How to open a computer club: PCs, network, hourly pricing and tracking

To open a computer club, three things matter equally: PCs that run the games, a network that stays up, and accurate tracking of time on every seat. However powerful the hardware, if ping spikes or minutes "go missing" at the till, the club loses money. Below is a practical plan: how many PCs to start with, the network, power and cooling, hourly pricing and tracking.

How many PCs and which zones

10–15 PCs is a sensible start: easy to manage, and small enough to fix mistakes without heavy losses. Too few, and a group of friends can't sit together in the evening; a team of five needs five seats in a row. Too many, and half the room sits idle on weekday afternoons while the hardware ages anyway. Adding seats later is easy; selling surplus PCs is not.

Split the room into zones:

Keep the PCs within one zone identical. Otherwise guests ask to move to "the faster one next door", and the price becomes an argument. You can also add a couple of consoles; how to set up that corner is covered in how to open a PlayStation club.

PCs, monitors and peripherals

Pick the configuration for the games your guests actually play, not for the most expensive build. Popular online games can run well on mid-range PCs, and a few seats in the high-end zone are enough for heavier titles.

• Monitor: 24–27 inches with a high refresh rate, 144 Hz or more.
• Storage: SSD with room to spare, because game updates are large.
• Case: good airflow and easy to clean. Dust ruins cooling within a few months.
• Desk: enough distance to the monitor, room for the mouse, cables fixed under the desktop.

Peripherals wear out first

A PC lasts for years; keyboards, mice and headsets break first. Keys stick, cables fray, ear pads tear. Keep at least 2–3 spare sets for every 10 seats and label each device with its seat number, so you can see at once what was replaced. At the start of each shift, check every seat: sound works, the mouse tracks properly, every key responds.

Make hygiene a rule too: wipes and sanitiser for headsets and keyboards at hand, used after every session.

Network and internet

In a computer club, the connection is part of the product. A guest who gets ping spikes won't come back.

• Wire every PC with a cable. Wi-Fi is for guests' phones only, on a separate network.
• The switch and router must cope when every seat is playing at once. Put network gear somewhere ventilated and out of guests' reach.
• Add a second internet provider. If the main line drops, the backup keeps the club running. It's a recurring cost, but cheaper than a full room going home on a Friday night.
• Install updates in the morning, before opening. Ten people shouldn't be waiting for a download at 7 pm.
• After each session, make sure the guest has logged out of their accounts, and put this in the shift rules. An account left open is a dispute waiting to happen with the next guest.

Check the terms for using the operating system, games and software in a club before you open: a home licence may not cover commercial use. Registration, taxes, late-night opening and rules for underage guests should be confirmed with a lawyer, a tax adviser or the relevant government services.

Power, cooling and chairs

Gaming PCs draw a lot of power and put out a lot of heat. For example, if one PC with its monitor draws 400–600 W while gaming, 12 seats together come to roughly 5–7 kW, before air conditioning, lighting and the bar.

• Plan the wiring with an electrician: spread the PCs across several separate circuits, and never plug power strips into power strips.
• Put the network gear and the administrator's device on a UPS. During a short outage they stay on and the till keeps working.
• Size air conditioning and ventilation for a full room. In the evening, PCs and people heat the space quickly; guests don't stay long in a stuffy room, and the hardware overheats.
• Chairs: height-adjustable, in a material that's easy to clean. An uncomfortable chair tires guests sooner, and they buy fewer hours.

Pricing: hourly, day and night, prepaid

The core product of a computer club is the seat-hour. Price in that unit and set it per zone.

• Cheaper in the day, more in the evening. For example, standard zone 12:00–18:00 at 12,000 UZS per hour, after 18:00 at 15,000. Choosing the boundary is covered in day and night tariffs.
• A session that crosses the boundary is charged at both rates: a game from 17:00 to 19:00 costs 12,000 + 15,000 = 27,000 UZS.
• The high-end zone and the team room get their own rates, for example 20,000 and 25,000 UZS per hour.
• Guests often arrive with an amount: "I've got 20,000". At the evening rate that's 1 hour 20 minutes. Staff shouldn't have to work this out by hand each time.

A night package, several late hours at a fixed price, fills seats that would otherwise sit empty. Spell out the terms on the price list: when it starts, when it ends, and what happens if the guest leaves early.

Occupancy matters more than price. For example, 12 PCs at an average of 14,000 UZS per hour. If each seat is busy 6 hours a day on average, that's 12 × 6 × 30 = 2,160 seat-hours a month, or 30,240,000 UZS in revenue. One extra busy hour per seat per day adds 360 seat-hours and 5,040,000 UZS, while costs rise mainly by the electricity used. So filling afternoon hours can be worth more than a price rise.

Tracking every PC: what ClubTime does and doesn’t do

Money in a computer club usually leaks like this: the administrator starts the clock late, gives a friend "10 minutes free", or the bill gets muddled when a guest changes seats. For example, if 15 minutes go unrecorded in each of 30 sessions a day, that's 7.5 hours, or 105,000 UZS a day at 14,000 and 3,150,000 UZS a month. Ways to keep the till in check are covered in cash shortages and staff control.

In ClubTime, each PC is added as a separate seat with its own timer:

• sessions run open-ended, for a set time or for a set amount, and the app warns before time runs out;
• seats are grouped into types (standard, high-end, team room), each with its own price, and day and night rates apply by time of day;
• if a PC breaks, the session moves to another seat with its time and bill, and the history shows both seats;
• the bar tracks stock, FIFO cost and real profit, and a PIN lock hides cost and profit from staff;
• equipment rental, such as a headset, is added to the session bill and the shift report;
• the shift's cash is handed over in one tap, and every closed session and shift is sent to the owner on Telegram;
• tracking continues without internet: data is stored on the device and syncs to the cloud when the connection is back.

To be clear about the limits: ClubTime does not control guests' PCs. It runs on the administrator's phone, tablet or computer. It doesn't switch gaming PCs on or off, and it doesn't lock the screen when time is up. The app tells the administrator that time is ending, and the administrator closes the session. If you need automatic locking, that's a different kind of software. And don't cut power to PCs with a smart plug: a sudden power loss can damage the system and unsaved data.

In short

• Start with 10–15 PCs, split the room into zones, and keep PCs within a zone identical.
• Peripherals wear out: keep spare sets, label seats and check them at the start of each shift.
• Cable every PC, add a second provider and a UPS as insurance against outages.
• Size power and air conditioning for a full room.
• Price per seat-hour, cheaper in the day; raising occupancy can pay more than raising prices.

Try ClubTime free for 15 days with every feature included and no card required; the plan depends only on the number of seats: see pricing.