[CTerry]

bornestar, on Aug 21 2005, 11:12 PM, said:

Dells would be good, but I would like the users to be able to play the "up to date" games. Dropping it down to 10 would be acceptable. The good thing about computers is if you don't do well, you could always sell them I forgot to mention the "tech room" would be for computer troubleshooting. I would like to do computer repair jobs on the side.

Maybe to start off you could make it some budget ones, and some XPS. Internet Cafes are notoriously expensive to set up and run so you have to be careful not to dig yourself in too deep and have yourself caved over by debt.

[Vortex-Steve]

Don't waste your money buying PCs. Lease them. That way you spread the costs out so there is no huge initial payout. And you will get brand new PCs every 2-3 years. This will also allow you to get much better spec'ed machines as you won't be using all your money at once. You will not find many companies that ever actually buy the computers they use.

Quote

You'll need Windows XP (preferrably Home, it's cheaper and does 99% of what Pro does)

There's no way you would want XP home on a network that size. You're gonna want all the machines on a domain which you can closely monitor the policies and update the whole network with a few clicks. As for cost... well. get a good deal and you'll be paying about $5-10 per copy of XP.

[Brendon Koz]

I'd also suggest separating the PC room from the XBox/PlayStation section. I know that while at college, the PC users playing CounterStrike absolutely HATED it when the XBox crowd was playing Halo with the same setup you have there (3 TVs, 3 XBox's). Each section was loud, but the PC users can at least use headphones. They don't really mix the sound quality very well...and PC users can get really annoyed at consolers rather quickly.

That's my only suggestion.

...or at least keep a wide door for the two so you could perhaps close it off when you have tournaments, but leave it open otherwise.

[bornestar]

^^^

Thats what that thicker line is for It is meant to be a wall.. Sorry for not clarifying it more. I will work on it more this week at work.. I mean, Ican't really decide where each thing is going because I don't have exact measurements This is just a dream I am trying to turn into reality

[KevinMills]

That looks amazing. It's a really good idea. Hope it works out.

[Crazysah]

Yeah it does look amazing. I will have to come to it when it is bulit!

[Michael P]

Its a cool idea - I wanted to do a similar thing at one point.

Just something to consider though, is that in general, Internet Cafes are loosing popularity:

- More people have Internet / Broadband
-A local Internet Cafe which was part of Virgin Megastores in newcastle, converted from a really really cool place, where you could do anything, logged on with smart cards, machines reghosted when u logged off, to a rubbish place where u can only use internet explorer (no other applications NONE) and u pay by voucher - an unmanned internet cafe)
-Libraries offer free internet (or at least here in the UK)

But I think its a good idea, there seems more market for internet cafe's which focus mainly on computer games, and LAN gaming

[Rikki]

If you really want to do this, I'd imagine starting with a business plan rather than a floor plan would be a better start

[Michael P]

Rikki, on Aug 22 2005, 05:48 PM, said:

If you really want to do this, I'd imagine starting with a business plan rather than a floor plan would be a better start

He did say he still has 2-3 years still left at school and, these are ideas. Most people when they have business ideas, have an imaginative phase where they think Ill do this, and have a big office here, and this here and do that, then they think more seriously, and plan it properly, then if the plan is viable, they do it