I use 8GB as I'm using photoshop a few times a week to print huge 300DPI printouts, mostly 60 by 160cm or 80 by 180cm. If it was just for gaming then 4GB would be enough. Ow, and I forget Virtual Machines, i run those too to test...

Wow Vista and office uses that much space? Lucky I got XP then. You can still buy hard drives around 160-250GB which are just about as fast as a 500GB. Even faster than some 500GB hard drives I reckon.

I thought you may need 8GB for something to do with photos.

Click on the link I posted to some benchmarks though and it shows hardly and difference between 2GB and 4GB for gaming on Vista 64-bit. Just thought that if you buy 1x2GB now and 1x2GB later then it may end up cheaper than 2X2GB right now.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Zenskas

[CoffeeFiend]

Firstly you could buy the one 2GB stick now then by the time you need 4GB you could buy another 2GB for less than $30. Maybe $20. Then your only spending $50 all together according to your prices.

So what you're saying is, there's a slight chance he might save all of $10 if he waits long enough for prices to drop (or maybe nothing). Meanwhile, making games run slower, games load noticeably slower, and multitasking quite slower (4GB sure makes a huge difference on vista), meanwhile running in single channel mode?

It's gonna cost him easily $1000/seat, when you count the PC itself (tower, PSU, decent CPU, motherboard, gamer's video card, RAM, optical drive, hard drive, etc), decent monitor and speakers, mouse, keyboard, and the furniture of course (desk, chair), and the other stuff that goes with it (power bars, network cables, etc), all the shared stuff (network switch, router, printer, etc) and software licenses (OS, apps, games), and then taxes/shipping and such. Not counting all the other "business expenses" (like renting the place, utility bills or insurance). When you look at the big picture, your skimping on parts (RAM and HD combined) won't even save him 1%, and it will make a noticeable difference for sure.

1GB for a modern gaming PC is plain ridiculous. I don't even go for so little non a non-gaming XP box. Actually, the kids' newest box (which is not built for gaming at all) has 4GB and it really flies.

[Zenskas]

So what you're saying is, there's a slight chance he might save all of $10 if he waits long enough for prices to drop (or maybe nothing). Meanwhile, making games run slower, games load noticeably slower, and multitasking quite slower (4GB sure makes a huge difference on vista), meanwhile running in single channel mode?

It's gonna cost him easily $1000/seat, when you count the PC itself (tower, PSU, decent CPU, motherboard, gamer's video card, RAM, optical drive, hard drive, etc), decent monitor and speakers, mouse, keyboard, and the furniture of course (desk, chair), and the other stuff that goes with it (power bars, network cables, etc), all the shared stuff (network switch, router, printer, etc) and software licenses (OS, apps, games), and then taxes/shipping and such. Not counting all the other "business expenses" (like renting the place, utility bills or insurance). When you look at the big picture, your skimping on parts (RAM and HD combined) won't even save him 1%, and it will make a noticeable difference for sure.

1GB for a modern gaming PC is plain ridiculous. I don't even go for so little non a non-gaming XP box. Actually, the kids' newest box (which is not built for gaming at all) has 4GB and it really flies.

There is a definite chance RAM will drop in price. It is the current trend so why should it change? Meanwhile I would recommend using Win XP with 2GB then go to 4GB when Windows 7 comes out. Yeah I know Vista ain't all bad if you tweak it but if you tweak XP you CAN get it to run just about any game or standard app on 1GB RAM. Trust me, I have a P3 1Ghz system with just 512MB RAM and it runs XP just as good as the PC in my sig, just any apps and games that have been made in the past few years are slower (obviously) because it is highly tweaked. I can still go on the net with it, play online flash games, play heaps of fun older games on it etc. What is the point of 4GB in a kid's box? I can run every program any non-millionaire kid would want on 2GB or even 1GB RAM so long as the rest of the PC is fast enough. And dual-channel doesn't do much at all.

I have sources for not needing 4GB too. First the benchmark I posted. Second the February 2009 issue of PC User magazine where they did benchmarks on 2GB vs 4GB in XP AND Vista.

PC User Dan Gardiner and Nick Mailath write:

"Adding another 2GB (for 4GB) gave more mixed results. With DDR2, most areas will still see some slight benefit, but with DDR3 some scores actually didn't budge at all, or even slid backwards. That said, Vista will certainly use up more than 2GB of RAM if given access to it, but it's hard to quantify the benefits in benchmarks..."

"In most cases, you'd better off reserving the extra cash for a faster CPU or graphics card, which will give you noticeable speed gains. Likewise, most users won't notice a big difference with more than 2GB, though power users may see some small benefits from jumping to 4GB."

Now 4GB ain't too bad if you have Vista Home premium or ultimate 64-bit, but if you don't then I would be getting 2GB. Depends which OS the OP wants. If he is using XP 2GB is plenty. If he is using Vista 4GB may be an option depending on whether or not he would rather get a slightly faster CPU or slightly bigger hard drive etc.

Edited March 28, 2009 by Zenskas