Lan-Gaming Cafe Owner, Need Help...

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Sevoma said:
Quintox, are you kidding me? Linksys is the crappiest brand of routers on the market. Search the web and you will se what I mean. I had one and a couple port burnt out and then it died. I recomend Network Everywhere, a division of Linksys.

linksys is actually good...

eh, see, its a division of linksys, so it must be good :D ;)
 
Isn't Linksys a division of Cisco? Anyway I would agree with Quintox, Linksys is a good brand, they're easy to install and setup, plus there is a lot of available information about them. If your ever having trouble forwarding ports, or anything like that, your going to find a lot of help. I also like Netgear. I have been having a little trouble with my Belkin 54g Wireless Router, so I don't know if I would recommend them as a good brand to go with. But its just one router, I know people who have used them and loved them.
 
i agree with everybody else on what they've said already, especially the upgrade to 1gb ram part.


And for the love of God, be sure to get COMFORTABLE CHAIRS. there's nothing that will hurt a computer gaming place more than uncomfortable chairs.(well...maybe broken computers)
 
jaksback said:
512 is gonna lag a bit, better to have 1gb

Definitely go router IMO cuz you'll have a seperate IP address for each pc. Not sure bout switches.

Don't forget the cost of the OS, make sure its a single purchase with a multiple pc license. you don't want to get cracked for installing a single license edition over multiple pc's

First of all, yes, you'll need 1GB of Ram, but don't worry that Value Ram will do.

You also want a router, smartest networkign device out their, and yes, Linksys is good brand and reputable. If you have a problem, they will take care of it. (you sound deciently knowledgable about computers, youll do fine setting it up throught he manual).
Also, about CS:S, You really cannot notice a difference with the AA setting on or off (and thats from a machine similar to the ones your putting together, not mine). Also, you may find people play 1.6 more than CS:S, around here source is hated, I miss 1.5 with a passion.

About the server....If this is a brand new business, you're always going to have to be upgrading to the newest games, especially if you are going to stay on the top of your class. An expensive but good solution to the server, would be a dual intel xeon setup in my opinion, or maybe the AMD opitron, but if never worked or heard much about them. The MB for this dual settup will be expensive, but remember you arn't buying a video card either, and you MAY need registered RAM ( A pain but I dont know...).

Last reccomendation: About where to put the $100, in to a GT, or 64bit system.


I would definatly say get 6600gts. Like I said, you will need to upgrade. When this happens, theses card will work pretty good in the new systems.

Final notes:
A) With those cases, get like 3 different colors, it will make the setup look cooler in the cafe.

B) I am not sure if those cases lock the drive bays, but you may want to consider having the drive bays ALWAYS locked, as to limit security risks with the custumers, when they ask for a game, symply come over with the universal key, open - insert - lock. And you are done, your target audience will love to mess with computers, beware.
 
your 17" Samsung Syncmaster CRT monitor is too small. I think you would want at least 19" for playing games.
 
for RAM, I would get Kingmax, it is very good for its price

as far as the graphics cards go, I would recommend 6600's in PCI-E. these cards were designed for PCI-E, so they are cheaper and perform better when they are in PCI-E
to go with it, an Nforce 4 (for PCI-E) socket 939 motherboard. the Gigabyte K8NF is a descent motherboard.
and an Athlon 64 3000+ winchester would do quite nicely, it's not pricey, and I think the performance is higher than the XP 3200+
 
Sounds like an awesome cafe! Make sure the the athlon xp 3000 has a 400fsb to support the ddr400, if it is only 333fsb get ddr333 memory. It'll save ya some money. For heaven sakes ya dont need an athlon 64, dish out extra money for either 6600gt or Radeon 9800pro instead. The radeon 9800pro is cheaper I think but doesnt play at bigger resolutions as well, like over 1024x768. The radeon 9700pro costs about the same as the regular 6600 and would probably play all the half-life/cs games better! I think 512mb would honestly do, and increase if you have to later.
Can't you get discounts somewhere for ordering in large quantities? Like I said, you may even downgrade the cpu and use the money on even better video or more memory. Fancy lights ALWAYS impress customers so put a light on the cases. What about warcraft III pc game, it was real popular!
 
Just a couple of comments

1 if u wanna enable huge aa and af ul need a much more leet grfx card than the 6600 or 6600GT. even the 6800GT strougle with all this (take a look at http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njky it will show u how hardware will perform in the source engine).

2. the 6600 isn't availiable in agp only the 6600GT is and if ur happy not to have aa or aff on huge then the 6600GT is the best solution ever (might be worth waiting for the 256mb version)

3. u will definitly need 1gig of ram for max settings on most games like doom3. i can run doom3 on ultra on 512 but thats pushing it and i get stuttering when i move into a new room and i can garentee u that i would be pissed if a place set the settings to max and then it did that if i was paying per hour.

4. Get 64bit they own the 32bit versions anyday if u can;t afford the 939 thats more upgrade friendly then get 754 and know that u got the best value for money as a 64bit 2800 ownz a 3000 32bit any day of the week.

5. get geil/kingmax ram as its as fast (pc3200) as the corsair/kingston value but it has a beter cas latency (2.5 as opposed to 3).

6. someone else correct me if im wrong but isn't dfi good beacause of ocing?mabe get giabyte as they are cheap and reliable.
 
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