So I used to go out on a fairly regular basis
and game at LAN parties with my friends on the weekends.
But now that I'm self-employed and I have three kids,
I have neither weekends nor friends.
So, the solution?
A LAN gaming center that I don't have to travel to.
One that has participants
that I'm already paying to hang out with me
here in our office.
And thanks to our sponsorship from Intel,
today, that dream begins to become a reality.
Though clearly we do have some work to do.
All right, so our not at all wild idea
is to convert this corner of our warehouse,
the one that we had wired up and cooled up for crypto mining,
yeah, you can see how well that worked out,
into a full-on gaming center, something truly useful.
So what we're gonna need is proper power, proper cooling,
proper networking, and most importantly,
some solid gaming rigs so that nobody, including me,
has lag as an excuse.
Now, the purpose of this part one video is twofold.
We're gonna lay out the plan, such as it is at this point,
and we're gonna get your feedback about it
so that we can make any necessary changes
before going all out.
And before even cleaning up, apparently.
So there's our transformer box.
There's our electrical panel.
So then right about here is where we've got outlets times 16.
Yep.
Can we run 10 gig over here?
I don't see why we wouldn't.
Is it too long?
It's expensive.
So is each system gonna be 10 gig
because we have the capability or no?
I don't know.
I mean, we could.
Those cards are only like a hundred bucks.
That would be sick.
Yeah. Like our system would be like a hundred bucks.
Our caching server would not be able to keep up,
but it would be sick.
So basically power is gonna kind of depend
on where we want the tables.
We could have Brian move the outlets if we wanted,
depending on how we wanted to do.
Okay, so here's one thing.
This wall is really ugly.
Also, technically that wall doesn't have to be there, right?
It's just, it's not supporting anything.
It is supporting the electrical panel right now.
We could even have like a TV there or something.
I think we should have a table, like a countertop here.
A countertop?
That would be nice.
Just like, so you can put stuff there.
Like maybe even a sink.
Probably not a sink.
Just a countertop would be nice.
As part of our initial planning,
we need to design and build up a prototype
of the actual systems that we're gonna be rolling out
because you wanna make sure everything about them is perfect
before you run out and build 16 boxes.
Oh yeah, our plan is 16 seats.
Anyway, we wanna not only be able to game on this setup
for a long time,
but we'd also love to have it available
for Linus Media Group and Floatplane Media staff
to stream off hours,
or maybe we could start doing some Let's Plays
over on Channel Super Fun, resurrect that.
Like, I don't know.
So with that in mind,
our builds were designed to be good enough
for high refresh rate 1080p
or normal refresh rate, like 60 Hertz, 1440p gaming.
We haven't actually chosen our monitors yet.
So we're definitely open to your feedback on that.
What do you guys think we should go with?
Anyway.
With Intel sponsoring this video,
our prototype will be using their excellent 8700K processor,
which from our recent testing is untouchable
when it comes to gaming performance.
The only thing faster than this
is Intel's own limited edition 8086K,
but well, Cannot has 16 of those.
Now for our boot drives,
we're gonna be using Intel's 760 series NVMe SSDs.
These are 512 gigs with read speeds
of up to 3,230 megabytes per seconds.
And then about half of that on writes.
Then we're gonna be using an Optane module accelerated
12 terabyte Barracuda Pro in each of our systems
to give our game drive.
So our entire Steam libraries will have SSD like performance.
You can actually check out our recent video
about that up here.
We need to figure out how,
like let's say everyone comes down
at the end of the day or whatever,
and wants to play the same game.
And we don't have it.
We need a way for everyone to be able
to download the game really quickly.
The caching server.
But if we already have one,
I think we should make a second one.
A second one?
I don't think our VM one is gonna be able to support this.
Oh, come on.
No, there's no way.
We only have like two gigs read.
What's your performance goal?
Gigabit each.
That's not even that unreasonable, is it?
Yeah, so we need two 10 gigs into the server.
But there's not like a compression overhead
on the caching server, is there?
So we just need to have like two 10 gigs.
We need lots of network.
Lots of network.
RAM would be good.
What if it could be a dedicated server
for, you know, like running our own?
Yeah, that could work.
Okay, oh yes.
So now that makes sense.
And then we just have dedicated servers running all the time
and then it can also act as a cache.
Yeah.
I want it to be quiet!.
That's fine.
So yeah, we'll have to like water cool it or something.
It doesn't have to be that quiet.
Hell yeah.
The rest of our machine is a solid balance of mostly dash,
but with a touch of flash.
So we chose the ASUS.
ROG Strix Z370G MATX board,
in part thanks to its compact size and dual M.2 slots.
And we went with a matching Strix GTX 1070,
not wanting to overdo our prototype,
just in case NVIDIA dropped a new GPU on us.
And we ended up wanting to go with something else.
Each station, we're gonna have a limited amount
of actual floor space to allocate to each one.
But obviously,
better to have the system up on top
from a dust management perspective.
So one way or another, not on the floor though.
Remember what the Wancho PC looked like after a year?
At DreamHack, they put all the PCs above the monitors.
Where did you come from?
I just walked in
because it seemed like you guys were coming
to the wrong conclusion, so.
So here's where we're at.
Towers either behind the side or on top, but not ghetto,
but not down here.
Since the systems are gonna be highly visible,
we hit up our buds over at Corsair,
send us over their new 280X micro ATX chassis.
It's compact, it's got tempered glass,
and it's compatible
with their new iCUE RGB lighting control software.
For that matter,
so is the Vengeance Pro RGB RAM that they sent over.
And in white to match this gorgeous color scheme.
So what are we looking at here?
So right now,
we have a very poorly designed fresh air cooling system.
One that brings fresh air in, but has no exhaust for it.
Do we roughly know
how many feet we have in the system?
Probably 5,000 watts total.
So we have 350 per,
and then like what, a 500-watt server?
Yeah, sure.
Oh God. Oh my God.
Oh God.
I don't know how.
I don't think it's fair.
This would be a six, wouldn't it?
Okay, you know what?
Whatever, 5,000.
Yeah, screw it.
Screw it.
Screw mask, right?
The final components of the system are the power supply.
So for this, we went with an RM650X.
It doesn't have any kind of flashy RGB or anything like that,
but it's got it where it counts,
providing enough power for any config
that we could put in here.
And it's got a modular interface.
So go ahead and get that installed.
And for CPU cooling,
we've gone with the H100i Pro, but with a twist.
We took off the maglev fans that are included,
sacrificing a little bit of performance,
and swapped on light loops.
This cooler zero RPM mode,
which can be configured in Corsair software,
means that we can actually have the systems,
when they're idle, be completely silent.
So if there's only a couple of people gaming,
there won't be any noise pollution.
So what I'm proposing is we turn this area
into like console gaming zone.
Honestly, what I would like, ideally,
is to kind of have two couches,
and I'd like to have a big old CRT
that we could have on like a rolling cart
with some old consoles or an emulation box.
And then you could have like,
cause realistically, if you're playing more modern games,
they're not that sensitive, too.
They're not gonna put a leg anyway.
So you play those on the projector,
and then you could have a big CRT for anything else.
You're still missing a huge category of games.
It's like any first person shooter.
You're not gonna wanna play in a CRT.
Well, you're gonna wanna play first person shooter
over here, idiot.
So here's our finished prototype rig.
It's not over the top or anything,
but I still think it looks really good.
And because of IQ, we'll have functionality,
like having the whole thing turn red
when someone dies or whatever.
And then in terms of the layout of the room,
basically,
this is the wall where we wanna put the projector.
Jake will have to move his paint booth.
Here's where I want kinda like couches
for console gaming or CRT gaming.
Here is where we're gonna put the,
I don't think we're gonna get three rows in here.
So I think it's gonna end up being probably two rows
of gaming machines with the chairs in the middle,
back to back or something along those lines.
I don't know.
I think three feet per person,
we're gonna kinda have to make it work.
You know, we really wanna get
a bunch of ideas from you guys.
Do you guys have any ideas for monitors, peripherals?
Is there any feature that you think we're missing
from like a networking or power or cooling perspective?
We are wanting to do this like crazy awesome.
So don't be afraid to give us your wacky ideas
in the comments below.
So huge thanks to Intel for sponsoring part one
of this project as part of their Gamer Days initiative.
Gamer Days 2018, which runs from September 1st
until September 16th is more than just a great time
to shop for gaming gear.
And like you saw in this video,
it'll also include prizes, giveaways
and other amazing experiences.
So make sure you click the link
in the video description to check it out.
So thanks for watching guys.
If you disliked this video, you can hit that button.
But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed
or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff
we featured at the link in the video description.
Also down there is our merch store,
which has cool shirts like this one
and our community forum, which you should definitely join.