Starting a Gaming Cafe with approx. 15 computers - Need your input on the build

[ThxMAD]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently looking into starting a Gaming Cafe which is going to include consoles, VR stations and, of course, gaming computers. I began building what the rigs could look like for a budget perspective and I thought you guys could give your comments on the choice of parts and peripherals. I am aware that some of these choices might be on the pricier side (especially for the peripherals), but I really want to offer a premium gaming experience to my customers. Some of my criterias are:

• 
  ■ Minimum of 3 USB ports in front/top of the case. I want accessibility for my customers to use their own peripherals. ■ Trying to have a color theme or no colors at all. For now I've opted for a black case with RGB keyboard and mouse so I can adjust colors to my liking. Might end up going only with 1 color. I need at least a backlit keyboard and mouse since the Gaming Cafe is going to be fairly dark at times. ■ Budget doesn't exceed 2500$CAD/2000$USD. Lower is better as long as the performance is sufficient for the next criteria. ■ I want to future-proof these rigs for at least 3 years. ■ Monitor needs to have a high refresh rate and low response rate. Ideally, 144Hz and 1ms respectively. ■ Premium look and feel, I think these rigs will contribute to the atmosphere and overall premium feel of the Gaming Cafe. I want quality components and peripherals that will match the premises.

Here's the parts list: PCPartPicker

I think that sums it up. Please let me know if you want more calrifications. Thanks for your help!

 

[jmckinney28]

I would say go with the I5-7600k since you are already getting a z270 mobo. You can also find GTX 1080s for the same price you are paying for the 1070s.

 

[ThxMAD]

I would say go with the I5-7600k since you are already getting a z270 mobo. You can also find GTX 1080s for the same price you are paying for the 1070s.

Should I downgrade the mobo to get a lower rig cost instead? I guess paying 45$CAD/36$USD more is not a big deal, but for 15 PCs it adds up pretty fast.

For the GTX1070 vs 1080 comment, are you sure it's not a matter of CAD vs USD? Because here in Canada, the cheapest 1080 I found is a Gigabyte at 730$CAD/582$USD.

 

[mbilal2]

HERE's a list. Honestly I wouldn't want to game on a 24" monitor. Also I would push hard for a 7700k but I noticed the price for it is rocket high in CA. So I went for the 7600k instead. No need to go for a ryzen just for gaming. Not a huge fan of Razer products. Look into Corsair keyboards but I am aware Razer are well known for gaming. You do you on that. Monitor I choose is a wee bit expensive but worth it.

I *highy* recommend you wait for Vega graphics card to come out and see how the prices of the market changes. Also I added the GTX 1080. It's just 70$ more and gives a significant boost though a 1070 is more than enough for 1080p. Do not buy the 7500. Buy the 7600k.

 

[WetysCZ]

This build is fine and will last longer than 3 years, I would suggest to get some cpu cooler because the box one is not that good.

 

[jmckinney28]

HERE's a list. Honestly I wouldn't want to game on a 24" monitor. Also I would push hard for a 7700k but I noticed the price for it is rocket high in CA. So I went for the 7600k instead. No need to go for a ryzen just for gaming. Not a huge fan of Razer products. Look into Corsair keyboards but I am aware Razer are well known for gaming. You do you on that. Monitor I choose is a wee bit expensive but worth it.

I *highy* recommend you wait for Vega graphics card to come out and see how the prices of the market changes. Also I added the GTX 1080. It's just 70$ more and gives a significant boost though a 1070 is more than enough for 1080p. Do not buy the 7500. Buy the 7600k.

I would also agree with waiting for the Vega cards to be released. If you can go with an AMD card around the performance of a 1070-1080 you can provide a much better experience with Freesync monitors in the same price range. Also, you could easily downgrade on the motherboard to make up the cost of the 7600k over the 7500. Having the ability to overclock, even slightly, can provide a nice performance boost especially at 144hz.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Case - Hide those away. Have a USB hub at each station, rather than users connecting directly to the case ports.
Why? Much easier to replace a $25 hub, rather than the whole case when (not if) someone breaks something.

2. 15 user stations means at least 18-20 actual systems
15 for users, 2 hot spares, a couple for overall system and network management.
Extra keyboards and rodents, of course. There will be spills.

3. Backups and nightly reimaging. You will get viruses.

4. Think of this as a business, not a gaming PC.
Define a max budget for the entire package, including game and OS licenses. Build to that. Don't adjust budget to include expensive extras.
Adding $70 to the GPU cost = an extra $2,000+ to the whole package

 

[Jlavigne]

Hey ThxMAD,
That is a great project, I hope everything goes well and you have success!!

I was looking at your build and - although very great - I think the suggestions above offers good alternatives for a nice gaming rigs. I find the memory sticks a bit pricy, maybe cheaper/different memory sticks could be found that would lower a bit the cost without losing performance.

Also, just a suggestion, but having different users using the same headphone could create hygiene issues, and frequent breaks, the gaming cafés I've seen ask the users to bring their own headphones (and usually gamers do have their own). I certainly wouldn't use a headphone set that some greasy teenager had used (please don't take this as an offence - no offence to teenagers, but we all know what we looked like at that age, just human nature guys... ).

Good luck!
J

 

[ThxMAD]

HERE's a list. Honestly I wouldn't want to game on a 24" monitor. Also I would push hard for a 7700k but I noticed the price for it is rocket high in CA. So I went for the 7600k instead. No need to go for a ryzen just for gaming. Not a huge fan of Razer products. Look into Corsair keyboards but I am aware Razer are well known for gaming. You do you on that. Monitor I choose is a wee bit expensive but worth it.

I *highy* recommend you wait for Vega graphics card to come out and see how the prices of the market changes. Also I added the GTX 1080. It's just 70$ more and gives a significant boost though a 1070 is more than enough for 1080p. Do not buy the 7500. Buy the 7600k.

Nice build, I guess when you say that the 1070 is sufficient for 1080p gaming, but went with the 1080 anyways, was to make the rig last longer?

Also, great suggestion on waiting for Vega cards, hadn't thought of that. I seem to remember a release date of mid-August so it's not that far away.

 

[mbilal2]

Nice build, I guess when you say that the 1070 is sufficient for 1080p gaming, but went with the 1080 anyways, was to make the rig last longer?

Also, great suggestion on waiting for Vega cards, hadn't thought of that. I seem to remember a release date of mid-August so it's not that far away.

Vega comes out in 12 days! I went for the 1080 because of crypto-mining. The performance/price of GTX 1080 is way better then performance/price of GTX 1070. Plus it will ensure that the 144Hz is hit constantly. G-Sync comes into play here but nothing major.

Hiding the case away is a great idea (keep in mind no optical drive). USB hubs will be much better. Still make sure your case and CPU have great cooling as they will be running under load most of the time.

 

[ThxMAD]

1. Case - Hide those away. Have a USB hub at each station, rather than users connecting directly to the case ports.
Why? Much easier to replace a $25 hub, rather than the whole case when (not if) someone breaks something.

2. 15 user stations means at least 18-20 actual systems
15 for users, 2 hot spares, a couple for overall system and network management.
Extra keyboards and rodents, of course. There will be spills.

3. Backups and nightly reimaging. You will get viruses.

4. Think of this as a business, not a gaming PC.
Define a max budget for the entire package, including game and OS licenses. Build to that. Don't adjust budget to include expensive extras.
Adding $70 to the GPU cost = an extra $2,000+ to the whole package

Thanks for the feedback!

1. Good idea! I could probably go for USB hubs and get an even cheaper case.

2. Already covered in the budget (see 4.)

3. I was planning on using Deep Freeze.

4. Initially, when I did the feasibility study, I had started with a 50K budget just for the PC stations (including games, spares and management PCs) When I began building a rig, I thought I would get enough out of a 2.5K rig, hence the budget (in CAD of course). So going for a 2.3K rig to a 2.5K rig is ok with my budget.

 

[ThxMAD]

Hey ThxMAD,
That is a great project, I hope everything goes well and you have success!!

I was looking at your build and - although very great - I think the suggestions above offers good alternatives for a nice gaming rigs. I find the memory sticks a bit pricy, maybe cheaper/different memory sticks could be found that would lower a bit the cost without losing performance.

Also, just a suggestion, but having different users using the same headphone could create hygiene issues, and frequent breaks, the gaming cafés I've seen ask the users to bring their own headphones (and usually gamers do have their own). I certainly wouldn't use a headphone set that some greasy teenager had used (please don't take this as an offence - no offence to teenagers, but we all know what we looked like at that age, just human nature guys... ).

Good luck!
J

Thanks for the good words!

For RAM, I find the prices are quite high as well, although I don't want to skimp on quality and performance. I'll keep an eye out for a better price though. Do you have a suggestion?

I totally agree on the headphones comment, although I don't see myself not offering the possibility to my customers of using my headsets. But, as you said, I guess most gamers have headsets, so they can bring theirs if they don't want to use the cafe's.

And teenagers tend to have greasy skin (you know, hormones and stuff), I think we can agree on that fact

 

[ThxMAD]

Nice build, I guess when you say that the 1070 is sufficient for 1080p gaming, but went with the 1080 anyways, was to make the rig last longer?

Also, great suggestion on waiting for Vega cards, hadn't thought of that. I seem to remember a release date of mid-August so it's not that far away.

Vega comes out in 12 days! I went for the 1080 because of crypto-mining. The performance/price of GTX 1080 is way better then performance/price of GTX 1070. Plus it will ensure that the 144Hz is hit constantly. G-Sync comes into play here but nothing major.

Hiding the case away is a great idea (keep in mind no optical drive). USB hubs will be much better. Still make sure your case and CPU have great cooling as they will be running under load most of the time.

I was planning on using the cases as station "separators" or "dividers" (I really don't know if that makes sense in english). Hiding the cases would mean having a custom table built with vented locking boxes under the table I guess?

 

[tsnor]

Check with microsoft. You may need the business version of windows (vs renting PC time on a personal copy of windows). MS may also have bulk pricing that will help you.

Plan on a re-image with every reboot between clients. That solves all sorts of problems.

Look into this: http://cafe.steampowered.com/

LOL, depending on timing you might buy a few "lightly used" gtx 1070 bitcoin mining rigs as people discover etherium is not profitable anymore. At 6 GPUs each that could save a ton.

 

[ThxMAD]

Check with microsoft. You may need the business version of windows (vs renting PC time on a personal copy of windows). MS may also have bulk pricing that will help you.

Plan on a re-image with every reboot between clients. That solves all sorts of problems.

Look into this: http://cafe.steampowered.com/

LOL, depending on timing you might buy a few "lightly used" gtx 1070 bitcoin mining rigs as people discover etherium is not profitable anymore. At 6 GPUs each that could save a ton.

Ha good point on the business version of Windows, I'll look it up.

I'm already in communication with Valve, it seems that they're updating their Cafe program at the moment and the new program will fit my business model a bit more. We'll see in a few months.

Not sure on buying GPUs from miners, don't you think these cards might be "overused" and their lifespan severly reduced?

 

[mbilal2]

I see what you mean. Yes that will work too and save you money (not buying usb hubs and table) but parts being stolen is a issue cafes face (people taking out 1 ram stick, etc). Cable management is usually easier when the case is under the table. It all depends on the type of table. Here's a few examples.

THIS is what you're trying to get right?
You can also go for something like THIS or THIS.

 

[ThxMAD]

I see what you mean. Yes that will work too and save you money (not buying usb hubs and table) but parts being stolen is a issue cafes face (people taking out 1 ram stick, etc). Cable management is usually easier when the case is under the table. It all depends on the type of table. Here's a few examples.

THIS is what you're trying to get right?
You can also go for something like THIS or THIS.

Right, maybe the investment would be higher at first, but this setup would end up costing me less in broken/stolen parts.

I actually like the idea of higher cases, The employees have a good visibility on the hardware, no chances of a kid kicking the case, a bit less dust as well.

 

[mjslakeridge]

Don't forget about running enough circuits from the breaker panel to power all of the computers. 15 amp circuit x 120 volts = 1,800 watts per circuit. I haven't calculated the max wattage used by each computer, but you get the idea. Probably a max of 3 computers per circuit.

 

[ThxMAD]

Don't forget about running enough circuits from the breaker panel to power all of the computers. 15 amp circuit x 120 volts = 1,800 watts per circuit. I haven't calculated the max wattage used by each computer, but you get the idea. Probably a max of 3 computers per circuit.

I'm far from being in expert in electricity, but, anyways, I'll have to get a certified electrician to do the job for me. I'm wondering though, I have included a 750W power supply for an approx. 375W hard requirement (although it could peak to higher than this). Should I just say that the max is a bit lower than 750w and just go for 2 rigs on the same circuit?

 

[mjslakeridge]

2 rigs per circuit would be a safe option. I was assuming 15 AMP circuits because that is the standard for general purpose household circuits (at least in the U.S.). In a commercial building, since you will be hiring someone to run the circuits, you could go with 20 AMP circuits (and use heavier guage conductors of course). Your electrician should be able to advise you on how to do this safely and cost-effectively.