Need help ..50PCs for my internet cafe!

[Windrunner]

I'd also check the building's power availability and look at what it's going to cost to have the surge protection built into the circuit breakers. 10-15 computers are fine on home/office grade equipment, but when you ramp up that much you're getting into some enterprise grade stuff-You can't afford your systems going down during a storm.

Check software licensing before anything. It's hellishly expensive, and most freeware isn't free for businesses.

[Poci]

How bout a Gaming Cyber Cafe/Bar!!!

Not only can you game but you can have beer at the same time.

Thats like one of my pipe dreams for the future


Anyways as for the rigs I say go amd on the cpu and with the money u save get better video cards,which are much more important for gaming,Id say dual 3870s should be less then 300 bucks for the cards

[Petden]

I wouldn't let a drunk person near my computers. What if he spills his drink? Interesting idea, but I dont think it will work out. Because he wants the most stability and performance, I think he wont be overclocking, therefor at less than $100 for a CPU, AMD might be better, but at over $120 Intel is the choice.

[Foxtrot]

There use to be a cyber bar in Portland, Oregon called Liberator Brewing. It was pretty sweet a micro brewery in one half and about 30 PCs playing Counter-strike in the other half. Oh and the beer was so good. The place ran for about two years then a customer bought the place and got rid of the PC's and concentrated on the bar. The place went belly up in less than a year.

[howieh60]

My idea for a cyber cafe is around 2 other businesses. A sports bar, beer only, with a few pool tables big screens for showing games.And in back the secret ingredient a full service laundry drop off your clothes and go drink watch TV eat a deli sandwich or burger fries ect,to one side cyber cafe with part of it a coffee shop. As near to a Major University as I can get the place.
Cyber, Java Sud's & Sud's . A great way to hire a few university students kinda cheap, and a few Latin women to run the laundry.
Java, Surfin, Brewskies and get your laundry done while you relax/wait/shoot pool/watch the big game or a power lunch with your buddies. Or just quite time surfin and siping a nice late. And every other Saturday a LAN party with Prizes of course.Overflow playing right from their rooms on campus keeping the ping low.
I bet I could even wrangle a few sponsors maybe ATi or Nvidia, hell Intel.
Special events during summer and winter like barbecues in the summer. Oh well just an idea.

[berserker29]

For some reason, no one seems to want to point out that budget gaming is the field that AMD is really competitive in. Here's an option from the other side:

Phenom II x3 720 BE $145
ASUS M3A78-CM $75
Patriot RAM 800MHz/4-4-4-12 4GB (2X2GB) $50
HIS Radeon 4770 $100 OR SPARKLE 9600 GT 1GB $100
LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WSL w/ 480w psu $40

OMG $410

Throw in a $90 1TB HDD and your sitting pretty at $500 per computer minus the monitor, roughly $650 all told.

I recommended the triple core, because over the next 3-5 years multi-core games are going to become much more common, and it's nice to have one core dedicated to OS and background processes.

I can and will vouch for the quality of both the M3A78 based mobo and the RAM, as I have stability tested my system for 48 hours with no errors.

I recommended the case because it seemed like a good deal, but in reality since you're trying to attract customers, you should try to match your case to your monitor and/or the other way around. Match the mouse and keyboard too, because otherwise you can end up with a slip-shod feeling that makes people question the build quality.

Spring for another $20~ and bump up the graphics to a 4850 or 9800 if you want.

[Poci]

I wouldn't let a drunk person near my computers. What if he spills his drink? Interesting idea, but I dont think it will work out. Because he wants the most stability and performance, I think he wont be overclocking, therefor at less than $100 for a CPU, AMD might be better, but at over $120 Intel is the choice.

Big deal,theyd spill a drink on the keyboard.That doesnt cost much to replace.

[Windrunner]

For some reason, no one seems to want to point out that budget gaming is the field that AMD is really competitive in. Here's an option from the other side:

Phenom II x3 720 BE $145
ASUS M3A78-CM $75
Patriot RAM 800MHz/4-4-4-12 4GB (2X2GB) $50
HIS Radeon 4770 $100 OR SPARKLE 9600 GT 1GB $100
LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WSL w/ 480w psu $40

OMG $410

Throw in a $90 1TB HDD and your sitting pretty at $500 per computer minus the monitor, roughly $650 all told.

I recommended the triple core, because over the next 3-5 years multi-core games are going to become much more common, and it's nice to have one core dedicated to OS and background processes.

I can and will vouch for the quality of both the M3A78 based mobo and the RAM, as I have stability tested my system for 48 hours with no errors.

I recommended the case because it seemed like a good deal, but in reality since you're trying to attract customers, you should try to match your case to your monitor and/or the other way around. Match the mouse and keyboard too, because otherwise you can end up with a slip-shod feeling that makes people question the build quality.

Spring for another $20~ and bump up the graphics to a 4850 or 9800 if you want.

MEGA bump there. Look at the date for the post above yours.


Few critiques:
He definitely needs good power supplies, he will be paying for PFC in his utilities, and most low-mid range PSUs don't have good PFC, meaning he'll get charged not only for power drawn, but for how 'dirty' he makes the distribution system.

He needs monitors, and he probably needs to look at minimum 22 inch widescreens - something most people don't have sitting at home. These start out at about 220 dollars apiece for good ones that he'd want to use in a gaming environment.

He needs speakers and some sort of sound insulation between one system to the next. He needs good ones, and probably a subwoofer on each - though not a big one, just a good one. If he does headphones, he'll run into sanitation issues, and customers will frequently break them unless he gets big, bulky, ugly, uncomfortable monstrosities.

He needs a keyboard and mouse that are easily cleaned and still look good. He probably should just get dishwasher safe keyboards and mice (they make them) and run them through the dishwasher once a day. This also addresses 'spillage' issues.

Lastly, he will need to build a server to serve all of these PCs, to roll out updates quickly and efficiently, and to do rapid network setups with all games installed WHEN his users tear a system up with flash drive transmitted viruses / dangerous websites. This will run him at least 1500 dollars in hardware, as it will need to be fairly beefy in CPU/RAM wise to handle the web caching he'll need to do to keep internet browsing decent for 50 computers.

Speaking of internet, he needs the infrastructure to simultaneously feed 50 computers high bandwidth low ping access. This means at minimum a gigabit switch with a 10G port, or multiple gigabit uplinks (at LEAST four), which would go to his server. This means looking at switches that are usually 1500 dollars and above. Consumer level tech will NOT work here. If it was something like 20 computers, he may be able to get away with consumer tech.

After this he's looking at software. He can assume he's going to be paying 250 a seat for windows on his client computers, possibly less. Last time I looked it was REALLY painful. He'll be paying at least 900 dollars for server 2008.

After that he may be able to use www.comodo.com as his security suite, I don't know if they offer it free to businesses. He'll want some way of centrally managing all security software on his machines. I don't think Comodo has this capability. If he has to go with a pay software, he's looking at at least a recurring fee of thousands of dollars a year.

Then there comes the cost of CD management, a steam cybercafe license, et cetera.

Really when it comes down to it, he's looking at a probable cost of 800 dollars per computer for the hardware alone, but a total cost of at least 2000 a computer with the software and infrastructure tacked on.

So really he needs to look at starting with maybe 5 systems on a cheap 20 port gigabit switch, and have it open to BYOC, and if/when demand increases, add more systems.