Organizing Large Lan Game - 200 + help

[Changster]

Project LAN 200

Project Based
Currently I am planning a 150 min to 200 max user LAN based game at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence Kansas.
The time of the event will be the spring of 2003.
This will be similar to other large LAN games.
I am currently looking for more information relating to my project?
This is my first time at organization this level of LAN gaming.
Please provide any information in which I have forgot.
Right now I am having big brainstorming sessions.

Facility
Currently the event will take place in our students union. This facility will occupy up to 200 users or more, from my current estimation. The union is a place where student organizations can rent spaces for free this is a student organization that will be running this event. This LAN gaming will be taking place over a weekend, Friday evening to Sunday afternoon.

Network/Technology/Gaming
List: 8, 24 port switches; 1, 16 port switch; 10 servers; 4 projectors

There will be 8, 24 port switches for the hook up of 192 computers. Currently I am doing research to see if the facility can handle 192 systems including monitors. From what I have researched an average desktop consumes 65 watts, average monitor consumes 90 watts. Thus having a total output of each system at 155 watts minimum. With 192 computers, and probably another 10 at the minimum for servers, and 8, 24 high power switches, and extra switch to connect all of them. The power is usage extensive.

Currently I have setup the area into 8 network zones. Each switch will work independently from each other because of traffic. From what I have figure is the best way of managing this number of users. From my earlier ideas, I was thinking of having all the switches hooked up than users can choose to organized among themselves. I believe this is highly unlikely a good idea because users are high unpredictable.

My question is how are users normally organized in a large net gaming such as this? What games are popular among LAN gamers? What is the maximum of support users?

Last Question
What would be the normal admissions charge for such an activity?
Are food suppose to be provided? during these large LAN gaming play sessions?

 

[WinkOsmosis]

If a desktop computer consumed 65 watts, we wouldn't need 400W PSUs.

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
If a desktop computer consumed 65 watts, we wouldn't need 400W PSUs.

You're right we DONT. A 200W PSU from Shuttle XPC systems can power a loaded 3.2HT with a Radeon 9800 Pro. A 230W PSU from Dell powers their 1U Rackmount unit, a loaded dual Xeon system with 2 15K SCSI drives.

But for the original poster, 65W is probably for the typical office computer. For a gamer's computer, I'd probably wont to budget at least twice that. Frankly, a lot of people think its uber cool to have a million flashing Neon lights with Tornado fans that are louder than vacuum cleaners.

 

[ndee]

Originally posted by: dexvx

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
If a desktop computer consumed 65 watts, we wouldn't need 400W PSUs.

You're right we DONT. A 200W PSU from Shuttle XPC systems can power a loaded 3.2HT with a Radeon 9800 Pro. A 230W PSU from Dell powers their 1U Rackmount unit, a loaded dual Xeon system with 2 15K SCSI drives.

But for the original poster, 65W is probably for the typical office computer. For a gamer's computer, I'd probably wont to budget at least twice that. Frankly, a lot of people think its uber cool to have a million flashing Neon lights with Tornado fans that are louder than vacuum cleaners.

A fast UBER CPU under 100% load can consume up to 65W alone.

 

[thraxes]

POWER: When we organise LANs.. big ones mind you in the 1000+ area, we figured 300W per user on average. This may be more than most users actually need, but it gives us enough headroom so that when a user does turn on a portable stove or something simillar (which is not allowed really, only in a special dessignated area with fitting power supply and fire extinguisher) the whole section won't go dark. It also lets the users bring two machines or more with them to run servers.

NETWORK: For gaming the general consensus is that 4-6 MBit actual bandwidth is enough... what is critical of course are the ping times. With 200 users running over a standard switch acting as a backbone, and 24 users having to share 1 100Mbit connection is asking for trouble, it allready becomes problematic with 100 users. Best solution by far is to have a gigabit backbone linked via 1000 MBit links to the switches. That will give you very good performance, low maintanance and low low ping times are practically guaranteed. We prefer using fibreoptics for Gigabit links as it isn't affected by stray magnetic fields, of which there are plenty at a LAN. I am not saying that Gigabit is a must, but if you can't get Gigabit then you need to shut down a few ports in the network to keep traffic and pings at acceptable levels:
BAN HLSW (a HalfLife/CS Server Browser)!! It performs network broadcasts out of the whazooo and clogs up the entire LAN, with or without gigabit links. Lock port 21 except on official servers which carry patches, updates etc... them leechers are a prime traffic mover, not much of a problem when using gigabyte links but it gets pretty tight when 24 useres share one 100MBit link and 10 of them are leeching (which is pretty much the norm). Lock out the port on which Windows performs its network broadcasts looking for other workgroups and PCs (can't remember the port number for that, gotta look it up).
Is you can see having manageable switches is a big plus. It also lets you keep an eye on the backbones performance/CPU load.

Those are the two main areas of a LAN party covered.

EDIT:
Games played are (in order of popularity): CS, BF1942, Q3A, UT2k3.
For food it is generally enough to organize large orders to the local pizzeria. Ask the pizzeria though beforehand if they are willing to handle the large amounts of pizzas demanded by 200 hungry gamers. They will probably gladly accept the business, but will also be thankful of the advanced warning.

 

[vetteguy]

I'm planning on organizing something similar at the school where I work later this year (although nowhere 200 people, probably more like 25-50!) Power for me is not an issue since it will be in our computer lab where we already have upwards of 40-50 machines running. I'm really wondering how something like this is organized as far as games. Since this would be a semi-university sponsered event, I couldn't really hand out pirated copies of Halo and UT2003 at the door. So I'm guessing the best way to handle it would be post a list of games that will be played and then let the people come prepared. I also need to figure out how to determine prizes. So much to do!