Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by jmb99 » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 11:46 PM UTC

kentonv wrote: post #58

RulerOf wrote: post #44

> 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 fightin…

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 troubl…

> 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!

Another data point that it is indeed possible. I had a dual Xeon E5-2690 v2 setup with two RX 580 8GB cards passed through to separate VMs, and with memory and CPU pinning it was a surprisingly resilient setup. 150+ FPS in CSGO with decent 1% lows (like 120 if I remember correctly?) which was fine since I only had 60Hz monitors. I have a Threadripper workstation now, I should test out to see what kind of performance I can get out of that for VM gaming...

> Yeah I could get higher-quality 10G cards and put them in all the machines but they seem expensive...

I have had very good luck with Intel X540 cards. $20-40 on eBay, and there’s hundreds (if not thousands) available. They’re plug-and-play on any modern Linux, but need an Intel driver on windows if I remember correctly. I’ve never had one die and I’ve never experienced a crash or network dropout in the 9 years I’ve been running them. The Marvell chipset just seems terrible, unfortunately - I’ve had problems with it on multiple different cards and motherboards on every OS under the sun.

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

#142

Post by tinco » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 11:46 PM UTC

kentonv wrote: post #58

RulerOf wrote: post #44

> 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 fightin…

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 troubl…

It's been a couple years, but when I built our in-office render farm for my previous company I also got motherboards with built-in 10G because they needed 4GPU's and there simply no more PCIe slots left. There were so many connectivity issues, but eventually it was solved when we replaced the switches. When I first built the farm there was only one brand that sold cheap 10gbit ethernet switches, but a couple years later finally ubiquiti started making them as well and I think now all of the semi-pro brands sell 10gbit switches. Since we swapped to ubiquiti switches we had no more connectivity issues, not even with the cheap 10G interfaces.

The good intel 10G cards were not expensive at all by the way, I bought them for later additions, and they were cheaper than the premium we paid for the money-gamer motherboards that included 10G cards that I saw you were unhappy about too.

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

#143

Post by that_guy_iain » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 11:49 PM UTC

laidoffamazon wrote: post #108

IAmGraydon wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have $1M of net worth that isn’t a house (and is therefore likely to be liquid) and you can’t afford to buy a house? Where and how much?

I spend about $3.2k a month for a studio apartment in an HCOL area. I don’t even own a car.

It sounds more like you can afford to buy a house, just not in the area you want.

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

#144

Post by kentonv » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 11:49 PM UTC

joenot443 wrote: post #132

frakkingcylons wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related to culture, I moved to Austin in 2012 and that was the first time I saw a restaurant advertising that their water had no fluoride.

Are people in Austin more concerned about fluoride?

I have never seen nor heard any mention of fluoride in Austin, FWIW.

I mean, maybe I just don't hang out with that crowd. But I do go to restaurants and haven't ever seen it mentioned.

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

#145

Post by jillyboel » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 11:54 PM UTC

Symbiote wrote: post #33

> [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 r…

That's awesome! Unfortunately it's all "request a quote". Can you shed some light on how much you paid?

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

#146

Post by WD-42 » Sat, Nov 16, 2024, 11:54 PM UTC

kentonv wrote: post #69

iwontberude wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

As a fellow cyclist I find this strange. I visited austin to see what the hype was about and left knowing I couldn’t live there. Massive 6 lane stroads running through suburban sprawl for miles in every direction. Barely any elevation to speak of. Strangely humid despite there being no water in sight.

Most people I know that are happy with the move to Texas from California are the types that never cared for going outside in the first place. It’s a good place to build a big house and fill it with toys, which is exactly what you’ve done, so nice work there!

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

#147

Post by leptons » Sun, Nov 17, 2024, 12:12 AM UTC

Multiplayer wrote: post #49

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…

Quake is still so much fun. Been playing for years with a group and it doesn't get old.

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

#148

Post by LakesAndTrees » Sun, Nov 17, 2024, 12:12 AM UTC

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.

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

#149

Post by WD-42 » Sun, Nov 17, 2024, 12:13 AM UTC

iwontberude wrote: post #57

kentonv wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. On…

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…

I’ve made this same observation which might explain why there is such a divergent world view between people living in different parts of the country.

A neighbor of mine recently moved (back to) Texas. Where we live is 1/4 of a mile from a massive state park, right on the ocean full of mountainous trails. Dude admitted he had only visited it once in 5+ years, but complained about taxes and the price of gas constantly. It’s no wonder he wanted to go back.

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

#150

Post by toast0 » Sun, Nov 17, 2024, 12:20 AM UTC

vueko wrote: post #137

toast0 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah I could get higher-quality 10G cards and put them in all the machines but they seem expensive... Bulk buying is probably hard, but ex-enterprise Intel 10G on eBay tends to be pretty inexpensive. Dual spf+ x520 cards are regularly available for $10. Dual 10g-base-t x540 cards run a bit more, with more variance, $15-$25. No 2.5/5Gb support, but my 10g network equipment can't do those speeds either, so no big dea…

+1 ebay x520 cards. My entire 10g sfp+ home network runs on a bunch of x520s, fs.com DACs/AOCs, Mikrotik switches, and an old desktop running FreeBSD with a few x520s in it as the core router. Very very cheap to assemble and has been absolutely bulletproof. IME at this point in time the ixgbe driver is extremely stable. x520s with full-height brackets do exist (I have a box full of them), but you may pay like $3-5/ea…

sfp+ is clearly cheaper, and less heat/power, but I've got cat5e in the walls and between my house and detached garage, so I've got to use 10g-baseT to get between the garage and the house, and up to my office from the basement. At my two network closet areas, I use sfp+ for servers.

I think my muni fiber install happening this week might have a 10G-baseT handoff, and I've got a port for that open on my switch in the garage. If that works out, that will be neat, but I'll need to upgrade some more stuff to make full use of that.