17 ms·

Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• anotherhue 2y ago
  I assume this is also a CF PoP?
• hed 2y ago
  I think these are cool and seeing the NetBoot + CoW setup for gaming is fun. Thanks for sharing!
• lostmsu 2y ago
  Do you run Linux or Windows?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    The server is Linux but the game machines are Windows. But I am going to try switching the game machines to Linux at some point. I can't tell you how many times I've run into what were almost showstopper problems with the whole iSCSI netboot thing with Windows, only to get really lucky with some registry hack that worked around it. I'm sure it's going to just stop working at some point. Whereas with Linux I can dig into the stack and make things work however I want. In fact, in the old Palo Alto house, when I first completed it in 2011, the game stations were Linux for the first six months. In theory it was a better setup because the machines were able to use their local disks for the copy-on-write overlay (this was easy to set up with an initrd script and Device Mapper). With Windows, I haven't figured out how to utilize the local disk at all -- so all the copy-on-write overlays are on the server side, which of course wastes server resources. Of course, the problem with Linux is game support. We got a long way with WINE in 2011 but there were just a few too many issues. Here in 2024, Linux is ostensibly a much more capable gaming platform, with Steam support, Proton, etc. So maybe it'll work better this time? Anyway, just another project on the todo list...
    • tim-- 2y ago
      Have you thought about using Clonezilla and broadcasting out an image using PXE boot? Would completely bypass the iSCSI setup, and each machine would still get the latest image from your server before the lan party begins.
      • kentonv 2y ago
        A really neat thing about the netboot setup is it takes zero time to clone the image to all the machines. As soon as I'm done installing updates on one machine, I shut down, run one command that completes instantly, and now I can boot all the machines immediately with that image. There have been a decent number of times when I actually did this during a party to fix an issue, or between parties just to keep the machines maintained for the family to play with, etc. It'd be hard to do that if I have to spend hours transferring a large image every time. Aside from the stability issues at boot time, there isn't really a down side. I don't have any problems with load times. So I'm pretty happy with the setup.
        • tim-- 2y ago
          With multicast, you only need to send the image once to all 20 machines. With 10 gig Ethernet, a 1tb image should be sent in approx 15 minutes. Also, maybe having a steam cache server and using the local disks as a game store might help with installation of games? Definitely can see the benefits of the netboot setup, though!
• f1shy 2y ago
  How much does it cost? Probably can only be pay be Musk, Wall and Gates
  • stavros 2y ago
    Not just those, but probably not too far off, either.
  • 082349872349872 2y ago
    Nope, USD 150k (for stations & cabinetry): https://lanparty.house/#cost https://lanparty.house/#cost
    • levzettelin 2y ago
      Fake news. > The house overall was a 7-digit number. Sorry, I'm not comfortable being any more specific than that.
      • renewiltord 2y ago
        You can get that size of home for 2 million in Austin. The work to make it a LAN party home is not that expensive in comparison. The magic for him is that his dad is an architect. The home is very well designed and if you want that kind of design you’ll be paying more. Especially if you want the whole thing ready built.
        • kentonv 2y ago
          > The magic for him is that his dad is an architect. Yes. I could never have done any of this without that fact. When you hire an architect, especially for a high-end house, they are incentivized to make expensive design decisions in order to make the house more impressive for their portfolio, and of course the contractor is not going to stop them because they want the money. And if you're just a normal person not experienced in homebuilding, you will not be able to spot what they're doing. I'm sure I would have been taken advantage of if the architect wasn't a family member.
• 082349872349872 2y ago
  LAN party game room by night, Cybersyn II by day? But where are the ceiling duct tape hammocks? http://octanecreative.com/ducttape/walltapings/images/german_taping.jpg http://octanecreative.com/ducttape/walltapings/images/german...
• xfalcox 2y ago
  This is super awesome, congrats!
• lifeisstillgood 2y ago
  So we have an ongoing debate in the white collar world - work in the office or work at home. I am firmly on the “teams work better in physical proximity camp” but there are still many better ways to arrange that physical space And this - the hideaway desks that fold down to become a table top gaming session, well that could make much more flexible office spaces. (Don’t get me started on offices with one or two desks and doors that shut !) But yeah, I like it, even if my house has that many people in I would probably just hide in the kitchen all night
• lukevdp 2y ago
  Love the creativity and dedication to the project. And really cool house.
• seg_fault 2y ago
  Awesome! The fold up mechanism is a great idea to make it look clean, when there is no party and it also saves the hardware from dust :D
• GauntletWizard 2y ago
  You're living the dream, man.
• renewiltord 2y ago
  Extraordinary home! Great design. Especially love the cat stuff. I have to say, it’s wild that something “moderate” like an i5 / 4070 build is so powerful these days. It’s middle of the line in this era but it’s enough to play practically anything. Also, this is a classic example of the power of leverage. $200k down on a $1m home, home goes to $2m gives you a $1m profit on ~$240k. Accidental, in this case, but nice.
  • somishere 2y ago
    to see that upside on a home requires you 1. sell and 2. buy somewhere cheaper (or not buy at all) ... Otherwise it's a zero sum game. Home for a home.
    • renewiltord 2y ago
      Indeed that’s what OP did. Bought in the Bay low, then sold high and moved to Austin, where presumably the increase in value is again sufficiently high because Austin prices skyrocketed in the last 5 years.
      • somishere 2y ago
        Yes! My point is simply that, unlike an investment property, it's often hard to "see" the upside on a home sale. OP appears to have reinvested significantly in the epic new land + gaff, and also makes the point that prices have since been declining in Austin. The fact it's a home means that all this is a bit of an aside to the real transaction.
      • Suppafly 2y ago
        Yeah OP is winning at life about 10 times over.
• jgeralnik 2y ago
  What DDR pads are those? Are they custom made?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    They are L-TEK Ex Pro X. Shipped all the way from Poland! They seem to work pretty well. Have been using them frequently for more than a year with no issues yet.
    • jgeralnik 2y ago
      Thanks, those were the main recommendation the last time I looked into it (a few years ago), good to hear you recommend them too!
      • nvarsj 2y ago
        L-Tek is probably the best option by far that is somewhat affordable. Definitely penny-mod them too (just remove the panels, tape washers under the edge of each metal contact point - it makes the pads way more responsive and more fun to use). You can also buy a portable barre bar on amazon, that's what I use. Super stable and easy to stow away. A bar lets you maintain form on crossovers/jumps, and I recommend for anyone not super casual (playing 12+). Lastly, if you are really serious, you can buy a replica DDR pad from China for about 4-5k, or a used real pad for similar. The arcade feel is much better than L-Tek, but you need a lot of space for these. [1] 1: https://www.globalsources.com/Dance-pad/DDR-metal-dance-pads-Dance-Dance-revolution-1203010076p.htm https://www.globalsources.com/Dance-pad/DDR-metal-dance-pads...
    • manbash 2y ago
      Is Stepmania still the go-to DDR clone? This is very nostalgic. :)
      • kentonv 2y ago
        To be honest I've been using the same Stepmania 3 installation for decades. Never updated to Stepmania 5 because the step chart format changed and I didn't want to find all the songs again. I have not kept up on recent developments.
• jameskraus 2y ago
  Hahaha, the anecdote about the subcontractor is great. What a thoughtfully designed space for your family and friends! I feel like going this custom is pretty rare, and you’re clearly getting the value out of it. I also love that you did the math on the cable runs making essentially no difference. Thanks for sharing :)
• srbloom 2y ago
  This is super freaking cool. I'm curious how you feel about Austin vs Bay Area in terms of general quality of life, culture, things like that?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    It feels pretty similar, but more chill. Distances are shorter. The sky doesn't fill with smoke for a week every year. The weather is much more interesting -- honestly I got really bored with Bay Area weather after 15 years. I even like the heat in the summer, in short intervals. There are enough tech people here to be interesting, but not enough that a random person you meet on the street is likely to be in tech. One thing I appreciate is that there is tons of building happening. Housing prices went up during the pandemic, but there is new housing being built everywhere you look, and as a result the prices are now going down quite a bit! (Which I'm fine with, even as a homeowner, because I wasn't planning to sell anytime soon anyway and I like to see problems getting solved.) The downtown skyline keeps changing -- the tallest tower when I arrived is now hardly notable! All that said I'm not sure I personally am very affected by where I live. When I moved from Minneapolis to the Bay Area, people asked me if it was a culture shock, but all I really noticed was less snow and more left turn lanes...
    • iwontberude 2y ago
      Having lived in the Midwest, Texas and Bay Area I can soundly say there is no comparison which can be made about the natural splendor. Bay Area, even with smoke in the air for a week, is orders of magnitude more comfortable and interesting. In Texas people cloister into giant houses and say goodbye to enjoying nature, it’s really sad that people prefer such a reality. It lets them forget just how grand a world there is worth saving and fighting for instead of letting it all become privatized and exploited unsustainably.
      • kentonv 2y ago
        I do a lot of biking, and TBH I've had an easier time finding enjoyable bike routes near my house in Austin than I did in Palo Alto. During the summer I go biking at dawn and it's great, and during the winter there are usually 70-degree days regularly enough. Of course, on that measure, Minneapolis blows both of them out of the water -- at least during the half of the year when biking is enjoyable.
• mewse-hn 2y ago
  Beautiful house, great ideas, love the stow-away workstations -- no patch panel in the network rack facepalm
• gloflo 2y ago
  I wish I was rich too.
  • tptacek 2y ago
    He seems like he has a really good attitude about it.
    • pixelatedindex 2y ago
      I too would have a great attitude if I had that much money lol
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
• w-m 2y ago
  Wait, why do you have the same living room as Bojack Horseman?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Lol, never seen it before, but looking now, yeah it looks kinda similar!
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• teruakohatu 2y ago
  This is truely living the dream, well done mate! It is indeed crazy that cabinetry costs the same as the technology. How does the cat restroom exhaust work? Always on or does it have a sensor? Do the cat doors prevent sound getting into the kids' rooms from the living room?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    The cat room fans are standard bathroom fans. At present we just leave them on all the time -- you can see the switches taped down in the photos. I suppose it might be a good idea to rig up a sensor...
    • hunter2_ 2y ago
      Might be able to use a flipper zero as the sensor, if the cats are chipped. Then you'll have data to catch any unusual usage, like a urinary blockage, before it becomes a serious problem! At that point you're a smart switch and Home Assistant script away from fan control.
      • kentonv 2y ago
        Garply had a blockage once and he did a remarkably good job of communicating the problem to us directly!
        • allenrb 2y ago
          As a fellow cat person, I feel pretty confident interpreting what’s being implied here. :-) Beautiful home and contents, btw! It seems expensive but more than a few folks would have spent the same money on “nicer marble” or something.
          • kentonv 2y ago
            Heh, I actively dislike "nice marble" or anything that just looks expensive without providing any functional benefit.
• Symbiote 2y ago
  > [High AC cost.] Perhaps we have too many windows letting in too much sunlight... My office has automatic blinds that open and close according to some climate control system. The blinds are within the double glazing, so they can't be damaged by weather (or cats). The nice version for a home would be something like [1]. I'm sure the owner could program the automation so they only change position if no-one is in the room. There's no point having sunlight streaming into an empty room. [1] https://www.betweenglassblinds.co.uk/ https://www.betweenglassblinds.co.uk/
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Yeah good idea. We do have electric shades on many of the windows... I just need to rig up some software control of them. I suppose as an experiment I could leave them all down for a day and see how much power it saves. The shades are on the inside of the glass, but light-colored, so should reflect back a fair amount of light.
  • necovek 2y ago
    In the winter in a normal European/northern US climate, you probably want sunlight streaming into an empty room to reduce the heating bill. Possibly never in Austin, TX: I am not too privy to the temperatures it gets down to in the winter, though heating was brought up too.
  • jillyboel 2y ago
    That's awesome! Unfortunately it's all "request a quote". Can you shed some light on how much you paid?
    • Symbiote 2y ago
      Sorry, by "my office" I meant the building my employer owns. There were several companies when I searched for "shutters OR blinds inside double glazing".
• eertami 2y ago
  The biggest surprise for me was seeing the desks with no mouse pads (or if you wanted to build it into the cabinet you'd probably want to stick down a desk pad). But I also in my circles everyone takes their own keyboard/mouse/pad/headphones as those are the things it's hard to adjust to - admittedly my priorities could be completely different.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    I mostly haven't used a mouse pad in decades... until recently. I now have a mouse pad on my main work desk because the wood where my mouse was kept attracting weird black spots. They were easy to clean off but weirded me out. And I guess it would be sad if I ended up with a permanent wear spot... But I think the LAN parties don't really happen often enough to cause much wear. In 10 years at the old place no one used mouse pads and it was never an issue.
    • zexodus 2y ago
      > the wood where my mouse was kept attracting weird black spots Have the same issue, but can't subscribe to mousepads. I believe that's dust getting in the crevices of the wood.
      • hk1337 2y ago
        Or oils from your hand, perhaps?
        • a96 2y ago
          Once you get oil, dust, or moisture on a surface, dust starts to build up. It's downhill from there. Hard surfaces are easier to keep clean, just don't leave them damp after cleaning, but completely dry and slippery. The close folding furniture is probably great for holding back dust buildup.
    • buildsjets 2y ago
      May I recommend the 3M Precise Mouse Pad with Repositionable Adhesive Backing? Dumb name, good product. https://www.amazon.com/3M-Precise-Repositionable-Adhesive-MP200PS/dp/B0017D5Z40 https://www.amazon.com/3M-Precise-Repositionable-Adhesive-MP...
• amatecha 2y ago
  Wow, this is beyond badass. Not only is the LAN and home network setup top-notch, that location is excellent too - what a view! Congrats on the amazing LAN setup and such a fun place to enjoy some gaming with your friends & family. Truly worthy of some envy, that's for sure :) Looks like it was a good chunk of work, but 110% worth it!
• hk1337 2y ago
  > Normally, maintaining twelve machines used by random guests would have two huge problems: Maybe you did this with your other house but I would have thought guests would bring their own computer to a LAN party. All you have to do is provide the space and network capability?
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • kentonv 2y ago
    See: https://lanparty.house/#why-build-in https://lanparty.house/#why-build-in
• syntaxing 2y ago
  > Jade and I needed a bigger house, but we really could not afford to buy (much less build) anything bigger in Palo Alto. I’m really surprised about this, really shows how ludicrous the housing market is in the Bay Area. How high does your income need to be to afford a bigger house?!
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • valzam 2y ago
    Also considering 1400 sq ft (130 sq m) too small to raise a family is peak American... That's bigger than 99.9% of apartments people live in in Europe and raise a family just fine.
    • Tijdreiziger 2y ago
      At first, my jaw was open looking at the photos. Then I remembered… oh yeah, everything is bigger in America (especially in Texas)!
    • sevg 2y ago
      I suppose if you want to raise a family AND have a huge dedicated lan party area, then maybe 130 sqm isn't enough. But I do agree with you. We live in a 4 bedroom detached house approx 120 sqm and this is plenty of space for a family. In fact, it's above average space out of all the families I know...
    • maccard 2y ago
      I live in what would be considered a large house in the UK and it’s marginally larger than that!
    • valzam 2y ago
      In fact, calling 1400 sq ft a bachelor pad and then complaining about housing is unaffordable there is hilarious on many levels.
      • 2y ago
• RulerOf 2y ago
  > I've never heard of anyone else having done anything like this. This surprises me! But, surely, if someone else did it, someone would have told me about it? If you know of another, please let me know! I never had the tenacity to consider my build "finished," and definitely didn't have your budget, but I built a 5-player room[1] for DotA 2 back in 2013. I got really lucky with hardware selection and ended up fighting with various bugs over the years... diagnosing a broken video card was an exercise in frustration because the virtualization layer made BSODs impossible to see. I went with local disk-per-VM because latency matters more than throughput, and I'd been doing iSCSI boot for such a long time that I was intimately familiar with the downsides. I love your setup (thanks for taking the time to share this BTW) and would love to know if you ever get the local CoW working. My only tech-related comment is that I will also confirm that those 10G cards are indeed trash, and would humbly suggest an Intel-based eBay special. You could still load iPXE (I assume you're using it) from the onboard NIC, continue using it for WoL, but shift the netboot over to the add-in card via a script, and probably get better stability and performance. [1]: https://imgur.com/a/4x4-four-desktops-one-system-kWyH4 https://imgur.com/a/4x4-four-desktops-one-system-kWyH4
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Hah, you really did the VM thing? A lot of people have suggested that to me but I didn't think it'd actually work. Pretty cool! Yeah I'm pretty sure my onboard 10G Marvell AQtion ethernet is the source of most of my stability woes. About half the time any of these machines boot up, Windows bluescreens within the first couple minutes, and I think it has something to do with the iSCSI service crashing. Never had trouble in the old house where the machines had 1G network -- but load times were painful. Luckily if the machines don't crash in the first couple minutes, then they settle down and work fine... Yeah I could get higher-quality 10G cards and put them in all the machines but they seem expensive...
    • kridsdale3 2y ago
      I'm building out a 10G LAN in my house (8k VR video files are ludicrously enormous) and while it's mostly Mac, where I use Thunderbolt to SFP fiber adapters, for my Windows PC I'm looking around at what PCI options to get, and haven't pulled the trigger. If you make a decision on a 10G card (SFP or ethernet) I'd like to hear what you picked.
• Multiplayer 2y ago
  As the former proprietor of LanParty.com (which I mistakenly included in a sale to IGN) I must salute you. The absolute genius of the provided lan equipment and particularly the management thereof is an inspiration. I think the lack of any standing offerings of variations of Quake is a glaring mistake but easily rectified. :) It's really heartening to see lan gaming continued and offered in such a way that the amount of hassle and setup is minimized and the gaming is maximized. We spent far too much time in the 90's and 2000's dealing with driver issues, etc etc. Bravo.
  • leptons 2y ago
    Quake is still so much fun. Been playing for years with a group and it doesn't get old.
    • ethbr1 2y ago
      What changes after years of playing? I assume everyone has every inch of the maps memorized?
      • leptons 2y ago
        >What changes after years of playing? New ways to exploit the physics to do things your opponents don't expect and can't easily reproduce. As the skill level of regular players increases, I always look for new ways to approach the maps.
        • system2 2y ago
          Download it from tastyspleen.com and play online too. I play quake2 online almost daily.
          • Ringz 2y ago
            Domain for sale?
• xyst 2y ago
  I’m surprised people still have LAN parties. My lan parties were more adhoc. Plan to play at some dudes/gals house, bring pcs/laptops/consoles and other gear, run cat5 cable between rooms, hook them up to some shitty switch and go to town. Many hours of sweaty gameplay. Piss off the neighbors. Trip a few circuit breakers. This “lan party” has such a corporate feel to it. Almost reminds me of a typical work office. Just what I need after grinding it for 5 hrs and commuting home for another 1-2 hr — to experience the work environment again! I’m actually more interested in the dedicated cat walk and doors that lead into various rooms.
  • Suppafly 2y ago
    >My lan parties were more adhoc. Plan to play at some dudes/gals house, bring pcs/laptops/consoles and other gear, run cat5 cable between rooms, hook them up to some shitty switch and go to town. Those are almost impossible to organize once your friends are old enough to have kids. OP's removes all of the friction in getting a lan party together and just works.
• deadbabe 2y ago
  It’s one thing to build a house like this, if you can actually host a LAN party with friends and max out occupancy at every game station you are rich in life.
• iwontberude 2y ago
  Such a cool house, too bad it’s in Texas
• echoangle 2y ago
  This is so cool. But the keyboard disturbed me, wouldn’t you at least want a mechanical keyboard? > Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired — The world's cheapest keyboard at $13 a pop. Works perfectly fine for all gaming needs. I can’t imagine playing stuff like overwatch on a membrane office keyboard for $13 when having spent more than 100k on the setup. Especially when cheap mechanical keyboards are not that much more expensive either.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Honestly I've never felt it made any difference to me when gaming. I would never code on such a keyboard but for the old WASD it seems fine. That said, guests are welcome to bring any peripherals they want. There's a USB hub at each station to plug stuff in.
    • TheAceOfHearts 2y ago
      I guess it depends on what sort of games you're playing, but isn't it possible for the lack of n-key rollover to be a problem? My understanding is that many of these keyboards fail to register inputs if too many keys are pressed at the same time.
      • ikrenji 2y ago
        he said they don't play competitive games.
      • kentonv 2y ago
        Hmm, I've never had an issue with this. We generally don't play competitively but we do play fast-paced FPS and such and I just don't recall this ever having come up. (We had the same keyboards in the last house FWIW.)
      • Aeolun 2y ago
        Edit: I was wrong. > I recall reading something like 13 keys, and wondering what kind of lunatic tries to press 13 buttons at the same time. My recollection was wrong though, and most keyboards support at least two keys held down at the same time (plus shift/alt/ctrl).
• laidoffamazon 2y ago
  This is neat, but as a $NET shareholder and someone with another ~$1m in net worth that can't afford to buy a house for at least another 6 years this makes me think we should significantly increase taxation.
  • crooked-v 2y ago
    Housing price issues in the US are fundamentally the result of every major city making it expensive or impossible to actually build enough housing. Changing taxes (in either direction) really wouldn't move the needle at all. What's needed are local zoning changes and significant revamps of permitting and approval processes to remove endless discretionary roadblocks from anyone who doesn't like medium density housing.
    • laidoffamazon 2y ago
      [flagged]
      • paulproteus 2y ago
        OP lives in Austin. If you have $1M net worth, you can probably buy a house there and live there. If you don't go do that, I think you're just punishing yourself.
        • pocketarc 2y ago
          Yes - there are insanely great houses all over Texas. $400K gets you incredible houses, depending on the area, and $1M would get you mansions beyond your (or at least my) wildest dreams. Meanwhile, if you live in the Bay Area, I can totally see "$1M net worth but not really able to buy a house". Where you choose to live in really does matter a lot. Not to say there aren't issues with property costs, but... come on.
    • cluckindan 2y ago
      No. The global housing crisis is the result of international organised crime owning or operating most of the large construction conglomerates, using real estate as a fiat currency to wash the proceeds from all their illicit business, and (org crime infested) private equity companies cashing in on the former situation, pumping assets by buying up available real estate just to make it unavailable. CRIME is the real reason worldwide for people not being able to afford a house.
• frakkingcylons 2y ago
  Amazing setup, thanks for the write-up! My dream house if I was rich would have a LAN party room like this (plus a mini fridge stocked with Bawls Guarana). Stretch goal would be a movie theater like Brandon Sanderson has in his lair.
• valzam 2y ago
  > I miss the old MX518. Truely the peak of mouse design.
  • eajr 2y ago
    Just so you know the 518 is back in production as of a couple years ago with an updated sensor. It is by far the best mouse ever made, still to this day.
    • kentonv 2y ago
      The new one is a lot more expensive but I might get it.
    • throwaway888889 2y ago
      For me it is the MS intellimouse
      • kentonv 2y ago
        Oh man that was a good one too.
        • throwaway888889 2y ago
          They started making it again a few years back. Then discontinued... But you still might be able to find one :)
• Sakos 2y ago
  This is amazing. In today's world, I'm not sure what's more prohibitive though. Finding 20 friends who play video games and would be into LAN parties or being able to pay for this kind of setup.
• yapyap 2y ago
  House, or room?
• djhworld 2y ago
  Extraordinary and beautiful house, thanks for sharing. Do you worry about the upgrade cycle on the hardware? Can't be fun replacing the CPU in lots of machines :D
  • kentonv 2y ago
    In 9 years in the Palo Alto house, the only things I ever upgraded were GPU and RAM, and things seemed to work out fine. So I'm not too worried about it, no. That said, I do regret the motherboard choice, and I suppose if I ever resort to replacing them then it's a fine time to upgrade everything else. Hope it doesn't come to that though.
• wdr1 2y ago
  Has anyone done this on smaller scale? Say 4 or 8 stations? We have space in our basement. And with our kids getting into pre-teen/teen years, I think it'd be fun to have a place for lan parties.
  • throwaway888889 2y ago
    Linus Sebastian from LTT has a series of videos about his in home gaming centre with computers in his house mechanical room.. This is one of them ... But worth a look http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aKRyZelOp7Y http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aKRyZelOp7Y
    • smolder 2y ago
      The worst Linus... the one who pretends to understand computers on youtube for a living.
      • throwaway888889 2y ago
        The world is a stage :)
• chipweinberger 2y ago
  my favorite part is the cat walk with the doors to the rooms, how cool! treehouse vibes.
• stringtoint 2y ago
  Where is the guy duck taped to the ceiling?
  • Giorgi 2y ago
    Yeah, gotta pay the homage tax, where the homage tax is due
• written-beyond 2y ago
  The amount of thought that's gone into that cat lavatory really makes me envy your belief in yourself. Here I am rewriting my dB schema 4 times.
• ata_aman 2y ago
  Beautiful. All of it. I love it when tech brings people together.
• ratmeadow 2y ago
  Not the best use of resources considering we are in a housing crisis. Another thing on the list of things wealthy people think they need...
  • hehehheh 2y ago
    Flipside: they created more housing, in a place where people want it. He even said prices in Austin are falling because of development.
  • rpigab 2y ago
    Once you've made the money, better to spend it on building materials and (local) labor than keeping it in the bank or investing in Dubai nonsense projects or NFTs, don't you think?
• marxisttemp 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • ARandomerDude 2y ago
    [flagged]
    • deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    • marxisttemp 2y ago
      I don’t drink, chud. Also please tell me in which year you were able to purchase a home by flipping burgers, chud.
• latentcall 2y ago
  Younger me thinks this is really awesome. This was my DREAM during Halo 2 years. Kudos. The design, the hardware, the room itself. The house is beautiful. The pictures and write ups are fantastic. Feel free to ignore the next part of my comment: Current me with lived experiences and knowledge of the world thinks it’s a little disgusting. I don’t think it’s your fault, or you’re intending to do that. I don’t think YOU’RE disgusting. Just flaunting wealth in your own nerdy gamer way which many wealthy people are wont to do. I don’t blame you. If I could afford a 7 figure house and 150k for an adult playhouse I don’t think I’d say no. The computer hardware alone being outdated and turning into e-waste soon enough while people including children sleep and starve in the streets just rubs me the wrong way. Anybody remember Rich Kids of IG? Anyway. I wouldn’t feel right with myself if I didn’t say something. I don’t think you did anything wrong, you are a product of your environment as am I. I won’t check responses to this comment just putting it out there is enough for me. Enjoy your LAN parties dude!
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • nivethan 2y ago
    > I wouldn’t feel right with myself if I didn’t say something. Many people live with not feeling right with themselves.
  • redman25 2y ago
    Normally, I’d be equally upset with excess but the fact that this is somewhat of a community building thing is actually refreshing to see from the wealthy (even if by community, it is just friends). It’s mild in comparison to the ultra rich. Jeff bezos, Larry Ellison, and Elon musk have more wealth than half of America. That fact is what we should truly be upset about. In comparison this is a drop on the ocean.
    • Tabular-Iceberg 2y ago
      Should we really be upset about that in particular? It's not at all obvious to me that the more wealth they have on the top end the worse off we are at the bottom end.
• r1ch 2y ago
  How did you deal with the length of the USB and display cables? I thought after 5m or so things would start falling apart. Are there active extenders and can they can handle 240+ Hz?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Yes, Monoprice sells a brand called "SlimRun" which actually convert the signal to fiber optic and can handle 100ft runs for USB, DisplayPort, and HDMI. They are pricey but they work. I haven't tried 240Hz, but I have successfully run 7680x2160 wide screen at 120Hz (using HDMI), and 4k144Hz (using DisplayPort).
  • slumberlust 2y ago
    Not OP, but he website addresses this: https://lanparty.house/#cable-latency https://lanparty.house/#cable-latency
    • r1ch 2y ago
      Thanks, somehow I missed that entry.
• asn007 2y ago
  That's a sweet LAN setup you've got! The only few things that rub me the wrong way is the choice of peripherals and the lack of headsets. Must be pretty noisy in here! The tabletops also seems a bit too thin and wiggly for my taste, but, honestly, for LAN parties with chill people you personally know — it's ok As for the actual host setup with a singular disk image — great job! LAN gaming centres do something similar with their setups, with some differences (a lot of centres either use Windows-based diskless solutions that mount vhdx files as drives remotely over iSCSI, or use ZFS-based snapshotting, which is my personal favourite) But all in all, seems like my dream house :) I own a chain of LAN gaming centres, so the feedback is definitely skewered into the business perspective quite a bit
  • kentonv 2y ago
    I'm curious, what are the popular products/solutions that LAN centers use for this? I ended up putting together my own thing. I saw various products that seemed like they might be what I wanted but they always seemed... sketchy.
    • asn007 2y ago
      There are a few, actually :) CCBoot is a Windows Server-based diskless solution I mentioned, and they also provide CCDisk, which can do "hybrid" mode — where there is a small SSD in every PC with base OS pre-installed and pre-configured, which then mounts an iSCSI game drive GGRock is a fantastic product, in my opinion. It is pricy, but where as CCBoot relies heavily on knowing it's inner workings, GGRock is pretty much turnkey solution There is also CCu Cloud Update, which I have heard of, but didn't try myself, since they sell licenses only in Asia, from what I remember LANGAME Premium is an addon for LAN centre ERP system, which is basically an ITAAS solution based on TrueNAS. Of all paid offerings that one is my favourite so far — but you have to use their ERP and actually run a business for it to be cost-effective NetX provides an all-in-one (router, traffic filter and iSCSI target) NUC-like server with pre-configured software on a subscription basis. I am most skeptical of that just on the basis that, from my research, two NVMe drives can't really handle the load from a fully occupied 40+ machines LAN centre. Not for a long time, at least ...and homebrew, of course. I myself am running a homebrew ZFS-based system which I'm extremely happy with In your case, I'd go with building my own thing too. Does not take a lot of time if you know the inner workings and you have no additional OPEX for your room :)
• mclightning 2y ago
  how do I join? :D are you guys hiring at cloudflare per chance?
• findyourexit 2y ago
  What an incredible setup! Really wonderful house overall, to be honest. Aside from all of the extremely epic technology and whatnot - I have got to say, the elevated view and outlook of your place is sensational. Congratulations on putting together such a terrific place to raise a family. Oh and worth mentioning; I sincerely appreciated and enjoyed reading your comprehensive Q&A section beyond the images (which themselves, had really awesome annotations included). Thanks for sharing!
• jillyboel 2y ago
  Must be nice to be stinking rich
  • system2 2y ago
    If your goal is to have what he has, you can make it happen in 5-10 years. A decent job or hardcore hustling (sell something), you can make 200k a year and have all the things he has. Not that difficult.
    • jillyboel 2y ago
      I'm not an american, 200k/year is practically unheard of in the EU lol
      • system2 2y ago
        I have friends in the U.K. and Sweden. They are making well over 200k these days. They might be exceptions but there are people making 100k in software and a very common salary for the field in the EU too.
• solardev 2y ago
  That's frigging awesome!! I really admire the thought and attention to detail that went into this. Must've cost a good fortune, but what better way to spend it having fun? Your friends seem like a blast too. And also, thanks for Cloudflare Workers :) One of my favorite tech tools of all time.
• zipmapfoldright 2y ago
  Sweet setup! I'm curious if you use the machines for anything when it isn't being used for a LAN party.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    We'll turn on one or two to play games ourselves. E.g. my 5-year-old is currently playing Portal 2 at the station next to me. But otherwise, no, not really. At least not so far. Fun story: When I built the house in Palo Alto in 2011, people asked me if I was using the machines to mine Bitcoin. I said "What's Bitcoin?" I should have been mining Bitcoin.
• johnohara 2y ago
  I doubt it took 30 minutes for that Maine Coon to map the place, figure out the cat doors, and hang out above the upstairs hdtv. No crowds tho'. They steer clear. Probably why it doesn't show up in any of the multi-player photos. But the upstairs photo of Kenton was prime for the cat to make its way along the back of the couch, gradually step down one paw at a time, and join him nestled at his side. I don't consider myself much of a cat person. But Maine Coons are terrific animals.
• LakesAndTrees 2y ago
  I think the thing that I’m most amazed by - and this setup is truly amazing - is the fact that you’ve got a group of friends to enjoy this with. Good for you; this looks like a blast, and I can only imagine how fun that’d be, compared to years of purely solo gaming.
  • MetaMalone 2y ago
    So real. Most valuable component of this setup
    • wyclif 2y ago
      Yeah, it's impressive that someone built this. But the most impressive thing to me is that he has a group of friends who have been doing LAN parties together for 30 years. I can't think of anyone that I know that still does that.
      • Aeolun 2y ago
        I do, but the group is nowhere near large enough (3-4 people) that we need a house dedicated to it…
  • ckmiller 2y ago
    Especially amazing considering that he moved from Palo Alto to Austin. Did all his friends move too?
    • kentonv 2y ago
      My junior high friends that I've been having parties with for 30 years live in Minneapolis (where I grew up). They fly out for New Year's Eve each year. But, in fact, some friends who regularly attended LAN parties in the Bay Area moved to Austin around the same time we did. And some others are also willing to travel for New Year's. (Most parties are just local people, of course.)
      • 2y ago
• XCSme 2y ago
  Random thought: would a gaming streaming service like GeForce Now achieve a similar result for a lan party? Assuming you have the network bandwidth, I am curious what the difference in input lag/quality would be, and if, when doing a blind test, anyone would notice. I guess you could even test this, by running GeForce Now on all computers vs native.
  • XCSme 2y ago
    That could be the poor's man, on-demand, lan party. If not for the PCs, you would still need some devices to run the games.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Ehh... I'm very skeptical of those streaming services. I tried Stadia once. Played Celeste. The results were very interesting. I didn't exactly perceive latency, but I did perceive that the game felt wrong. As a result, my favorite game of all time was not fun when playing on Stadia. If I didn't have the local version of the game to compare against, I would probably have blamed the game, because again, it didn't feel like latency was the problem. I dunno, maybe that experience was skewed by the fact that Celeste is probably one of the most timing-sensitive games out there and I'd played it a lot... but now I'm worried that anything played via one of these streaming services is just going to be subtly less fun. I think I'll stick to local gaming.
    • digitaltensor 2y ago
      You're missing out, definitely give it a go! GeforceNow is a staggering leap over all the other previous cloud streaming services imo. The experience in Austin specifically is amazing, I get ~5ms (!) RTT latency to their datacenter in Dallas. Combine that with h/w AV1 decoding, the difference versus local is almost unperceivable.
• brink 2y ago
  Nice work mate. I hope it all makes you happy!
• luispa 2y ago
  cat
• aeturnum 2y ago
  This is an extremely clever setup and certainly looks wonderful - but to me LAN parties are only LAN parties when people bring the computers with them (in much the same way that Champaign is only Champaign when from a certain place in France). That being said it looks wonderful and I hope it gives you and your community many years of enjoyment.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    I thought that too originally! This is covered in the Q&A: https://lanparty.house/#why-build-in https://lanparty.house/#why-build-in
    • aeturnum 2y ago
      Ah yah, I think this exactly gets at what I mean. > I'm a little less nostalgic for the experience of trying to copy game files over the network to get everyone on the same version, or pitying the one friend who inevitably has to reinstall Windows and doesn't manage to get in-game until after midnight. What you are describing is a cultural coming together in a digital kind of way. People would gather and bring their own computers and you would all work together to try and get those computers to talk to each other. Often someone would get their computer fixed up or made worse, but in any case the home setup of each person was changed a little bit by each LAN party. To me, that's the essential element of a LAN - the communal mixing and sync'ing of setups and programs that flows back out into each individuals' home. You can imagine it as a kind of digital breathing or hugging where folks gather together, commune, and then leave somewhat changed. We would try to have spare boxes for people who didn't have equipment or time to bring theirs, but it wasn't the same. This is exceedingly well constructed and imagined, and to me you've essentially built a private net cafe - complete with the netboot arrangement. It's really impressive but I don't think you should call it a LAN.
• 9x39 2y ago
  Given it's only 20 pcs, I might have just opted for fully local machines with a basic disk overlay software with exceptions for where Steam and Epic live. Course, engineering a centralized solution can be fun, but locked-down PCs are just simple. Having built corporate RDP and VDI solutions I'm just biased towards keeping things simple these days and pushing admin work off myself. Going off the local PC only idea, you could script just your rebuilds of them in the off chance something goes south, along with maybe a disk image with the majority of common games loaded. This is just thinking along the lines it's friends and family, not the general public. I'd probably use gigabit Internet (or more) which makes updates you're missing fast, while Steam lets PCs on a LAN share updated files and save bandwidth. Did you consider patch panels or things like PatchBox to organize those UTP cables or allow for changes in your switching later?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Hmm, that sounds like a lot more maintenance work to me. The way I have it set up, I am essentially maintaining only one PC, in a totally normal way. I update Windows by pulling up Windows Update in the control panel, etc. Since I only have to do it for one machine this is fine -- orchestrating updating 20 machines sounds like a pain. Yeah I know there are enterprise tools for this but why bother? Once I've updated that one machine I just run one command on the server and now all the machines have cloned it. At the end of the party I run one command and all the machines are reverted. Also I can give everyone full admin access to their machine (which you sometimes need for games) and not have to worry about it, because I know it'll all be completely reverted later.
    • LelouBil 2y ago
      I meant your thing works great so good for you ! But to me it sounds harder to maintain than just wake on lan + pxe to reimage the machines before every lan party. I think it's specifically the fact that they access their disk remotely live that's bothering me. Why not just image it to the ssd and call it a day ?
      • kentonv 2y ago
• michaelhoney 2y ago
  I salute your commitment to fun and friends, this is awesome.
• hokumguru 2y ago
  Dumb question but what are you using to transfer gaming quality video and usb signal over long distance like this? I tried a fiber cable from Infinite Cables earlier this year for a similar situation but couldn’t get it quite working.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Monoprice SlimRun cables -- they have USB, DisplayPort, and HDMI. They transmit over fiber optic and seem to work just fine even at 100ft.
• babyent 2y ago
  Awesome build. I also really enjoyed reading about you. Wish you both all the best :) Cheers, to many GGs at the LAN parties.
• calvinmorrison 2y ago
  The 22 game machines (including monitors, cables, and peripherals) cost about $75,000 in total. The house overall was a 7-digit number. Sorry, I'm not comfortable being any more specific than that.
• viiralvx 2y ago
  Not gonna lie, this is really dope! Can I be your friend and drive from Houston for a LAN Party?
  • voisin 2y ago
    He answers this in the FAQ. You’ve got to get into his friend group or get hired by Cloudflare. Not sure which is more challenging!
    • Suppafly 2y ago
      I probably don't have the chops to work at cloudflare, but if I did, the lan party invites would be a huge selling point.
• Daub 2y ago
  Looking at this I was making noises like Homer Simpson looking at donuts.
• ChuckMcM 2y ago
  That is an awesome house and a great story. I'd be really curious to know what the people who bought your house in Palo Alto did with the house (and did you leave the gear with it? It looks like you bought all new computers for the new place so ...) I'm curious too how the planning folks reacted when you got the permits. I would expect Austin to go more smoothly than Palo Alto but that would be interesting to know about too.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    > I'd be really curious to know what the people who bought your house in Palo Alto did with the house I don't really know. I never spoke with them directly (real estate agents like to avoid that...). I did leave the equipment, but the buyer was a family and my impression was that they weren't particularly interested in the LAN setup, so it's possible they ripped it all out. I looked up the house on street view and they have a Tesla parked in the front yard (on dirt/grass) which strikes me as a hilarious combination of Bay Area and hillbilly. (There is a carport in the back of the house, I don't know why they aren't using it!) Anyway, the computers were a bit outdated so I don't think it would have been useful to bring them with us. > I would expect Austin to go more smoothly than Palo Alto but that would be interesting to know about too. Loooooooool, no. Austin was actually much worse. It took six months! Though it was in the middle of the pandemic, maybe that was part of it. But the plans as submitted for permitting didn't really show any of the LAN party stuff so there really wasn't anything unusual to react to.
• sriram_malhar 2y ago
  Amazing build, and even better, a set of long time friends. You and your wife are rich in all senses. I was wondering what the maximum power draw you have seen. Do you monitor your energy usage during normal use and during a party with all machines buzzing.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    I haven't actually monitored power usage during parties. But I should do that at the next one... I have better equipment for than now that since we finished the solar install! I suspect though that even when the game machines are running they probably don't draw all that much power compared to the HVAC. We seem to have ~10-12kW going to HVAC throughout the day... this feels broken to me (these are supposed to be high-efficiency heat pumps and such) but I haven't been able to figure out what's wrong yet. Whereas if all the computers were drawing the theoretical maximum their PSUs support (750W each) that would be 15kW, but in practice I suspect they draw a small fraction of that most of the time, even when in-game.
    • hunter2_ 2y ago
      It's almost certainly insolation (sol, not sul). UV/IR rejecting film on the windows might help, given mild enough winters that blocking it year round is fine. Check out https://youtu.be/uhbDfi7Ee7k https://youtu.be/uhbDfi7Ee7k If you can find someone willing to do it, dumping the heat (pumped out as air conditioning) directly into the pool would be quite efficient relative to heating the pool separately. Have it dump to the ambient outdoor air only as overflow when the pool's thermostat is satisfied (upper 80s or whatever).
    • jnsaff2 2y ago
      Have a look into Passivhaus principles. In your case I'm surprised that a new build did not have all the heating/cooling aspects calculated. How would you even dimension your HVAC if you don't know the numbers? There are easy and not so easy solutions: 1. heat recovery ventilation - equalizes the incoming and outgoing ventilation air temperature so you don't have to heat or cool the inside as much but still get a lot of fresh and filtered air. 2. solar shades positioned in a way that shades the sun when it's high i.e. summer time but lets sun in when it's low during the winter. 3. proper insulation and air-tightness .. a hard sell for a house that just came online. 4. ground loop heat-pumps instead of air source. Other than that I like your house, especially fond of the integrated catwalks/doors!
• esafak 2y ago
  > The cabinetry around the game stations cost a similar amount to the computers powering them. Think about that! The cabinetry is just a bunch of wood, cut into fairly large pieces. Maybe a few screws and hinges. As a person redoing a kitchen, I am disappointed that each cabinet costs something like a thousand dollars. They've gotta be doing something wrong. The prices make no sense to me; this is centuries old technology, and wood is abundant. How can they not optimize it?!
  • vel0city 2y ago
    It's the "custom" part that's very expensive. If you just want some wooden boxes with doors for you to hang on the wall and paint yourself you can get those for <$200/ea. If you want a crew of people to measure your space, design cabinets specifically for your space, cut out a specific order just for your one-off design, install them, and paint them that's a lot more labor charge. Labor is way more expensive than wood.
• bschwindHN 2y ago
  I'm building a game that I think would do quite well in a LAN party setting. If I ever finish it (big if) I'll be sure to get your attention and see if you'd give it a try :) Thanks for sharing all the details on this, looks like an incredibly fun and nice house.
• ikt 2y ago
  Only thing I'm surprised about is the intel+nvidia combo not an AMD/AMD or AMD+Nvidia combo
• 0xDEAFBEAD 2y ago
  Sweet setup! I used to play games over LAN with my brothers when we were teenagers. We played every year or two, and every time we'd spend hours fiddling with the networking in order to get things to work. This was annoying. It left me dreaming about a LAN cafe where the proprietor has lots of games pre-installed, and you can just sit down and play with your friends, or make some new friends and play with them. This could be especially good for cult classic games from previous decades that are even more difficult to get working with modern OS+hardware. I'm thinking of the game Moonbase Commander in particular. https://store.steampowered.com/app/254880/MoonBase_Commander/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/254880/MoonBase_Commander...
• Animats 2y ago
  A PC bang in your house?[1] Why not? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_bang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_bang
• frazar0 2y ago
  > RGB: None I chuckled.
• grose 2y ago
  I love the catwalk that's actually for cats, the little cat doors and cat restrooms. Nice to see some cat-friendly architecture. Very cool.
• hehehheh 2y ago
  Thanks for the backstory to your career success! While I see the money as awesome, just working for CF at such a level must be great. I hope to get a job with them one day!
• kitsune_ 2y ago
  It's a tangent but I think two white collar workers being able to afford this and having this lifestyle is why Trump won.
  • naught0 2y ago
    Can you clarify? Trump got them rich parents and hired at tech startups before they exploded? In 2005? And because wealthy people can afford expensive homes, the people of America voted Trump?
• vuckov 2y ago
  No mention of air conditioning? That basement is going to reek with so many sweaty nerds in there grinding and stinking away on their gamestations for hours on end.
• mschuster91 2y ago
  > The machines all boot off of a network drive based on this image. Each machine gets a copy-on-write overlay on top of the main image, so that guests can make changes to their machine which won't be seen by any other, and will be deleted at the end of the party. How do you deal with Windows licensing/activation in that scenario? I didn't see anything in the Github repository, and I can't imagine that not being the worst PITA.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Just buy licenses once on each machine and Windows figures it out from then on. I guess it phones home when it sees a hardware change and the server says "yep that serial number is licensed". At least, that's how it worked for me in Palo Alto. For some reason with the new setup Windows complains about activation after every reimage, until I click "troubleshoot activation", and then it phones home and figures it out? I need to debug this.
• lucasfcosta 2y ago
  I love this idea so much. Lan parties were probably the best part of my teenage years. Also, the terrace part is amazing. I miss the good old days of playing DotA (the old one) the whole night while drinking coke and eating pizza with friends.
• cannibalXxx 2y ago
  i really enjoy seeing and reading content like this. the way the process is developed and worked on by the team
• heraldgeezer 2y ago
  The amazing thing about gaming is, if you build for it, everything else works. Due to high specs and amazing connectivity, video meetings, coding, dev work all run great. Sure some xeon or threeadrippers would be better but still. Networking is key, use cables whenever possible.
• heraldgeezer 2y ago
  Invite LinusTechTips now!!!
• heraldgeezer 2y ago
  Damn... I read those profiles and I feel sick. I wasted my life on reddit, youtube and forums.
• pistoleer 2y ago
  Those cat corridors are cool as shit. I love little doors and hidden hallways, it's almost victorian. I would only worry about "noise" leaking out of the bedrooms...
• toastercat 2y ago
  damn if I had this kinda money I'd do something crazy. like pay off my parent's mortgage.
• appel 2y ago
  All this is truly, truly outstanding, except for one bit: > Cat doors allow cats access to bedrooms when human doors are closed. Kenton, you have made a grave mistake.
  • fastball 2y ago
    Hopefully the cat doors can be locked too!
    • kentonv 2y ago
      The kids' cat doors have latches so they can lock them. The primary bedroom's cat door technically is lockable but I don't know why I'd ever lock it! The lower-level bedroom's cat door doesn't have a lock, but you could easily put something heavy in front of the door to block it.
      • fastball 2y ago
        Fair, definitely depends on the cat(s). Our cats will frequently decide to start rough-housing on the bed at 3am, so unfortunately we have to keep them out of the bedroom at night lest our sleep quality suffers drastically. They also need to be kept out for "adult playtime", because otherwise they like to get involved and that isn't the vibe we're going for.
• Farbklex 2y ago
  We also have two friends with dedicated LAN party basements. But it's way more casual. They have 10 old office PCs each that were available for pretty much free. We meet around every two months to play old games. Stuff like Half Life 1 DM. I,ve also started playing with Linux and Lutris to pre-install old games. Still need to figure out the netboot part. Also regarding the Steam / Epic situation: Steam has a PC Café program where you can buy licenses which then can be used by people with their own steam accounts while they are in your local network. I set it up once and it is a neat feature.
• v3ss0n 2y ago
  If you are doing lan-parties , this opensource AAA Game is the best . https://totemarts.games/games/renegade-x/ https://totemarts.games/games/renegade-x/ It is Command and Conquer Renegade , RTS + FPS Game with frontend backend opensourced rebuild from scratch in Unreal 3 . Needs a lot of teamwork and strategy to win and all gameplay is according to CNC Rules. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VHennwBhG8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VHennwBhG8 Source code https://github.com/TotemArts/Renegade-X https://github.com/TotemArts/Renegade-X https://totemarts.games/forums/files/file/7-renegade-x-software-development-kit/ https://totemarts.games/forums/files/file/7-renegade-x-softw... Game Client https://totemarts.games/games/renegade-x/downloads.html https://totemarts.games/games/renegade-x/downloads.html They have a New game working in Unreal 4 Which have full build building and production RTS mechanic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhzZ3GMerz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhzZ3GMerz4 They would use some help from you guys to spread around, they are fully self funded and voulenteers working full time , to build a game that is fun for hardcore playerbase.
• Giorgi 2y ago
  House itself looks amazing, LAN room? Meh. I kinda like PC Bang aesthetic more than some 90s alike cabinets for monitors.
• ibaikov 2y ago
  That’s awesome, a pretty neat setup! I also strongly advise you to buy a projector - they became so good that’s nuts. Makes a much bigger screen and there are almost no cons.
• fire_lake 2y ago
  On a more serious side - with WFH now very common, perhaps new builds should contain office-like spaces with plugs everywhere, integrated desks, etc. Maybe companies could rent these for team building weekends that mix social and work. Perhaps friends who all work for different companies could spend a working vacation in a house like this? What starts as a fun idea can often become a serious business!
• IggleSniggle 2y ago
  I did something like this at my last house but somewhat more covertly, with monitors going into storage but having VESA quick mounts hidden near the Ethernet hubs, a few on articulating arms that could pop out near couches etc. My setup only supported 12, but was designed in a way where you could have 3 teams of 4 or 4 teams of 3 that got their own private area so they could more easily conspire against their opponents. I think my most interesting design choice was that I had half the machines routed from the attic and half routed from the basement. Part of this had to do with retrofitting my setup into a house over 100 years old, but I thought it also worked very well. If I were to do it again, I'd probably mount all of the computers in the basement, since it would provide extra heat (for the house) in the winter and stay cooler (for the computers) in the summer when under load. I have since moved, but haven't bothered to make it happen again. Life with kids is too busy, and I've largely abandoned the hobby because I believe it would not be a positive influence given the particular quirks of my children's personalities. Slowly easing back into the waters with board games, though.
  • kentonv 2y ago
    This sounds interesting! Do you have any photos? From the description this sounds like the most elaborate setup I've heard of aside from my own.
    • IggleSniggle 2y ago
      Sadly no. Probably due to embarrassment. I had gone through this effort but didn't manage to ever get more than 4 or 5 people over simultaneously to take advantage of it. Maybe if I had taken pictures and actually shared it around a bit more, I could have gotten more out of the setup!
• patrickhogan1 2y ago
  This is amazing! I’ve been into LAN parties since the 90s but stopped going after the early 2000s, so seeing this brought back a ton of memories. The 2011 photos hit me with nostalgia—so much of it feels like the LAN parties I remember. The 2024 setup looks awesome too, though the vibe has clearly evolved. It’s incredible you’ve kept this tradition alive for 30 years! A photo series of your LAN parties over the decades would be fascinating. Hack the planet!
  • kentonv 2y ago
    I dug up an old video from 2003 and tweeted it: https://x.com/KentonVarda/status/1857991074708369788 https://x.com/KentonVarda/status/1857991074708369788 But my parties go back to 1996, before we had digital cameras. I'm hoping my mother is able to dig up some really old photos from her storage and scan them...
    • patrickhogan1 2y ago
      Awesome! Let me guess: the LCD monitor sitting at the comfy empty chair was yours. Meanwhile, your friends lugged their bulky CRT monitors to your house—nearly breaking the monitors in the process—and instead of being jealous, they insisted it was worth it for the superior color accuracy, contrast ratios, and refresh rates. Also, shoutout to moms with camcorders and minivans—two things we were all embarrassed by back then but now fully appreciate for their superior practicality.
      • kentonv 2y ago
        No, my chair was the one seen at the very end. (The first/last room in the video was my bedroom so I was sitting at my regular desk.)
        • patrickhogan1 2y ago
          Ah I see! Nice man. Great setup!
• bsnnkv 2y ago
  Now in addition to feeling poor whenever I open social media, I can also feel poor when I open HN (-‿-") I appreciated the transparency in the "Where did you get the money?" section of the website.
• DirkH 2y ago
  Rock and Stone OP!!!
  • kentonv 2y ago
    Rock and Stone!!
• lobito14 2y ago
  [dead]
• cma256 2y ago
  > but it's still a disturbing amount of energy usage and something I'm trying to debug As someone who is deeply frustrated with their HVAC this stood out to me. A new home should have exterior insulation. Plus the solar panels plus "efficient heat pumps". I would expect it to perform very well. I'm curious to know the square footage and how much power is being used. Did you have a blower door test done when the home was constructed?
  • kentonv 2y ago
    5200 sqft. There are 5 heat pumps which seem to combine for an average 10kW power usage, with considerably less variation through the day than I would expect. Yes, they did blower door tests.
    • cma256 2y ago
      Wow. Sustained for the full hour? That's 7200kWh monthly. Roughly 2x per sqft compared to my 80's home. I've spent a lot of time in my attic air sealing, distributing insulation that was poorly installed, installing new insulation, insulating the basement, air sealing the basement. In my experience, it did not lower my power usage but in that time I added a second heat pump so I can't compare apples to apples. I can anecdotally say the upstairs seems to retain its temperature better. I'm hoping this winter I'll know if it helped. If you end up solving your problem blog about it and I'll read it...
• the4anoni 2y ago
  Man, This looks really awesome! However I have some questions. 1. Do you plan CPU overclocking of your gaming rigs? I'm asking because on so many PCs it doesn't seem realistic, so why did you go with 13600KF CPU instead of cheaper 13500/13600 non-K CPU? Also, If you don't plan overclocking didn't you through about going with cheaper B760 Motherboard + 10Gbit/s NIC? 2. Why did you choosed so slow memory? These i5 can benefit a lot in gaming from fast memory such as 7200MT/s+. 6000MT/s CL30 would probably be at same price as your kit, while providing nice performance boost in games. 3. How does Key rollover work for you on K120? Can you use Shift + W + 1 key combo for example? Just asking, because some people on Internet say such combo won't work on later batches of K120. In this setup what I really appreciate is that you didn't go with Virtualized PCs route (that causes a lot of problems with modern video games) and so much amemities for your cat :)
  • kentonv 2y ago
    I don't recall what the price difference between K and non-K was at the time. I'm not a big fan of overclocking but I think the price difference must have been negligible. Or it might have been that the only "F" options (no-integrated-GPU) available at the time were also "K". Obviously I did not want an integrated GPU. We did have a lot of fun when building the computers seeing how many "biscuits" each one reported. I guess this is some sort of measure of overclockability provided by Gigabyte motherboards, but we pretended it was a direct measure of how well the person assembling the computer did and congratulated or made fun of each other depending on the results. The motherboard I got was literally the cheapest board that had a 10G NIC at the time. In retrospect maybe I should have bought separate 10G NICs. Memory timing is a world I haven't gotten deeply into. I didn't spend a lot of time researching the RAM. Key rollover hasn't been an issue. I have been using these cheap keyboards for gaming for a long time (had them in the old house too) and I simply have never had the experience of it not registering a keystroke due to too many keys being pressed. I'm pretty sure I commonly am holding shift and W and also press another key... though then again, I do tend to map commonly-used actions to mouse buttons...
• cryptozeus 2y ago
  First of all, great article. I loved how you added all images with captions right upfront without adding boring descriptions that no one would read. At the end you added all the faqs, i loved this format l. Also i loved lan parties in early 2000. I used to run acm chapter at my college andwe used to have lan parties in college.
• z3ncyberpunk 2y ago
  This. is. awesome!
• hyponight 2y ago
  [dead]
• hyponight 2y ago
  [dead]