Best Build for a gaming cafe

dpbrolly

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Feb 11, 2012
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Hello all,

I am planning to open up a gaming cafe in my locality, and I need to know the best possible build for a PC which is capable enough to play games at their best and the at reasonable price.

For the GPU I have my eyes set on gtx1070, which I think is decent enough. Another reason being it supports VR. Being that, perhaps I will be able to set up a VR booth if money starts flowing.

The focus of the cafe will be mainly on Lan parties/tournies. So these are the games that will definitely be installed : Dota, CSGO, LoL, CoD, BF, FiFA. Any suggestions on other games are welcome.

If you are asking for my budget per PC, I am not sure. I just want a CPU that is decent/reasonable enough to run the above mentioned games at their best. Again the main focus is multiplayer.

But if you are still gonna ask then I would say 445USD or less (excluding GPU and monitor)

I also request you suggest me good monitors, keyboards, mice and headset to go along with each system. They need not be high end, just decent enough.

Apart from the above I have other questions regarding setting up games in a gaming cafe >

> The starting number of computers would be 10, so do I have to buy 10 copies of a game, say CS-GO ? or is one copy of CS-GO enough for me to install on all 10 computers ?

> Are there any gaming cafe admin software's available that I can use to monitor the computers and also assign the time for each customer ? and also will it auto logout the customer from that particular computer if his time runs out ?

Thanks in advance. Any suggestions or advice is welcome.



 
Solution
Nononono, 445 USD is perfectly fine, you don't need high quality modular components for cafe PCs. T.T
Here OP, the 1070 is overkill, the 1060 will be plenty, generous even.
Normally within that budget i'd say go with an i3 and a 1060, but it can cause stability issues in some graphically intensive titles which can piss off people who pay to use the PCs. :/
For that reason I recommend i5s for the higher end builds, for esports an i3 will be more than sufficient, as they'll be pushing hundreds of frames anyways.
Also 144hz monitors are a must. I recommend the Asus VG248QE or the BenQ XL2411Z, whichever is cheaper, they're the same panel.
You should make a range of PCs, with the majority being the entry level 1050 builds, say 6, 2 1060 PCs...
445 US dollars is not going to cut it for what your talking about doing. At the least you going to need a fast i5 processor 8gb of memory a good power supply and decent case.
For the games you can download any game you wish but must have a login for each PC n a tourny game each player would have their own login so they can use the toon they have built instead of starting as a noob.
 
If im on your place i would not go bellow this:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/LYdVD8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/LYdVD8/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($214.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B150 Gaming M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($87.03 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.86 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Versa N21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($19.69 @ OutletPC)
Total: $578.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-14 08:04 EST-0500

To play lets say CS GO on 10 PCs you need to buy 10 games on 10 different steams. so 1 for each PC.

Are you sure you want to log out person if time runs out? You might get raging customers on your back 😀 Better is some kind of software that allows in corner count they time possibly money that they will need to pay.
 



As you see on my top post my opinion is you do not need to go over 600 USD to get pc you would like.

I think this is enough for pc you are searching for
 




Hey, Thanks for your reply, especially the last bit 😛 the extra time counter should do the trick. :)
 


What if I increase the budget from 445USD to 1000USD excluding GPU and monitor ? Will this be enough for a processor, mobo, ram, hdd/ssd, psu ? Note this is just for the CPU excluding GPU, monitor and accessories.
 
Nononono, 445 USD is perfectly fine, you don't need high quality modular components for cafe PCs. T.T
Here OP, the 1070 is overkill, the 1060 will be plenty, generous even.
Normally within that budget i'd say go with an i3 and a 1060, but it can cause stability issues in some graphically intensive titles which can piss off people who pay to use the PCs. :/
For that reason I recommend i5s for the higher end builds, for esports an i3 will be more than sufficient, as they'll be pushing hundreds of frames anyways.
Also 144hz monitors are a must. I recommend the Asus VG248QE or the BenQ XL2411Z, whichever is cheaper, they're the same panel.
You should make a range of PCs, with the majority being the entry level 1050 builds, say 6, 2 1060 PCs and 2 1070 PCs, I think that's a good balance.

Here are a few options.
GTX 1050. (Base Esports PC, the build with the biggest target audience, most people use internet cafes for this)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-E/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($37.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($44.19 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 2GB ACX 2.0 Video Card ($114.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-M2 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $424.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-14 08:23 EST-0500

GTX 1060 (Charge a small increase over 1050 build)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($191.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-E/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($37.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($44.19 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-M2 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $590.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-14 08:17 EST-0500

1070 (Charge a premium rate)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($191.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($76.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Avexir Core Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB SC Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card ($387.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-M2 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $861.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-14 08:19 EST-0500
 
Solution
An afterthought, given you want to host tournaments you should have PCs set up in 5s, and have 10 of these Esports PCs to start, expand to the higher end hardware when you can afford it as most esports games are 5v5.
There won't be much demand for the 1070 PC, so prob only get one of those imo.
 
Maybe you need a lot of gaming performance in your community.
But my experience tell me that for most of the games people play in that kind of business all you would need is a regular i5 + good mainstream gpu; a good and efficient psu for 18h gameplay every day; ssd for fast game load to keep clients happy; a nice case and plenty RAM in order to please all kind of costumers.
something like that:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($191.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock B150M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($62.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.54 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 470 4GB ARMOR OC Video Card ($173.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $683.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-14 08:23 EST-0500



Maybe a couple of more powerful rigs for VR in the future.


 
An SSD isn't necessary at all in Esports cafe operation, typically it'll only be for the OS, and tiny loading time differences aren't worth the extra cost it adds to the system, I'd personally be fine with paying a few bucks less to have an SSD-less PC for an hour, plus, they're going to be booted on once and then used aren't they? What's that, 30 seconds of time max?
Check your phone, browse facebook, oh look its done. 😉
As an owner the most efficient way would be to power them on, login all PCs and leave them on sleep until they're used then log the user in.

Also the case, the power supply and the RAM are low quality, mobo is also overpriced, a H110M will do just fine, cut corners where you can, extra motherboard connectors are going to be useless.
Go for the Avexir Core or Crucial Ballistix RAM if you're going to buy budget and the LPX/Ripjaws/HyperX kits aren't cheap.
 


As i said this is my experience: Boys around here change games 10 times in a hour so ssd is a nice thing 😀
The case has good looks and 3x 120mm case fans for less than 50 bucks: not bad for a cybercafe.
The Corsair CSM 650W get Gold efficiency on both sets of load tests in jonnyguru review. Not bad for a rig that should see a lot of use. Cheap too so even better.
 
1070 for dota kinda overkill don't you think? here's my setup:

Case is not included because I don't know your interior design like.
 
1. People will want mechanical keyboards in a gaming cafe.
2. Component choices aren't great value.
3. Use PC Part Picker
4. I've set up different tiers, some people play more graphically intensive stuff like Battlefield 1 and Overwatch and are willing to pay extra, read it properly.
 


The Corsair CSM 650W 80+ Gold for 60 bucks is a good bargain.
But a EVGA SuperNOVA G2 for 60 bucks is indeed a great deal.
If OP could find such a excellent 550w psu for only 60 bucks it would be the best $600 investment on his business :)

 
The CSM isn't a great unit, i'd consider it to be good for workstation builds, wouldn't use it for a gaming PC though imo.
You don't need modular PSUs for esports builds, you're going to assemble it once and then forget about the cables altogether, just unnecessary cost.
Get the CX450M, they're a much better series of power supplies.
 


Can you re-arrange these parts in this generation ( 2018 i mean ) ? I want to build 15 systems for mainly in gaming in my area. ( India )
 


You need to start a new post this one is 2 years old and gaming demands have changed. You now really need 16GB of memory if your building right now for future games some are already using over 8GB.
 



Please see this :)

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3684291/decent-build-gaming-cafe.html