WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:08.160 I have spent years perfecting my gaming house. So imagine then my disappointment 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:13.840 when I found out that Kenton Barta not only beat me to it, but built it better 00:00:10.559 --> 00:00:16.400 than I could have dreamed. And here I am 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:20.279 in Austin, Texas, where everything is bigger to take you guys on an exclusive 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:25.760 tour of landparty. The ultimate gamer house for 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:30.080 you and 22 of your closest friends. Everything about it is mindblowing. From 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:34.800 the hideaway gaming rigs to the dedicated cat bathrooms to the floor 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:38.960 panels that lift up to reveal an arcade's worth of DDR dance platforms. 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:43.840 And Kenton and his wife Jade spent their entire Saturday taking us around so we 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:49.600 could dive deep and give you guys some inspiration for your next gaming space 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:53.920 along with some helpful what not to do and some helpful segways to our sponsor. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:58.079 Net data. Monitor your company's infrastructure in real time and catch 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:02.800 issues fast with live dashboards and alerts whether you're at your desk or on 00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:08.080 the go. Sign up today and get 10% off using our link in the video description. 00:01:05.119 --> 00:01:12.400 In fairness to me, Kenton did have a bit of a leg up when it came to designing 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:17.520 the ultimate gamer house. I mean, for starters, his dad is low-key kind of a 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:23.280 big deal in architectural design. And for another thing, this is actually V2, 00:01:20.479 --> 00:01:28.400 borrowing many ideas from his original Land Party House, but iterating on them, 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:33.439 both in terms of refinement and in terms of scale. For starters, he used to have 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:38.320 monitors at each station mounted to rails that would lift up to display 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:44.680 artwork whenever they weren't in use. Only he realized that he never once used 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:48.159 them for that. So, he devised a new 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:50.000 system where they hide away completely. 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:55.680 The grown-up playroom consists of a total of 12 completely invisible and 00:01:53.520 --> 00:02:00.479 inaudible gaming setups. All you have to do to deploy one is open the bottom 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:06.719 cabinetry and fold down the tabletop. And that's it. For extra gamer cred, 00:02:02.960 --> 00:02:08.640 these 32-inch Corsair Xenon 4K 144Hz 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:14.319 monitors are mounted with lowprofile articulating mounts so you can pull them 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:15.920 forward and oh yeah, get in the zone or 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:21.840 well, as long as you have peripherals, which he thought of. Every station 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:27.760 includes a keyboard and a mouse and okay, this is a bit of an odd choice, a 00:02:24.720 --> 00:02:29.760 soundbar. I asked about this and Kenton 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:34.640 explains that they mostly play co-op games like Deep Rock Galactic and they 00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:39.200 find that the advantage of being able to yell across the room at each other 00:02:36.720 --> 00:02:44.800 outweighs the disadvantage of soundleed. And of course, anyone who wants can plug 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:47.440 a headset into the provided USB hub or 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:51.599 integrated 3 and 12 mm jack. Speaking of plugging in, this is a nice touch. The 00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:56.480 original house had the power outlets directly behind the monitor, which is 00:02:53.800 --> 00:03:00.080 symmetrical, but makes plugging things in a bit of a pain in the butt if you 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:04.319 bring your phone or some random other peripherals. I think the only thing that 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:09.120 I would change here then is to uh maybe add a desk pad. 00:03:06.760 --> 00:03:13.440 ltstore.com. Above each station is a cupboard for snackies, which um Kenton, 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:16.560 you might want to restock cuz I understand you've got company coming in 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:21.280 a couple of hours. They actually arranged to have a land tonight. so that 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:25.120 we could see everything deployed and maybe even get a couple games in before 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:30.560 we have to drive up to Houston. Of course, desktop PC gaming is just one 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:35.519 kind of gaming. What about the 98 in Samsung elephant in the room? Oh, for 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:42.080 the more PlayStation inclined, there's a PS5 hooked up to a Morance AV receiver 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:45.200 and a 5.1 electrostatic speaker setup. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:46.799 And I got to say, I absolutely love the 00:03:45.200 --> 00:03:52.159 thoughtful design of the built-in console up here. Unlike my setup, the 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:57.439 front outlets are actually reachable, making charging your lap board or your 00:03:54.480 --> 00:04:02.080 controllers a piece of cake. Speaking of controllers, storage for them is built 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:06.239 into the four Lazy Boy powered recliners at the back of the room. By the way, 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:12.239 love to see that old school Xbox 360 wireless dongle. Look, if it works, it 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:14.239 works. I do have a couple of notes. even 00:04:12.239 --> 00:04:19.680 angled toward the seating position. Ceiling mounted is not really ideal for 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:24.000 rear speakers and some acoustic materials on this cabinetry would go a 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:28.960 long way towards improving the surround sound experience in this room. With that 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:34.720 said, it sounds like most of the content that Kenton listens to in here is 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:37.560 stereomixed music anyway. And that is 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:45.360 where these come in. Oh, it's heavy. Embedded into the concrete slab 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:48.080 of this house are four, yes, four, DDR 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:52.880 dance platforms from Eltech. Kenton, like me, is a big games for exercise guy 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:57.120 and says he tries to use these about every other day to keep up his cardio 00:04:54.479 --> 00:05:02.000 fitness. Now, at this time, he hasn't actually gotten all four working at once 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:06.080 yet, but it was a lot easier to put in the conduit for all four now and then 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:11.680 hope the software would get easier to use later, rather than adding more 00:05:08.880 --> 00:05:15.919 conduit after the fact. And besides, how boring would life be without a few dozen 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:20.479 items remaining on your never- ending house project? Oh, speaking of conduit, 00:05:18.880 --> 00:05:26.080 remember how I said that the gaming systems were inaudible? That's because I 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:30.800 am officially not alone. Beside the adult playroom, excuse me, the grown-up 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:35.199 playroom is what Kenton's HVAC contractor called by far the biggest 00:05:33.520 --> 00:05:40.960 server rack I've ever seen in a residential building. And while yes, it 00:05:38.320 --> 00:05:46.000 does in fact have a small AMD Epic actual server in the server rack for AI 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:51.199 tinkering and a persistent Minecraft instance for the kids, the vast majority 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:57.199 of these rigs are identical gaming systems that power every station in the 00:05:54.080 --> 00:06:00.960 house. Now, since rack mount gaming 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:02.479 hasn't taken off yet, yet solidarity, 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:06.720 Kenton ended up hosting a good old-fashioned PC build party with some 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:12.720 of his old land buddies, and they put all 20 of these together over a couple 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:14.960 of days. They're fairly modestly speced 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:20.080 considering the overall LAN house budget was somewhere in the seven figure range, 00:06:17.919 --> 00:06:24.000 but I think Kenton mostly achieved his stated goal of hitting the price for 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:29.759 performance sweet spot while keeping the systems easily manageable. On that note, 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:35.280 none of these use local storage. Instead, all of them boot from a single 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:39.520 network image on that server that allows games to be installed on all of them 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:45.360 simultaneously. that allows them all to be kept up to date easily and allows 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:47.680 them to be quickly factory reset in the 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:51.039 event that a guest bungs something up. By the way, he's got a GitHub repo with 00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:55.440 all of the quirky workarounds that he had to use to make this setup work. That 00:06:53.199 --> 00:07:00.000 um would have come in handy for us recently. Why? 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:04.639 His only major regret is the motherboards whose onboard 10 gig 00:07:01.919 --> 00:07:08.080 network cards struggle sometimes when booting over ice scuzzy leading to the 00:07:06.479 --> 00:07:12.000 occasional crash. Guests are going to be here in less than half an hour, by the way. So, I guess we get to go through 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:16.400 the boot sequence. You want to show us how to fire it all up? Sure. What? But 00:07:14.880 --> 00:07:20.560 it's that easy. You just press the button. Okay, that's pretty cool. Wake 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:26.319 on land kind of magic. I assume it's wake on land. Yep. Now, there are some 00:07:23.840 --> 00:07:30.720 disadvantages to not having hardline power buttons to all the stations. and 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:35.840 he had an idea for like a networkattached USB hub of some sort 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:40.720 with like relays or something so that he could power cycle them in the event of a 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:46.400 crash, but hasn't gotten to it yet. Overall, I love this design. I mean, 00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:52.160 sure, he can't dump his waste heat into his pool, but by going with taller 4U 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:56.319 cases, he also doesn't need to resort to water cooling to deal with all of this 00:07:53.680 --> 00:08:01.759 heat. He just lets the cool air fall down in front of the racks and then 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:03.520 blasts all the hot air out into his hot 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:09.120 aisle in the back where it can be picked up by the air handler and rinse and 00:08:06.479 --> 00:08:15.440 repeat. Apparently, by the way, at full boom, this rack can suck back about 00:08:11.560 --> 00:08:17.840 15,000 W. Thankfully, most games don't 00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:22.479 push it that hard. And Kenton has a large solar array that in February 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:28.240 generates around 75 kwatt hours a day. So, I guess that takes some of the sting 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:30.800 out of it, but for those wondering, yes, 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:35.200 a lot of power and also a lot of networking. Let's talk about that. A 00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:40.240 full ubiquity setup might seem a little overkill for home, but hey, if you got 00:08:37.599 --> 00:08:44.399 the budget for it, boy, is it ever nice. The AI object detection in their PoE 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:48.480 cameras helps Kenton sleep soundly, alerting him if anyone approaches the 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:53.440 house unexpectedly. And all of these systems are wired up for 10 gig 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:59.040 networking with PoE all over the house for cameras and Wi-Fi. 00:08:55.560 --> 00:09:01.200 Kenton acknowledges that most setups at 00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:07.440 this scale would probably use a patch panel and uh would probably benefit from 00:09:04.959 --> 00:09:12.080 better cable management, but as a software developer, he says he just plum 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:16.480 wasn't familiar with them and the RJ45 terminations directly into the network 00:09:13.839 --> 00:09:22.240 equipment hasn't really bothered him. Uh I am going to pipe up with uh one other 00:09:18.959 --> 00:09:24.320 note by the way. A 208vt network 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:30.120 monitored PDU probably would have been a good choice rather than a um pillar with 00:09:26.959 --> 00:09:32.880 power plugs in it. Um maybe a battery 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:38.160 backup, but if I'm being realistic, for periodic gaming parties, this is 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:42.160 probably fine. Like me, Kenton is using fiber optic DisplayPort cables to go 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:46.080 from his systems to his monitors all over the house, and he's been really 00:09:43.920 --> 00:09:49.760 happy with his Monoprice slim cables. The longer runs to the upstairs are 00:09:47.839 --> 00:09:56.399 apparently working great and are like 100 ft. But unlike me, Kenton is using 00:09:53.600 --> 00:10:00.240 fiber optic USB cables to powered hubs for his peripherals. And he says 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:05.440 sometimes these can be a little flaky, but they are much more affordable than 00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:09.600 Thunderbolt or Icon Dogs. Coming back out of the server room, we didn't really 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:13.279 show the tinker space yet. And there's a bunch of cool stuff in here. Old 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:18.959 Nintendo Power magazines, a broken Dell8K monitor, and I love this touch. 00:10:16.560 --> 00:10:22.720 All of Kenton's systems, other than his personal Debian Linux development 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:26.640 workstation, are named for Mega Man bosses and have static network 00:10:24.560 --> 00:10:30.720 assignments that correspond to the boss's numbers. So, if you need to 00:10:28.800 --> 00:10:35.600 remember an IP address, it's as simple as consulting the Mega Man wiki. It's 00:10:33.040 --> 00:10:41.839 flawless. The last room in the basement is not for people. Well, not for 00:10:39.040 --> 00:10:48.640 regularsized people, anyway. Nope. The Landhouse has not one but two dedicated 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:50.959 kitty bathrooms with pet doors and 24/7 00:10:48.640 --> 00:10:55.680 negative air pressure outdoor venting in order to keep litter and litter smells 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:59.920 out of the rest of the house. Uh, this also happens to be where Kenton keeps 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:06.800 his trophy that he won for arguing on the internet. Good job. Moving up to the 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:09.040 main floor. What about second giant TV? 00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:12.959 This one's not quite as big, but given that it mostly gets used for Animal 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:18.560 Crossing and duck game with large groups, I guess that's probably okay, at 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:22.680 least for now since he had the opportunity to design and build the 00:11:19.920 --> 00:11:26.640 place from scratch. Kent put conduit everywhere. That means that in the long 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:30.399 term, nothing would prevent him from running cables down through the back of 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:35.040 this and running this off of a PC in the server room. By the way, since we're in 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:39.200 here, I love this. If you look closely from now on, you're going to notice that 00:11:36.640 --> 00:11:44.560 everywhere that a normal house or even a gaming house would have had one network 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:46.560 port. Kenton put four. That's because 00:11:44.560 --> 00:11:51.200 the price difference that the contractor quoted was only about 20%. So, Kenton 00:11:49.040 --> 00:11:56.480 was like, "Okay, I guess I'll just put an access point anywhere I want." He 00:11:53.839 --> 00:12:00.079 apparently has like eight or 10. He lost count. Surprisingly, the main bedroom is 00:11:58.640 --> 00:12:04.880 apparently pretty plain jane, other than, of course, having conduit back to 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:09.600 the server room, just in case. But the kids bedrooms are amazing. First, 00:12:07.839 --> 00:12:13.760 there's this kitty shelf in the family room that actually goes between them for 00:12:11.760 --> 00:12:17.880 late night visits from the cat while still allowing them to close the doors 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:22.880 for privacy. Then, there's this incredible loft bed setup. And of 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:27.519 course, there's conduit back to the server room for when the kids are old 00:12:24.880 --> 00:12:31.920 enough to need powerful workstations. Um, should I be the one to tell them 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:35.760 that they all just use Chromebooks? Now, I'm not going to tell them. This drying 00:12:34.079 --> 00:12:41.920 rack is awesome. It's not gaming, but I thought it was cool. So, um, let's head 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:44.160 upstairs to the office. It's a little 00:12:41.920 --> 00:12:48.480 ironic that Kenton only moved here to be closer to Cloudflare's Austin office and 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:53.440 now primarily works from home ever since co. But hey, at least he got this house 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:58.880 out of it. And it's amazing with this room being one of the best. The his and 00:12:55.920 --> 00:13:04.959 hers workstations here both use Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 monitors, which 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:07.440 essentially are two 4K monitors built 00:13:04.959 --> 00:13:12.079 into one and wrapped around you. And both have kinesis keyboards for better 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:17.200 ergonomics. Like any D'vorak user, Kenton pointed out that he uses D'vorak. 00:13:14.959 --> 00:13:21.920 But no, he does not actually recommend it because he has had to personally code 00:13:19.680 --> 00:13:26.320 utilities for multiple platforms now that automatically switch to a certy 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:30.880 layout when he holds the control key so that he can reach copy paste for crying 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:35.519 out loud. What he does recommend though is the ability to seamlessly move his 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:39.839 mouse between his work tower and his personal machine using an application 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:46.079 called Barrier. And because this monitor is super cool, it allows you to assign 00:13:42.079 --> 00:13:48.320 more or less of it to each machine 00:13:46.079 --> 00:13:53.200 depending on the focus of the day. That is actually a pretty strong argument for 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:59.279 this thing versus two equally sized 4K screens. Great flexibility. There's also 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:06.600 another TV in here, although mostly gets used for music via Google Chcast. And 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:11.320 there's a boardroom table that Wait, no 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:14.480 way. also converts into land gaming 00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:17.440 paradise. You have got to be kidding me. 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:22.480 In total, that puts this room at another eight gaming setups, all of which are 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:26.560 wired down to the server room through a cable run that goes right down the 00:14:24.560 --> 00:14:31.040 middle of the table like a regular conference table. That means no heat and 00:14:29.040 --> 00:14:36.079 no fan noise that's kicking out into the room from any of these, even with a full 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:40.800 house. This space also gets used for tabletop gaming though, so keeping it 00:14:38.079 --> 00:14:46.320 thin was a priority. And keep it thin, they did. Fun fact, by the way, Kenton 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:50.079 designed this table himself in SketchUp and then had the cabinet maker bring it 00:14:48.160 --> 00:14:54.880 to life for him. Man, I got to do more stuff like that. Then maybe I too would 00:14:52.160 --> 00:15:01.279 have a secret drink fridge in my home office. So cool. Literally. As for the 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:06.320 rest of the upstairs, it continues to be gamer AF with a couple of call rooms 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:11.519 with uh essential features like quad Ethernet ports and conduit down to the 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:15.040 server room. The one has a treadmill so that you can be that guy on the 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:18.560 conference call whose head is bobbing around. And there's also a couple of 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:22.560 guest bedrooms cuz occasionally folks will fly in from out of town for 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:27.920 gettogethers and gaming parties and it's nice to be able to accommodate them on 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:30.639 site. Both of them naturally also have 00:15:27.920 --> 00:15:34.880 3-in conduit back to the server room and networking up the wazoo. But the thing 00:15:32.959 --> 00:15:38.880 is, when you're running optical DisplayPort or whatever, it's kind of necessary 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:44.920 to have a big conduit if you want to get the connector through. Now, I noticed 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:47.600 that Kenton like me irrationally put Cat 00:15:44.920 --> 00:15:51.040 6A absolutely everywhere, which is always a funny conversation with 00:15:48.800 --> 00:15:55.279 contractors who go, I mean, yeah, I'll take your money, but like I hate working 00:15:53.519 --> 00:16:00.720 with this stuff. Are you sure you don't want to use Cat 5e? Please IP address is 00:15:58.800 --> 00:16:04.880 the last major tech feature is an intercom system to the outdoor spaces, 00:16:02.800 --> 00:16:08.560 but um they work about as well as my light 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:12.639 switches at home for the time being. They're SIP phones and Kenton hasn't 00:16:10.800 --> 00:16:16.800 learned about SIP infrastructure yet. So, all they do for now is broadcast 00:16:14.959 --> 00:16:20.720 their IP address endlessly until you press the button again, which apparently 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:25.519 the kids love to do just to troll him. So, in the middle of the night, he'll be 00:16:21.839 --> 00:16:28.320 like, "Is someone in our house?" 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:32.959 Six. Shut up. All that remains then is to ask, "How'd I do? I'm thinking of 00:16:31.199 --> 00:16:38.240 starting one of those like realtor YouTube channels where I tour the houses 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:42.240 that I'm listing for sale." Um, so this is kind of a trial run for me. Were you 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:45.519 guys thinking of selling by any chance? No. 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:50.959 I didn't tell them I was going to do that. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:55.839 I don't blame you, but I would blame you for not listening to this segue to our 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:59.600 sponsor, Net Data. Your company's infrastructure can be a massive 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:04.559 spiderweb of interconnecting threads, each susceptible to deficiencies or even 00:17:02.079 --> 00:17:08.319 worse, cyber attacks and data breaches. Well, Net Data takes all those threads 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:12.319 and brings them together into visually clear dashboards, giving you per second 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:16.240 insights on every connected system, container, or application. 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If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe 00:17:52.480 --> 00:18:01.520 check out the time we did a land party in my entire house. It wasn't as slick, 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:03.760 but I had way more people, so They're doing it.