Quote Originally Posted by nichjeremy View Post
Yeah of course i wouldnt be buying any hardware now im just taking a step to get a basic idea of what type of hardware will run a video shop fine. Thats the easy part. The harder part is shop utilization. Desks chairs. Running a proper server for up to 50 pcs to have good internet. How i will make accounts that record hours and usage and cut people off after a certain point is harder for me. As well as figuring out a maintence schedule and what updates to run to insure that my pc isnt getting jammed up. The learning curve from hardware to soft ware is my problem, hardware is easy enough its just software and customability is getting me
You should start smaller, as I suggested before (quoted below). You will be looking at about $750-$1000 per unit, depending on the level of performance you really want to offer. You definitely want to consider what the competition is offering, too. Consider what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, and what they could or should be doing. There are many more things to consider than just the hardware. I hinted to some of them before (quoted below). I suggest you take a step back and consider all other costs before jumping into hardware.

Quote Originally Posted by J.Dre View Post
In all honesty, now is not a good time to be purchasing hardware, especially considering you're doing so for a long-term investment. By the time you open, the hardware you would have purchased for your grand opening would be obsolete. NVIDIA Pascal (Q4 2015/Q1 2016) is reported to more than double the performance of NVIDIA Maxwell. You should consider pushing back the plans until June of 2016 and hold off on purchasing any capital. In doing so, you will literally have the most advanced and high-tech cyber cafe in your entire city because you would have anticipated such changes in technology, thus having the best hardware available. What am I implying? You will spend $50k~ on hardware either way, however, waiting until next year will give you twice the effective usefulness and lifespan than that of current generation hardware. This means you're litterally getting more "bang for your buck."

Anyway, here are some recommendations:

  • You want to purchase an NVIDIA GPU. AMD GPU's may be cheaper, but they're hotter, have worse driver support, and AMD products are not known for their longevity. An NVIDIA GPU will save you time and money, long-term, considering you most likely won't be upgrading hardware every year.
  • You need to purchase a GPU with more than 2GB's of VRAM. Again, a cyber cafe is a long-term investment. Next generation games are starting to have recommendations of 4GB or more, and are utilizing more than 2GB's today. Don't skimp out on hardware to save a few dollars here and there. It will come back around and bite you right in the ass.
  • A quad-core CPU (e.g. 4690k) is a definite plus. It has been shown that next generation games are demanding more from processors. You don't want to have an entire cyber cafe full of computers unable to handle new games.
  • Memory is important. 8GB's is more than enough for a gaming machine, and I think this amount is ideal. What frequency should you purchase? At least 1600MHz. In the USA, 2400MHz memory is only $20 more than 1600MHz. So, I'd recommend that if you can find a good deal.
  • A Z97 motherboard is also a good idea. It is more "future" proof than most others. Definitely recommend going with something modern.

NVIDIA's next generation Pascal GPU Architecture - NVIDIA Blogs