Im viewing the place after work today. It still has the chairs and desks, so thats brilliant. Once i see it, i will find a internet cafe management software package. The one i have saved looks great, but the only reviews are from its own site. It lets the client PC's be ran in any language, which is one of the main reasons i want it. Im looking into Credit Union and a few other things, since the PC's alone will not really cover the running costs (which is pretty scary). Apart from that, the ball is rolling. Between the two forums i have asked for advice from, i have gained enough knowledge to know what im doing and where im heading. I really would not of been able to start this without the help i have had here. Another big thing at the moment is the coffee machine, which is actually fun to try and find the right one. Once i know the layout, i will know what i can and cannot have. Kye.
Just thought I would throw in my two pence. When you buy a game, you'll need a license for each machine, so if you want 6 PC's and everyone wants to play Crysis, that's 6 copies of Crysis you have to buy. And with new games costing between £34.99 and £49.99, x 6.. It soon adds up.
He said net cafe, not gaming cafe. The two are extremely different things in what they require. I don't reckon he's going for a gaming one.
One thing you should consider is a on-site warranty or some sort of service agreement for your computers. If something fails, it will be fixed quickly. You could of course take the service part yourself, but it could be time consuming and expensive. (you have to buy and order parts that use some time in postage. You also run the risk of ordering an incorrect part)
Good luck with getting everything set up. I know you don't want to think about it but spending some time creating a plan if things don't work out the way you want might save you some trouble down the road. If business is slow you might look into adding some services that are a bit unusual, perhaps some computing classes in basic skills for a nominal fee during a time when you're not busy. What kind of area is around your internet cafe? If there are other small business owners you could ask them how busy they are during certain times to get an idea of how much traffic you'll get.
I have just seen the place. Its alot bigger then i thought. There are 10 desks all with chairs, a sink, cups, a round table, a sofa, and some other wierd things that i assume are for privicey. Anyway, the one big problem is this; The idea of a telephone cable into a router into PC's is dead. All the desks have ethernet cables coming from a box on the wall (which im not even sure about that). All the cables end up to the main desk. They are all tied together. Knowing what one is for what desk is a nightmare. He also used a switch for the PC's. Im going to phone him and see what kind of set up he had. Apart from that, i was told its a 15k deposit which will cover 3 months free before paying rent, and there is another 1200 euro a year in tax and other crap. I could probably get 20k, but i will only be able to afford 5 PC's, and maybe a coffee machine, and all the other nessesities like a good router, etc. I would be on a very tight budget to start the place. If anyone could shed some light on the set-up he had, place let me know! Kye. EDIT: Just spoke to the previous owner. Like he said, people would of paid thousands to hear what he told me . The network is easy to figure out, i dont even know why i saw it as a problem. The phone line - router - switch and admin PC. Even though the cost seems so high to run, I have everything i need to try and open the place. Apart from the deposit.
Im working on the PC specs. Im installing the valve cybercafe program. I need a PC that will happily play CS Source. I know most cafes will skimp on the PC's, so i am not sure if i am doing the right thing. I am limited to a 19 inch acer monitor for 159 euro each. I was offered 15 inch monitors by the previous owner, so im not sure what to do now. Anyway, the first option build is; AKASA Zen Black case with 2 Silent 12cm Fortron/Source Powersupply ATX 400W Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L, G31, Socket-775, Intel Pentium® Dual-Core E2180 2.0GHz, Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 1024MB Samsung SpinPoint S166 160GB SATA2 NEC DVD±RW burner AD-7200A, IDE, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Eng Logitech RX250 Optical Premium Wheel Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500. acer 19inch monitor I can afford 6 of these, but i could probably buy 10 PC's of much lower quality. I suppose i could buy 2 for gaming for a bit more extra money, and then 3 dirt cheap ones. Anyway, please let me know if anything is wrong with that build. Im currently looking up the hardware to make sure it will run quiet. Kye.
The place comes with the cables, since the owner did not want to take them with him. All i need to buy is a switch, since the router will be free once i get the broadband. Kye.
I would recommend leaving out the vista and going with good old XP. Also, if your building the PCs yourself, dont spend the money on such large drives.
HI going by the multitude of internet cafe's around my area, i would suggest the following: have at LEAST 10 pc's, if the previous cafe was busy with just 6, you want a little room to 'play' with also, will it just be an internet cafe or something else? how about looking into setting up a VOIP line in there and offering internation calling at a nice cheap rate? (which you would be paying a lot less for through any voip provider i assume) will you be offering a 'gaming' cafe or just internet cafe? that will of course have an impact on the spec's of each machine, you dont want something overkill like a quad core with 16gbs of ram and dual 9800 gtx's, if all that the pc's are gna be used for is internet/youtube do you now! saying that, will the machines really need a hard drive any bigger than about 80gb? also, stick with good old XP, the licences can be had pretty cheap from a local computer fair, assuming you have one near you, i paid 27quid for my xp pro sp2 licence and disc a while back. this will again save on your costs, something you will be wanting if you want to make a profit! consider the specs of the PC's properly before laying money down on them, also, the costs of a GOOD antivirus/firewall softwares. it is a PUBLIC internet cafe at the end of the day, and people will not be too considerate with what they 'download' onto them i assume. you could also look into offering a print service aswell, scanning, faxing. something a nice all in one would achieve quite well. perhaps also light refreshments too. so basically, im giving my 2c based on my experience of local internet cafes: 1) good, reliable access 2) print services/fax/scanning 3) refreshments /crisps/chocolates/soft drinks 4) VOIP internation calling service with regards to the networking, i would strongly suggest good reliable wired connections. also look into the legal sides of things too. with regards to the cafe's around here, they all have a agreement thing when you log in, which says that basically, you accept responsibility for what you do today, and promise not to do x y and z and such and such. the last thing you want is a law suit on your doorstep because some eejits been using your machines as torrent boxes!
Unless i build the PC's myself (which im not to keen on because of time restraints) then i am limited to what the PC builder feature offers me on Elara.ie or Komplett.ie. 80gb is the limit HDD to come with anything from the two sites. Anyway, i can use my skype phone for VOIP. Fax machine, copier etc can come a bit later. I was thinking of buying a all-in-one printer/fax/copier but im still not decided. The best way around this is to buy 6 or 7 very cheap PC's (celeron, 512mb ram) but then 2 or 1 good gaming systems. I was told it was a popular gaming place, so i am not sure what ratio of internet pc and gaming pcs i should go for. The build i listed is what i think a happy medium. Kye.
Just so you know, Microsoft does a kiosk version of XP which will be very useful. It's called SteadyState and is free, provided you already have the required XP licenses. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx That'll solve a lot of headaches.
I personally work in an Internet cafe in Weymouth and can tell you that 6 pc's is not going to bring in enough money to survive. We have 18 pc's and charge £3.00 for an hour. We make our money up by doing faxes, photocopying etc. The rates here for renting property is very steep. We have gaming pc's but most are used for general internet use so would suggest doing half higher end pc's to do gaming and other half lower spec for general internet use. We also have two networks so the gaming section does'nt interfere with the general pc's (one 2mb and other 8mb). Anything I can answer please feel free to ask.
Also, if you are playing ANY Steam game, you have to buy a yearly license from Steam, which costs a fortune!
19 inch monitors are a nice touch but the specs are much higher than you need - Celerons will be more than powerful enough if they are internet machines. Optical drives in the PC are a pain - get rid of them and use No CD patches. If a customer wants to get data off a CD, have a PC behind the counter which you can get it off...at least that way your sure they aren't trying to run any programs. Have you decided on a line speed? If your going to have gamers on the line, are you going to leave them all on the same line where they will cause lag or have two dedicated lines, one for Internet and one for gaming? I agree with some of the other posters - 6 PCs doesn't give you a lot of room to work with, and international calls would be popular if you could get that sorted How are you going to sort out documents and the like? I can't see your customers being happy if they come back 3 days later and find that the CV they saved to My Documents is still there - same goes for viruses and the like, as bixie_62 said most customers download things in Internet cafes they wouldn't touch at home because they aren't losing anything; any plans on how to get around this? Those machines have onboard graphics right? If your planning on offering gaming, like CSS, you'll want something slightly more powerful graphically wise. A note from the Valve Cyber Cafe program - "Please note, cafes must purchase at least #4 recurring seat subscriptions in order to participate in the Valve Cyber Café Program". I don't know the exact price, but I'm pretty sure it's not cheap. You'd probably be better off with another couple of machines and a fax/photocopier over it to start off with. Also check - are there any public libraries near by? Do they have PCs? They often have free to use PCs which would take away your customers
Like i said, the previous business was very successful. He had 10 PC's, 15 inch monitors celeron D with 256mb. They ran CS 1.6 fine on the intergrated graphics, so i think the 8600gs will be fine. I would of stated if i had issues with anything else apart from the specs. The max broadband here is 4mb. I was thinking of 6 good PC's, because i had it in mind that i can buy more pretty quick once i have an income. The rent is a special case. Its dirt cheap with a huge deposit. Also, if i go for 9 PC's of much lower quality, it will cost more then the 6 good ones, and i would eventually replace the older systems with the newer ones. I would be saving money doing it like that. I would only have around 2000 euros left for a fax machine and maybe a copier. Anyone know anything about ink refilling? There is no ink refill place here for miles. If its as simple as buying the ink and replacing it like ya do on a home printer then let me know Kye.
I dont think its viable Unless you have a VERY good location 90 euros a day at 1.25 Euro for 15 mins, thats 5 euro an hour, for 18 hours, do you expect your computers to be all in use, at any given point in the day? Ontop of the 6k you need rent it, and probably another 6k for bills/deprecition you need 20k to pay your wages, you might end up breaking even if your lucky but then youve worked a year of your life for nothing. Long and short, you need 20 PCs and a prime location, otherwise your wasting your time
