Power Issues for hosting LAN Partie's

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ZaphireSA

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Hello everyone,

If you want to host a LAN party with about 80-100 people what would the amount of power you need to support their pc's?
I have heard alot about 10Amps running 4pc's etc but would like a better explanation of how to support these amount of pc's would work better.

There are 4 Power Plugs for each row that would support about 24 people. (No idea what the amps per plug is).

If anyone knows of a place to buy Exstenstions at low costs please let me know.
 
Your breakers won't handle. The highest for residential installations are usually 60 A. The average PC will easily use more than 1 A.
 
you can upgrade your breakers, or so i was told from a friend, was not to expensive also.
 
hereticangel said:
you can upgrade your breakers, or so i was told from a friend, was not to expensive also.
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Sure, but I highly doubt to any figure near 200A because at that point, Eskom probably considers it industrial usage and will require 3-phase etc etc. Not an expert on the legalities though, but I'd take a venture they wouldn't be too happy with you having 200A breakers.
 
ZaphireSA said:
It is 3-phase as it is in a school hall
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I'm a bit hesitant to assume that a school hall has 3-phase supply but maybe I'm wrong. Check out the breakers on the board, note down their current ratings and what they're for, post back here.
 
UnUnOctium said:
Your breakers won't handle. The highest for residential installations are usually 60 A. The average PC will easily use more than 1 A.
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I will arggue with you my man. My pc is a beast not many people with better than this. Also my gpu is overclocked like crazy


My pc specs in my signature. while stressing crysis 2 on max graphics and just about any other game. Also furmark and prim95 at the same time I saw the max on my amps meter was 1.1Amps crysis 2 about 1 amps so the chances everyone will game at the same time is almost 0%. Not all will have a pc with this much power. so I say you can have about 1.1amps per pc. Just tell them not to bring any extra equipment like Fans etc.

Extension and multiplugs you can get them at Builders warehouse or Macro. they are about the cheapest.
 
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hereticangel said:
you can upgrade your breakers, or so i was told from a friend, was not to expensive also.
Click to expand...


You should never do that. The breaker is rated to protect the cable that feeds from it. Using a higher rating circuit breaker with a lower rated cable, means the cable could catch fire or melt.
 
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UnUnOctium said:
I'm a bit hesitant to assume that a school hall has 3-phase supply but maybe I'm wrong. Check out the breakers on the board, note down their current ratings and what they're for, post back here.
Click to expand...

Most installations other than residential properties, usually do have 3-phase power.
 
Thanks so far for all the help. Will post the details of the hall's power later.
 
My school definitely had 3 phase power. Connecting to it and distributing it is another story, I would think.
 
nelis said:
I will arggue with you my man. My pc is a beast not many people with better than this. Also my gpu is overclocked like crazy


My pc specs in my signature. while stressing crysis 2 on max graphics and just about any other game. Also furmark and prim95 at the same time I saw the max on my amps meter was 1.1Amps crysis 2 about 1 amps so the chances everyone will game at the same time is almost 0%. Not all will have a pc with this much power. so I say you can have about 1.1amps per pc. Just tell them not to bring any extra equipment like Fans etc.

Extension and multiplugs you can get them at Builders warehouse or Macro. they are about the cheapest.
Click to expand...

Cool, let's analyse:

Assuming your PC uses 300 W DC power (conservative estimate with a conservative overhead) and a power factor of 0.95 (good call for your average active PFC PSU), you would get ~316 VA drawn.

316 VA -> (230/sqrt(2))*(x/sqrt(2)) [the sqrt(2) divisions are to convert to RMS for purely sinusoidal AC)
so the peak current amplitude will be 316/(230/2) = 316/115 = ~2.75 A peak. I can't confirm, but I'm pretty sure that fuses trip on peak currents rather than RMS.
 
UnUnOctium said:
Cool, let's analyse:

Assuming your PC uses 300 W DC power (conservative estimate with a conservative overhead) and a power factor of 0.95 (good call for your average active PFC PSU), you would get ~316 VA drawn.

316 VA -> (230/sqrt(2))*(x/sqrt(2)) [the sqrt(2) divisions are to convert to RMS for purely sinusoidal AC)
so the peak current amplitude will be 316/(230/2) = 316/115 = ~2.75 A peak. I can't confirm, but I'm pretty sure that fuses trip on peak currents rather than RMS.
Click to expand...

Main splitter should trip on peaks. I've done a few decent size LAN parties, and that is always an issue: specially the older ones.

Assume 5A lowest average per PC. (If you can, try find breakers for 6A per PC) Rather safe than sorry :)

6A*100 PCs = 600A needed to run this thing without any issues *holds thumbs*

Try get it to 200A per phase. That should do it :)
 
UnUnOctium said:
Cool, let's analyse:

Assuming your PC uses 300 W DC power (conservative estimate with a conservative overhead) and a power factor of 0.95 (good call for your average active PFC PSU), you would get ~316 VA drawn.

316 VA -> (230/sqrt(2))*(x/sqrt(2)) [the sqrt(2) divisions are to convert to RMS for purely sinusoidal AC)
so the peak current amplitude will be 316/(230/2) = 316/115 = ~2.75 A peak. I can't confirm, but I'm pretty sure that fuses trip on peak currents rather than RMS.
Click to expand...

No, fuses and circuit breakers are rated with RMS numbers
 
My guess is for more or less 100ppl you'll need about 3 or 4 different circuits (breakers) that you take power from.
If you're lucky, the plug socket will have a label on it with the circuit number. A few plugs are usually run off one circuit but hopefully they are different so maybe check if you can see anything.
 
agentrfr said:
Main splitter should trip on peaks. I've done a few decent size LAN parties, and that is always an issue: specially the older ones.

Assume 5A lowest average per PC. (If you can, try find breakers for 6A per PC) Rather safe than sorry :)

6A*100 PCs = 600A needed to run this thing without any issues *holds thumbs*

Try get it to 200A per phase. That should do it :)
Click to expand...

Jeez, you're gonna scare the hell out of the poor guy :)

Dont waste your time with RMS and wotnot - a 200A 3phase supply will give you almost 140kW of power. assuming 300W a pc, thats 460+ pc's :/

300W/220V = 1.3A
 
Jab said:
It's actually much easier to "measure" the average current than the peak current. Most circuit breakers does this by "measuring" the heat generated by the current.
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Ah yes.

To OP: Also remember that you might need cooling if the main board is small, central and heavily loaded. And then there's the issue of networking. Fun.
 
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