Computer LAN party setup

[Strima]

Evening all. Been approached by a mate of mine to possibly set up power distribution for a gaming LAN party.

Being of the domestic ilk this is a new one for me.

He's already looking at various locations including conference centres etc but we need to look at his power requirements.

The event will hopefully host up to 64 people bringing their own computers and monitors. he has restricted them to juts that to keep things easy.

I have only dealt with very small office installations in he past with low consumption PC's but some of these gaming beasts have PSU's of up to 1000W.

We're working on an average of 850W per machine and up to 2000W for a server.

I've asked him to keep an eye out for somewhere with 3 phase so we could run a distribution network from that using temporary boxes.

My question is, what would an 850W computer PSU actually draw under heavy load? Do I need to work on 850W per machine or a percentage of that?

Cheers.

 

[kingeri]

Some of those high end gaming PCs can draw 700w - 1kw easy, then the monitor on top of that. Graphics cards can draw 300w, and some PCs have two or more of them!
800w would be a sensible average.

You can't even really apply diversity - when idle the same PCs can draw barely anything - but at a LAN party all the PCs are likely to be maxed out at the same time!

And don't forget the clean earth!

 

[Strima]

The earth was concerning me, a couple of PC's would be no problem but 64 plus a server would be a lot.

They had a company come in last year and set up the circuits from a dedicated generator, this cost a few quid which they want to avoid this year.

In effect they could be pulling near 250 amps, balancing a 3 phase wouldn't be too much of a problem if he can find a venue with suitable supplies.

Time to do some research on renting suitable distribution kit.

 

[mayfair]

Earth leakage is going to be quite a problem for all those switching PSU's

 

[Rockingit]

I did the Intel LAN games championships at the Trocadero a few years ago, something like 400 machines (if memory is correct). It all ran from a 125/3 via rubber box distro down to a 4way plug top per station and the current meters were surprisingly low across the whole lot.

ps - take a few cartons of fresh air with you - those gamers get a bit smelly (and could do with seeing sunlight at least twice a year)!!

 

[Rockingit]

Earth leakage is going to be quite a problem for all those switching PSU's

tbh, I wouldn't worry about it just for a temporary install, just make sure that you've got your RCD discrimination set right as you're ascending the supply distro. To have an RCM not an RCD at the start of the feed is always a good call on these things, then you can adjust to a setting which makes sense.

 

[Strima]

Cheers mate, just don't want the whole lot to trip when the flag is being captured... :lol:

Already stated no pizza warmers or red bull coolers...

 

[Rockingit]

Already stated no pizza warmers or red bull coolers...

And there was me all ready to offer you a hand......

 

[ickleant]

if you keep the red bull down maybe you can lower how much the PC's will get used!

 

[redcbr]

Do you have to provide network cabling and switches for this?