JoeUbi

Just a question... Where in Chicago where it be? You can PM me it if you want. Also if you move to the suburbs, there are alot of good warehouses out here that you could convert.

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Kyle918

What games will you have running?

"KB"

donkru

i was planing something like that. only with consoles in the mix. i was gonna do 64 pc's and 32 x360's. but yea. is it to late to propose a build?
$100,000 for all 50 but thats if you buy retail. im sure you can shave like $15000 if you buy wholesale.

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JoeUbi

Also you should try to find some people to invest in your venture or secure a deal with a bank for a loan... That should be one of the first things you do. Also if you do DX10, I would make sure you have an SLI motherboard. So then when your Video Cards start to age you can throw in another card. Also it appears that Socket T (LGA 775) will be here to stay for a while. Also you gotta make sure you also figure out how much chairs/tables and such will cost too. The hardware for the computers will be the cheap part, it's gonna be the software that kills you. I believe your best bet would be going with the 640 MB GTS, e6600, and 2 GB of decent RAM. You goal should probably be to keep it under $1250 or if you can under $1000. Also, is 50 computers too much? Maybe you should start out with maybe 35-40. Another thing is that you should host LAN parties with BYOC. I bet you could make alot of money off that. You can also price gouge on Birthday Parties

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Atlas101

My 2cents:

1. An investment for sure: I admire the entreprenuer in you. It's not easy to face skeptics and alot of the negativity that can come your way.

2. 50 Computers. Good man. I've been to Gaming cafe's where 15 pc's existed. Not a problem, but when people get a game of WC2 (back in the day) going, it's not exactly a 1/2 hour session and getting a PC is like pulling teeth.

3. Not sure the location, but near a college of some sort might be beneficial.

4. Local policies or group policies can stop alot of the BS that goes on in a 'hackers' mind.

Good Luck and if I ever fly to O'Hare, I'll look you up.

KoSoVaR

You all need to use SmartLaunch to see what I meen about people having NO ACCESS to anything but applications I allow. And whatever they apply to their settings are saved on the network storage, nothing else works on the computer. Let's say I setup my settings on my username on an account using SmartLaunch. I can go to any computer and it will work. But, if someone logs on the computer I used last, it will be default settings or if they set their stuff up - it will work with their settings.

Also - we won't have any problems because of the imaging solution I am going to use. If anything goes wrong with a PC - it will be reloading in 15 minutes with EVERYTHING that was originally installed over ethernet.

Mr Pink57

You guys are crazy to decide on a 8800GTS for this. Why the hell would you want spend that kinda money across 50 PC's. You are better off with the DX9 era of cards or the soon 8600 series of cards for 150 or so. I assume the cafe is more for people who do not have a machine even close to good enough to game on so giving them uber higher performance is not going to matter.

Aspire QPack
Decent Micro ATX
Opty 146's
x1950pro's (cheap fast card that can do HDR, others can vouch) or a 8600 at a later date
Decent lcd (dont need space heaters everywhere)
80gb HDD Sata

Keep it on the cheaper side as these pc's I assume will be bare minimum with just games running. The Aspire cases will be nice as they will save a ton of space. And the Opty single core is all you really need and they are damn cheap. I see you want to at this like an OCN member you I think it would be a wiser choice to look at it from a cost stand point. After it takes off hell upgrade 'em all to 8800GTX's.

pink

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http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php

KoSoVaR

I am looking at it from my view. I know I will succeed. I know that it won't fail. And yes - I am being ****y. I am going to launch with not the BEST in hardware (X6800s + or 8800GTXs) ... but below it. Where the cost hits the performance and everything equals out.

JoeUbi

Well... I'll say it again, but...

I think you should have E6600 and 8800GTS, but you should get an SLI motherboard with 2x16. Then once the GTS starts to show their age, you can move them over to other computers and have SLI and purchase newer video cards to put in the stripped computers. Or I guess you could do the same thing with GTXs.

Also this is at Pink:

Socket 939 is dead. He will have no room to go if he went 939. With LGA 775 he has a much broader range. It appears that LGA 775 might be here for at least another year.

Back at KoSoVaR:

If the machine costs you, lets say $1500 dollars how long will it take you to pay it off and go into the green? If your going $10 an hour for it thats 150 hours, now multiply that by 50 and you gotta hell of a long time to pay it off. Probably like 6 months, but that isn't that long I guess. :-/ Then you also have to take into account internet, servers payroll, business license. and all that other junk.

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KoSoVaR

Well I'm building a business plan as I go along here. Like I said, we are looking for a June/July launch. I still have to e-mail SmartLaunch to see time on Vista compatibility. Right now, I am looking at a mere $4-$5 / hr. I'm looking at 8 hours a day at a minimum of 20 computer usage. That's 20hrs x $5 / hr x 8 hrs. That's about $800 / day. You then have to look at food and drinks. We are going to have snacks at profitable prices. But the $800 / day is our goal and is very achievable. I still have yet to set a location. Let's say we're open everyday from 10AM - 1AM (just an estimate) - that's 7 days a week, 31 days a month. 31 * $800 = $24,800 a month. We're looking at total reimbursement in less then a year.

However, I think 8 hrs * 20 computers / day is pretty high estimate. I'm estimating over $15,000 a month, and even with that, it's still full reimbursement within the year. A business rule is start making profit after the first year.. and that is my goal.

As for computers, I'm looking at E4300s, SLI Motherboards, 8800GTS and then SLI. I am going to e-mail a few companies (Steel, Logitech, Razer, Seinheisser, Icemat) to see if I can get any promotional offers for advertising their products and for using them exclusively in the cafe. I am aiming this cafe at extreme gamers. The CS 1.6 gamers to the WOW people to the upcoming DX10 games.

JoeUbi - $1500 a machine. That's $75000 - a tad less then I wanted to spend. I was thinking more. (Lol - I was actually thinking about doing a huge water cooled loop in the place but it seems illogical, just seemed like a cool idea.. and it would look sweet too. But when it comes to draining/replacing the water... would be a big hassle. I'm not a plumber - and I don't think I could handle that.)

Also - I don't know just yet on what chairs, mice, headphones, mouse pads, or keyboards to purchase. I also don't know what kind of surfaces (desks) or how high they should be.

I still have a lot of stuff to think about. I don't have the hardware picked out. I'm going to see if TankGuys want to do any kind of deal - I know they are expensive anyway but they are good guys - maybe they would want to cut a deal.

Well, that's all I have for now. What do you guys think?