Opening Gaming Center - Suggested Rig Specs

[boasist]

I'm in the planning stages of opening up a gaming center here in MI. At the moment I'm about to purchase all of the rigs, I know what I'd like, yet wondering what exact models to go with. Which is why i'm asking for help here.

Cpu - 3.0c

Mobo - 875p chipset.....need to find a pretty simple 875p board, don't need gigabit, don't even need sata, no raid, socket 478

Hard drive - 200gb or more IDE 7200rpm

RAM - 1gb dual channel kit 2-250 for the kit highest stock speed as possible

Graphics - Radeon 9800pro or XT again, 2-250 for the card

PSU - 350-420W should be good for this......nice solid PS for under 75 bucks

DVD - no problems here

Case - need something with preferably 120mm fans....good air flow design, needs to run cool and very quiet, without PSU 50-75 bucks

Monitor - 17" or 19" CRT maybe viewsonic

Headset - need to know of a good one, one also with a microphone on there

cooling - probably use the stock coolers, along with 120mm fans



This is about it for now. Anything that you can all add in will also be greatly appreciated.

[Lithan]

Cpu - 3.0c

Mobo - If you can do vmod's the p4c800 is probably best.


Hard drive - I like WD----JB's, though they are a bit on the noisey side.

RAM - 3200EB maybe, though it's a bit more than you want to spend at ~275$. I've seen 3700EB for $330, so you might consider that too. Both should drop when the 4000EB comes out.


Graphics - You might grab a 256meg pro with ddr2 that can mod to an XT for $250.

PSU - Sparkle/fortron 530

Case - I say buy cheap and mod it.

Monitor - Spring for the 19"

[wookie]

Motherboard -
I would recommend Abit IC7-G or Asus P4C800. I never like to go cheap on a motherboard even if I dont need all the features atm.

Storage -
I would recommend 74GB Raptors because with gaming you dont need huge storage. Depends on how many games you want to have installed at one given time.. Possibly 2x74gb raptors. If you want massive storage though I would recommend maybe a seagate drive as they are quite quiet and I find them very reliable.

Graphics -
nVidia 6800GT seems to be a pretty popular card around here but again, if you go cheap now then the new games will cause problems. Spend more now and save in the long run... X800PRO or X800XT.

Power Supply -
Probably a Sparkle or Fortron or something.. Very high quality power supplies yet still relatively cheap.

Headset -
I have heard good things about the Plantronics headsets. I cant recal the model though.

Monitor -
I find 17" quite small... 19" would be my recommendation...

[boasist]

i was looking at those 2 mobos now actually.

i run the p4c in my rig, and am quite happy with it. yet might go with the abit because its a little cheaper

the raptors are even too much storage.
only thing on these hard drives really is the OS and the smartlaunch software. smartlaunch connects to the server with all of the images on there, so really only a 40gb, and the 10k raptors as well won't do anything since it has to go through the network to load.

the GT 128mb version can be had for about 250 which is nice might do that.

sparkle/fortron......i'll keep these in mind for sure

plantronics......i'll look into those more

monitor - after discussing it with my other members......we're going to go 21"

[Lithan]

monitor - after discussing it with my other members......we're going to go 21"

Shop carefully. I upgraded from a 19" to a 21", gained .7" viewable image space, about nine inches added depth and about twenty five pounds. I got it so cheap that I didn't mind, but unless you get a very high Viewable image space, most 21" actually are not even close to worth the premium over 19". Of course, advertising that you have 21" monitors might be worth the premium.

[boasist]

Originally posted by Lithan
Shop carefully. I upgraded from a 19" to a 21", gained .7" viewable image space, about nine inches added depth and about twenty five pounds. I got it so cheap that I didn't mind, but unless you get a very high Viewable image space, most 21" actually are not even close to worth the premium over 19". Of course, advertising that you have 21" monitors might be worth the premium.

thats true about the premium....cheapest 21 on newegg is 350.......200 more than an iiliyama 19.....so might end up being 19

[Kanavit]

I have a 19" viewsonic A90F+ CRT and it's great. I only paid $229 @ compusa. I love the ultra brite feature for gaming mode. Great bargain buy.

http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US/images/products/4798/4798589_ra.jpg

[morbidj]

Why not go with a cheaper A64 2800+ or 3000+ sweet gaming performance?

[boasist]

gotta be intel for some of the apps that we run. we'll do corporate training on the side, so intel is the must.


anyone know of any sites that give volume discounts on this stuff? its about 1300 from newegg for everything, does newegg do volume discounts?

[freecableguy]

sometimes

[Soulburner]

Originally posted by wookie
Graphics -
nVidia 6800GT seems to be a pretty popular card around here but again, if you go cheap now then the new games will cause problems. Spend more now and save in the long run... X800PRO or X800XT.
I don't understand this at all.

The 6800GT should stomp the X800Pro in nearly every game you throw at it.

And save in the long run, when the ATI's don't use DirectX 9.0c or PS3.0??

[lutjens]

If it's gotta be Intel, I'd go for an Intel motherboard...the D875PBZ has little fluff.

It's a solid...if very boring motherboard, but it sounds to me like your emphasis is on stability.

[Kunaak]

I don't understand...

gaming center?

like a internet cafe for PC gaming?
if thats the idea, then I'd say drop the canterwood. it's not gonna help enough to justify the cost.
for every 2 P4C800s you but you could get 3 P4P800's.
in general gaming, no ones gonna be able to tell the difference.

as for the videocard.
scrap the 256 meg 9800 pros, they aren't different enough to justify the price, if your looking for price to performance selling points.
cause for the extra 100 you spend for that 256 megs on the card, your not getting much more then 2-3 frames extra out of it.

save the money from not buying canterwoods and 256 meg 9800's and buy more PC's.

also, forget the 200 gig drives, thats overkill unless your gonna have people downloading off Kazaa on your PC's.
get a simple 40 gig maxtor or something for $40 and leave it with those.
hard drive speed doesn't do a thing for games, so don't worry about that.

if your really determined to get the most out of your PC's for a low cost, take what you save on the springdale, 128 pro's and smaller hard drives, and invest in some 3.2C's.
or better yet, A64 3200's.

[Çhrist0ph]

Originally posted by Kunaak
I don't understand...

gaming center?

like a internet cafe for PC gaming?
if thats the idea, then I'd say drop the canterwood. it's not gonna help enough to justify the cost.
for every 2 P4C800s you but you could get 3 P4P800's.
in general gaming, no ones gonna be able to tell the difference.

as for the videocard.
scrap the 256 meg 9800 pros, they aren't different enough to justify the price, if your looking for price to performance selling points.
cause for the extra 100 you spend for that 256 megs on the card, your not getting much more then 2-3 frames extra out of it.

save the money from not buying canterwoods and 256 meg 9800's and buy more PC's.

also, forget the 200 gig drives, thats overkill unless your gonna have people downloading off Kazaa on your PC's.
get a simple 40 gig maxtor or something for $40 and leave it with those.
hard drive speed doesn't do a thing for games, so don't worry about that.

if your really determined to get the most out of your PC's for a low cost, take what you save on the springdale, 128 pro's and smaller hard drives, and invest in some 3.2C's.
or better yet, A64 3200's.

DITTO. No need to spend so much on stuff that no one is going to notice, especially the casual gamer.

[boasist]

ok here are the specs I've put together then

CPU - 3.0ghz Prescott
MOBO - p4p800se
HDD - WD 40gb 8mb
PSU - Sparkle 350w
RAM - Kingston Value pc3200 1gb kit
Case - Antec Super Lanboy
Video - MSI Radeon 9800pro
Monitor - IIyama 19" CRT
KB/Mouse - Microsoft combo
Headset - Plantronics audio .90
OS - XP Pro

so thats everything needed there for a nice pc for gaming and office work.

total price - 1196.93

[wookie]

Originally posted by boasist
ok here are the specs I've put together then

CPU - 3.0ghz Prescott
MOBO - p4p800se
HDD - WD 40gb 8mb
PSU - Sparkle 350w
RAM - Kingston Value pc3200 1gb kit
Case - Antec Super Lanboy
Video - MSI Radeon 9800pro
Monitor - IIyama 19" CRT
KB/Mouse - Microsoft combo
Headset - Plantronics audio .90
OS - XP Pro

so thats everything needed there for a nice pc for gaming and office work.

total price - 1196.93

Maybe check out the Logitech MX Duo instead of the microsoft combo. I have always liked logitech products over microsoft.

[Kanavit]

Originally posted by wookie
Maybe check out the Logitech MX Duo instead of the microsoft combo. I have always liked logitech products over microsoft. agreed.

the logitech mx duo is the best wireless keyboard/mouse combo i've ever gotten.

i play heaving online gaming 24/7, and the keyboard batt are still good , after buying it in april. the mouse is recharchable.

[bigjohns97]

I would get the antec sonata w/ antec PSU and mod it if you want to carry it around, the gloss looks much nicer and it would be cool to have everything black and silver instead of the boring off white.

[boasist]

wireless is not an option

audio, video, USB, keyboard and mouse will be transferred over the network.

So update - Ditched the case and gone with the rackmount.

customer comes in, has nothing but what they need to play the games. system specs stay the same though

adding in some belkin nostromo though

[Soulburner]

I don't agree with the choice of the Prescott.

I say go A64 3000+ with a 74 gig Raptor in each one, with 6800GT...YES the hard drive does matter in games that have a lot of loading (especially in-game loading, I hate waiting)...

But, its your call.

[Lithan]

Soul, while I agree that a 10k would make faster load times... not by much. My buddy and I use the same hard disk and I load over twice as fast as he does. Why? 1gig ram versus 512k. He's loading and immediately swapping. That's a big reason for huge load times. Hard drive speed is actually a lot less noticable than people think.

The difference between a 74raptor and a 80JB is about $100+. I don't think it's worth it.

I definately agree with the A64 and the 6800GT. But my recommendations were trying to stay in line with his price and preference restrictions.

I'd also change the cases, Lanboys are pretty damn expensive and I doubt you really need mobility in this setup.

[boasist]

yeah really looking at about 1-1100 max per system.

the raptor is a waste in this system. Everything is done via a central server. all images are there which is 15k scsi, spending 100 more on raptors won't do anything for us

A64 in fact AMD at all is not an option

6800GT.....thats 300 bucks and its a 2 slot card.....no good for a 1U rack mount server case.

9800 pro for 192 can't be beat at this moment....300 just adds up. the 9800 pro will stand up well for times to come.

and yes, the case has been scrapped.....its all in a 44U rack now

[[XC]thewildblue]

So I take it your going to be using gigabit cards and switches then, otherwise your switch will be the bottleneck. Also are you going to run Raid 0 on your data volumes on the server, then mirror the boot drive....all done through hardware of course.

[boasist]

gigabit motherboards and switches yes.

Raid 0 on a server? i don't think so

Raid 5 scsi ultra 320 on the server

[[XC]thewildblue]

If you read what I said Raid 0 and 1 on the server, not just 0.

Why have the overhead of the OS on the data drive, Mirror your boot partition, and then use striping for best performance, if not a dedicated Raid 5 for data would be good. Use separate drives for each Raid array, rather than grabbing 5 discs and just whacking on a Raid 5 and installing OS and then partitoning.

Suppose it depends how much redundancy you want compared to performance. Coz in that case you may as well have a duplicate server that you can quickly do a Disaster Recovery and have minimal downtime.

[boasist]

we already have an established infrastructure with the data storage and backup configured to its peak performance. a portion of this infrastructure has been allocated to this gaming center.

www.smartlaunch.net

that takes care of it on the PC, uses the image and all of that just tell it where to look on the server.

[Kunaak]

just curious, but why isn't the A64 an option?

[morbidj]

Originally posted by boasist
gotta be intel for some of the apps that we run. we'll do corporate training on the side, so intel is the must.


anyone know of any sites that give volume discounts on this stuff? its about 1300 from newegg for everything, does newegg do volume discounts?

So what are you going to be doing? If its not media encoding then why would you want to go Intel, are your corporate buddies in bed with Intel?

[drunkenmaster]

why are people still asking about/mentioning amd. HE's said no and why, corporate training. Whoever is faster right now(amd) the world at large is INtel driven, and if you're gonna train people they wanna be able to say they use what most people did. Tis silly but thats the way of the world.

EIther way, only thing to really double mention/.add to thread is this. DO NOT use the prescott. WHile "tested" with current s478 boards. its clearly a hotter running, power eating chip. Quite literally, on any psu i can see a dip in the 12v rail when switching between equal speed northys and prescotts. You will probably use slightly more power, but when you're talking lots of rigs, heat and so on being issues you will be much safer on a faster clock for clock cpu. Leccy bills when you're talking an extra 20W here and there for all day long on multiple computers will add up.

Also, motherboards are very much more stressed and run hotter with prescotts onboard, in a server rack case where again temps are important there's jsut no reason to go prescott.

Also, depending on what will be the primary basis, the gaming of the training. If the gaming, being able to say you use the latest generation of cards is a highly sellable/advertisable feature as lots of people won't have them. THey are also significantly faster and offer a reason for a hardup enthusiast to have a go aswell. THe $100 per rig will add up, but tbh i think it would pay off in the end.

Even going x800 pro's, or if x800 gt styled cards come out as power consumption is better. But tbh, i'd go with a higher rated psu, it may be good, and it may perform beyond specs, but for a buisness, warranty is king, you should use beefy, quality psu's with ratings that are recommended for the hardware they will use. AFAIK from 9800 pro and current cpu's intel/amd/nvidia/ati all recommend 400W's. more for the x6800ultra's.

[thephenom]

That must be a SUPER high-end NetCafe.

You sure gonna be charging a hell lot of $$$ in order to break even. And most REAL gamers dun go to NetCafe, they have their OWN lanparty, so it's probably down to the somewhat n00bs who could care less about performance as long as it plays.

On a profit side of a note, I would go with a 865PE board instead, 200GB is a lil HUGE for gaming, the largest game like UT2K4 and Farcry takes up only 3-4GB at most, OS takes a few GB........ i'd say 160GB or 120GB would be plenty, even 80GB would do. (Also, more HD = more Games = More licenses to buy) 9800 Pro 128 should be decent for most games and around about $180 new.

The prices you're gonna get is probably gonna be cheaper than retail by a bit. So I'd say re-adjust some of the specs, and prices should help your business planning much better

[FUGGER]

I have been talking to MSI about making a 875 mobo without anything onboard other than lan

Just 1 pci slot and AGP slot and thats it.

Ill send them this thread and see if Philips of MSI responds. More fuel to get another project off the ground. When they go to produce a new board they make 10K or 20K boards a run. I only needed a few hundred.

[boasist]

Originally posted by FUGGER
I have been talking to MSI about making a 875 mobo without anything onboard other than lan

Just 1 pci slot and AGP slot and thats it.

Ill send them this thread and see if Philips of MSI responds. More fuel to get another project off the ground. When they go to produce a new board they make 10K or 20K boards a run. I only needed a few hundred.

now that would be awesome. Its true that this would really be all we/I would need out of a mobo for this situation. I'll certainly be checking back here if this is where you decide to post your progress in this manner.


You may call us a high-end gaming center, yet as well in the night we game, in the day its corporate training as well as performing corporate services like video conferencing, project design and display. so those tasks require a bit more capable pc. not to mention just to keep the upgrade time as far away as possible.

i only chose the prescott really because its actually cheaper than its northwood counterpart. but that is a good point with the higher current draw = higher electric bills = higher PSU. i'll stick with the tried and true northwood. thanks for that tip.

[Soulburner]

Originally posted by boasist
You may call us a high-end gaming center, yet as well in the night we game, in the day its corporate training as well as performing corporate services like video conferencing, project design and display. so those tasks require a bit more capable pc. not to mention just to keep the upgrade time as far away as possible.
I'm sorry I don't want to sound like an AMD fanboy but that's complete BS.

What is the Intel gonna do for you that the A64 can't?

[masterofpuppets]

A64's die too easily and he can't replace processors everyday.

[boasist]

in a corporate enviroment, the software that they use there was devolped/tested on an intel. thus going amd might bring about something that was previously not there on intel. if at any point during the time we have this business and we end up using one of these programs, then we're screwed.

[Arkangyl]

for GPU's what about the 128mb 6800's? they're all over th eplace for $300 or less and beat all the R360, NV36 cards soundly, not quite GT, X800Pro speeds but damn good enough...

[boasist]

yeah i've seen those around......zzf has them for 280........but thats 90 bucks more than the 9800 pro....who knows.....in a months time when I actually purchase these machines, things could be different....and probably less.

[Creep-DK]

I would reconsider choosing prescott in rackunits, as much as i like my own prescott, i wouldn't put it in a rackunit especially not with box cooler, for your purpose i would choose northwood. Also as drunkenmaster writes theres the fact that prescott do use quite a bit more power than northwood, that might be worth considering too, especially if your gonna have a large number of rigs running.