LAN Party questions

[sbolinger2]

Hey Everyone,
I'm throwing my first LAN Party at my home this weekend. I have the beer and BBQ all figured out, but I have a couple of questions about setup.
First; How many computers can I put on each 15A circuit of my house? Most of these comps have a 300 or 350W power supply and have 17 or 19" monitors. I think I can put 4 comps per circuit on it, but I would like an answer from someone with experience.
Second; I would like some general game advice regarding servers for the games we are going to play. So basically, do I need dedicated server for a group of 8-10 ppl or can I run the server on my pc? The games are Serios Sam II, Red Faction I, AVP I, SoF I, and Return to Wolfenstein.
Thx for the help.
My PC: XP1800, 512Ram, KT266A MB, 9500Pro.
The newtork: all 100Mbs switched

:tongue: <font color=blue>My job is to polish</font color=blue> <font color=green>turds</font color=green><font color=blue>, I</font color=blue> <font color=red>love</font color=red> <font color=blue>my job.</font color=blue>

 

[bum_jcrules]

First there is the power issue. This is normally the biggest problem with LAN parties.

Most machines like you have stated draw about 4A. Some more and some less. If you make people use headphones instead of speakers the better. Why waste any more amps.

You could get 4 people on a 15A circuit. Just don't start maxing out the circuit. You either get shutdowns or you start frying extention cords. I have been to parties where you could do the BBQ from the heat off the cords.

One of my favorite stories is when we had a LAN in a hotel conference center room. The one wall of sockets was tied into the lobby if the hotel which happend to have a complimetary coffee maker plugged in. Every so often the heating element under the coffee pot would turn on and shut those of us on that circuit down. What a pain. It took a few shut-downs to figure out what was happening. It was like clockwork. Then we unplugged the coffee maker and ticked off the hotel manager. We never went back to that place again for a LAN.


As for gaming...

You can run a server while playing. Unless you want to hook up another machine just run as a dedicated. But if power is the issue, just play while being a server.





<A HREF="http://www.millionmanlan.com/MMLDefault.asp" target="_new">Million Man LAN 2 is June 25-29, 2003 in Louisville Kentucky... Be there!</A>

 

[namek0]

Yeah, power will be your biggest foe. Everytime my buddies and my brother's buddies come over for a lanparty, we make damn sure to turn off the air-conditioning, and turn on as little lighting as possible. THe little red light on our power strips fade to nothingness as the monitors flick on.

Sadly enough, I've actually thought about getting one of those gas generators, how nerdy would that be "Time for Starcraft, fire it up hoss"

It's all good ^_^

 

[sbolinger2]

Thx for the advice guys. The Party goes down tonight and I think I'm ready. It sure does take a long time to make 10 CAT5e cables. Anyway, thanks for the help!

:tongue: <font color=blue>My job is to polish</font color=blue> <font color=green>turds</font color=green><font color=blue>, I</font color=blue> <font color=red>love</font color=red> <font color=blue>my job.</font color=blue>