WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:06.799 The recent network stress test here in our gaming center was a huge success. 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:11.920 Unfortunately, we also found a big issue that night. See, it was the vibe. It 00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:16.240 just it kind of sucked. When we did land parties at my house, we had people in 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:20.560 the theater room kicking back, playing couch games. We had a table set up for 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:24.400 board games. We even dragged the bubble hockey game from our staff lounge into 00:00:22.240 --> 00:00:30.800 my foyer for some epic late night puck battles, which got me thinking. 00:00:28.400 --> 00:00:35.440 Whale Land needs more than just rows of VIOC tables and people sitting gaming 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:39.920 shouldertoshoulder. What it needs is experiences. I'm talking like things 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:44.800 people wouldn't normally do like multiplayer VR gaming or bringing out 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:49.680 the stereoscopic 3D gaming setup. >> No, not that again. That can come later. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:54.719 The first thing I want for our first inaugural third whale land is a rapid 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:59.120 deployment 8v8 gaming station that's designed specifically so that you can 00:00:56.879 --> 00:01:03.120 look your opponents right in the whites of their eyes while you roll over them 00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:08.640 in your warthog. See, that's a big thing you miss out on when your teammates and 00:01:05.199 --> 00:01:11.280 your opponents are scattered like ants 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:16.159 across a large arena. I also want no to sit down and game. So, the 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:20.080 machines need to be preconfigured with their game installs and updates so that 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:26.080 we can pack as much gaming goodness into the weekend as possible, but managing 16 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:29.840 computers kind of a big undertaking. How do you manage all the game installs, all 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:33.759 the accounts? Do we do 16 physical computers or can we do it with virtual 00:01:31.759 --> 00:01:37.920 machines? Can we design it so it can be deployed in less than 30 minutes? I'm 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:42.320 going to need some help with this. >> Well, sounds good. I'm in. What's my 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:45.439 budget, though? as much as you want, >> but don't waste any money. 00:01:43.600 --> 00:01:48.799 >> Okay, but how do you want to do this? >> I trust you. 00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:54.000 >> Do I do I get any help? >> Sure. You get this budget 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:57.520 >> from our sponsor, Threat Locker. Keep your devices up to date with Threat 00:01:55.759 --> 00:02:02.000 Locker's patch management. It will regularly scan for and apply patches, 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:06.399 but of course, not before testing them in a secure environment first. Click our 00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:10.879 link today down below to learn how it works and how it can help your business. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:14.319 As fun as it would be to go balls to the wall with daddy's credit card, he did 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:18.480 actually give me some off- camerara guidance. First is about deployment. 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:22.879 This thing is for live events, so we need it to be ready to go in as little 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:27.040 time as possible. And second is power consumption. We obviously have ample 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.400 power at the badminton center, but we don't want to be wasteful either. And 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:35.920 many local land games are kind of on the older side anyways, so no 5090s. And 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:39.280 finally, we want easy maintenance for the machines. It would be pretty 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:43.760 annoying if you guys came and sat down at a ready to go system and were 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:47.440 interrupted by updates. I have some ideas on this. Some are actually 00:02:45.440 --> 00:02:51.280 inspired by Kenton's epic landhouse that Lionus got to go visit. But I'm going to 00:02:48.959 --> 00:02:56.160 circle back to them later cuz I actually need to decide what hardware first. And 00:02:53.760 --> 00:03:00.239 for that, I've got two solid ideas. Both of which actually use a server rack 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:03.440 since it can be wheeled around easy for deployment. And I might get some bonus 00:03:01.760 --> 00:03:07.760 points from Lionus because, you know, me and him are both rack gaming bros. Idea 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:13.120 number one is less interesting, but it's probably the simpler to build, and 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:15.280 that's 16 individual machines in two 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:18.959 separate racks, one for each team. The advantages are that it would be using 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:22.720 consumer gear, which is quite typically quieter, and I would expect performance 00:03:20.959 --> 00:03:26.560 to actually be a little better as well because they won't be sharing any of the 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:30.560 system resources. More on that in a second. The disadvantage is that while 00:03:28.640 --> 00:03:35.760 there is management software out there for maintaining a fleet of systems, it's 00:03:32.640 --> 00:03:37.519 either non-userfriendly expensive or 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:40.720 both. And that's where idea number two comes in. Virtualization. You've 00:03:39.200 --> 00:03:44.239 probably seen us build multi-headed gaming systems on this channel before. 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:49.440 But if you're new to the idea, instead of building a whole bunch of decent 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:51.680 systems, you build one mega overkill 00:03:49.440 --> 00:03:56.640 system with enough CPU cores, system memory, and storage that it can actually 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:01.760 be split across as many players as you need, and then you give them a dedicated 00:03:58.720 --> 00:04:03.760 GPU to each of those virtual machines. A 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:08.560 major advantage is that server hardware is designed from the ground up for the 00:04:05.920 --> 00:04:13.200 best reliability and easy management. However, server hardware is typically 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:17.280 louder. And in a room that will already have several hundred people and 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:22.320 machines, I'd rather not add any of this. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:26.160 You just taking in the noise. It could also be more expensive depending on the 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:31.919 kind of system we choose. An individual Epic CPU can easily run 10 grand or 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:36.240 more. But on the other hand, it can run like 10 systems, so maybe it works. I 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:41.600 think I'm getting ahead of myself, though, because I think a bigger challenge is actually going to be 00:04:38.880 --> 00:04:44.800 antiche. Some games just refuse to work if they detect that they're running on a 00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:48.560 virtual machine. And while there are ways to mask it, I don't want to 00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:51.919 constantly be updating or fixing this every time a game decides to update. I 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:54.919 think I need to do a little bit more research. 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:07.199 I think I have a concept of a plan. 00:05:05.840 --> 00:05:11.440 I think I'm going to borrow elements from both ideas. For the computer, I 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:15.600 think 16 individual machines is the play. That's because while Lionus might 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:19.199 be okay playing older games like Halo CE and Worms Armageddon, I don't want to be 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:23.360 locked in the past. Plus, with a single machine, a single hardware failure takes 00:05:21.840 --> 00:05:28.880 down the whole setup. I'd rather hedge our bets. Also, I think I found a 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:32.800 solution to make a multi-PC deployment a bit more manageable. I'll show you that 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:36.160 a bit later because first, I want to actually build one of the 16 systems 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:42.240 here. And we're going to be starting with this, the Minism BD790 EIX3D-US. 00:05:40.400 --> 00:05:48.880 That's kind of a mouthful, but it's also a hardware full. This MiniITX board 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:51.120 includes a Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, 00:05:48.880 --> 00:05:55.680 another mouthful. a total power draw of just 100 watts thanks to its mobile CPU, 00:05:53.759 --> 00:06:01.360 enough I/IO for our gaming peripherals, and maybe more importantly, a 2.5 GB 00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:05.360 onboard network connection. This is key because if 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:10.400 we end up deciding to boot over the network like Kenton did, this will be a 00:06:07.919 --> 00:06:13.759 major advantage over a standard 1 GB connection. While it's a great board, it 00:06:12.080 --> 00:06:18.160 does have some drawbacks, like we're stuck with soda memory. But we did find 00:06:15.919 --> 00:06:21.520 a decently priced G-skll Rip Jaws kit, which runs at 5600 mega transfers per 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:26.479 second. And we're going to be loading these up with 32 GB, which is great for 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:30.880 now, and I shouldn't need to upgrade these down the line. To get to our storage, we just take off these two 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:34.880 little screws. There we go. And we're going to be installing 1 TB drives. It's 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:38.560 more than enough to handle a handful of games and even throw a quick game on it 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:43.360 if we need to, but we're probably not going to use this drive much. Unless my 00:06:41.039 --> 00:06:46.319 management solution fails, which it might because I picked it, but I'm 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:48.880 crossing my fingers for now. Building computers goes really fast when the CPU 00:06:48.080 --> 00:06:55.280 and the cooler are already pre-installed. And I don't even need to put this in a case. More on that later 00:06:52.400 --> 00:06:58.319 cuz we're already onto our GPU. And some of you are probably going to be 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:02.720 surprised to hear this. We're going AMD. An RTX 5070 would have also been a very 00:07:01.039 --> 00:07:08.000 solid choice because of its low power consumption and not to mention all of 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:09.919 the NVIDIA features like DLSS. But in 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:14.400 competitive games, especially older ones, we're not going to need any DLSS 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:22.400 frame gen. We'd rather just have raw gaming performance. And that's why we 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:23.840 chose the 9070 XT from Power Color. 00:07:22.400 --> 00:07:26.840 Well, can't really see it. Give me one second. 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:33.280 Strongest tape in the world. My goodness. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:38.319 There we go. It's got 16 GB of VRAM, which buys us a bit of future proofness 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:41.919 and has measurably better performance in traditional raster rendering. Though, it 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:49.599 does kind of come at the cost of extra power consumption and money. Uh, $600 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:51.440 MSRP times 16 of these bad boys. Maybe 00:07:49.599 --> 00:07:57.919 Powerol is willing to send us another 15, and then Lionus won't be mad at me. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:08:00.080 Power Color, please. 00:07:57.919 --> 00:08:03.120 Please. Last but not least, we need to power the 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:08.160 whole thing, even though it doesn't look like it needs much power. So, we picked 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:10.400 up a CIC Focus SPX 750 watt. We're kind 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:16.720 of riding the line here a bit on what AMD's recommended PSU is for this GPU, 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:20.639 but it's CIC. It's quality, quiet, and decently priced for a small form factor 00:08:18.479 --> 00:08:24.400 unit. Should be fine. Now that this is booted, we're just going to get it 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:27.840 updated to be as close to as final as possible so we can give you guys an idea 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:31.599 of what we're expecting from these systems. I was wondering why my Windows 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:37.760 updates were taking so long to download. So, we opened up uh hardware info here. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:39.440 My CPU is at a crisp uh 100°. I didn't 00:08:37.760 --> 00:08:43.919 take that into consideration, so we're going to throw a little fan on it. There it is. Here you go. The one computer 00:08:42.640 --> 00:08:48.080 that we're going to be using. Well, we'll need 16 of them. Building one of 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:51.760 them was kind of the easy part. Let's talk about managing them. As I mentioned 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:55.839 earlier, IT managers will have lots of solutions available to them that they 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:59.680 can scale beyond our dozen machines or so. But dealing with game updates and 00:08:57.760 --> 00:09:04.399 installs is a little bit different than dealing with Windows updates, which is 00:09:01.839 --> 00:09:08.640 why we're going to be stealing, borrowing that Texas Lanhouse idea. 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:13.760 Thankfully, Kenton actually documented the entire process on his GitHub. All I 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:18.160 have to do is kind of follow along. It's a little bit involved, but the TLDDR is 00:09:16.160 --> 00:09:21.760 this. Before every land party, we just set up one of these machines. I'm 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:26.240 talking driver updates, Windows updates, game installs, game updates, any other 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:31.360 software we might need like Discord or Epic Game Launcher, you know, the entire 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:36.000 works. Then we copy that entire Windows install and create a bootable disc 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:39.839 image. We then copy that image to our central storage server, which was 00:09:37.680 --> 00:09:44.959 upstairs, not here, but at the Padminton Center. And our 16 machines will boot 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:49.760 over the network using that image. meaning the only manual step is actually 00:09:47.839 --> 00:09:55.040 going around and signing into each one with whale land one, whale 2, or 00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:59.760 whatever we decide to name them. This approach is not only easy, but it offers 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:04.000 protection for the player and for us. That way, users don't have to sign into 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:08.080 their own accounts on our systems, and then we can easily wipe the computers in 00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:11.360 the event that someone tampers with them. I shouldn't have to say this, by 00:10:09.839 --> 00:10:16.480 the way, but if you do that, you will be banned for life from Whailand and maybe 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:19.760 prosecuted or made fun of. Maybe the entire thing. Just don't do that. Let's 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:27.600 play some games. I want to see what kind of performance we're getting out of this system. Max FPS 300 right now. Our 1% 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:29.360 lows are about 120. We're at 1440p, I 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:34.640 should mention, at 144 hertz on the monitor. That's as high as I'd want to 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:37.120 go for our esportsish settings. There's 00:10:34.640 --> 00:10:41.920 no need to go 4K. And we might even go 1080p if it means we get higher FPS. You 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:46.000 know, I'm seeing a lot of 1% lows in the 120, but it doesn't feel hitchy. Like, 00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:51.120 I'm not noticing the hitches right now. You know, just an easy 860 FPS in Rocket 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:54.079 League. I don't know how much of a land game this is, but you know, it's a type 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:59.920 of game that people might play. I've never played with keyboard and mouse. This is terrible. Our 1% lows, though, 00:10:57.680 --> 00:11:04.079 are 800 as well. So, this this is going to be feel so great. No hitches. And I 00:11:02.560 --> 00:11:10.320 mean, I've only been playing 30 seconds. Maybe once this heats up, we'll get some hitches, but for now, this is doing 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:13.839 pretty great. More than enough power for gaming, especially some of those lighter 00:11:12.079 --> 00:11:17.920 esports titles. But there's a major problem I haven't even brought up yet. 00:11:15.839 --> 00:11:23.519 Even if I manage to squeeze each of these systems into a thin little 2U 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:25.279 chassis, that's 36 U's plus networking 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:30.079 plus power distribution, this thing's going to be the size of a full height 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:33.839 server rack. Not to mention really loud because I'm probably going to need fans 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:41.680 in those two U cases. Also, I'd be spending like $5,000 on just cases. 00:11:38.880 --> 00:11:45.760 What am I going to do now? Do I Do I have to start over? Throwing out all of 00:11:43.680 --> 00:11:49.519 my hard work. It took me so long to find those GPUs. Do I have to go back to a 00:11:47.680 --> 00:11:53.839 virtualization setup? Server hardware costs so much money, though. But I don't 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:59.519 want to do virtualization. Then I'm stuck playing Lionus' Boomer games. I 00:11:55.839 --> 00:12:01.040 don't want to play Boomer games. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:04.320 I don't know what to do. Why don't we just make a custom case that can house all the computers? 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:09.440 >> What? >> I said, "Let's make a custom case to put all the computers in." 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:13.600 >> That's genius. Then it'd be small enough to fit in a server rack and then we can 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:16.720 play it at Whaland. Well, in part two, I'm going to be buying 16 computers, 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:23.760 assembling them in a server rack, deploying them at Whaleand, and then we're going to test drive it at the very 00:12:20.959 --> 00:12:26.639 first Whaleand. I just hope my check doesn't bounce. Well, that'd be really 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:32.320 embarrassing for our sponsor, >> Threat Locker. As you can imagine, software constantly needs patching. And 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:36.079 if your company has a bunch of tools they use, that can be a lot to keep an 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:39.920 eye on. Well, Threat Locker's patch management service lets you take your 00:12:37.839 --> 00:12:43.440 hand off the wheel for a little bit by constantly scanning your connected 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:47.600 devices for outdated applications. Proposed patches are inspected in a safe 00:12:45.680 --> 00:12:51.760 environment, identifying any potential conflicts and even workflow or business 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:56.240 damaging consequences. And then it can automatically push the updates live or 00:12:54.079 --> 00:13:00.160 if you so choose, defer for up to 90 days. And if you want or need to, you 00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:04.079 can check the patch history for each device to see what was applied and what 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:07.839 was skipped. So click our link in the description today and see for yourself 00:13:05.839 --> 00:13:12.160 how threat Locker's patch management can help keep your business's IT up to date 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:14.560 and running efficiently. If you guys enjoyed this video, go check out the 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:22.399 video we did a couple months ago where Jake and Linus built a Steam cache and they tested it with a hundred people at 00:13:18.160 --> 00:13:22.399 a private land. It was pretty cool.