Adding dedicated circuit for computer room

[SatTech]

All this talk about tripping breakers piqued my interest. Here's the story.

We just moved into a new house. As far as I can tell, there are 2 (maybe 3) 15 amp circuits for the upstairs. The computer room, guest room, and guest bathroom share the same circuit. I know this, because my wife tripped it the other day. I have my main rig and my folding rig on that end of the house. When she fired up here flat iron and hair drier, pop went the breaker. I moved the folding box to the other end of the house, so it's on a different circuit for now. I'd like to move it back so I don't have random computers scattered around. I'd love to add a dedicated circuit to the computer room. I really don't imagine it should be that hard because the room is on an exterior wall with the breaker box right underneath it, located outside. I'm guessing it should just be a matter of knocking out a punchout on the box, wiring in a breaker, bringing the wiring up the outside in weatherproof conduit, and punching a hole through the wall and installing a outlet on the inside. Does this sound feasable? How about meeting code? I don't want to call up an electrician and have him laugh. Also, what kind of amperage? Would 20A suffice for 2 (or possibly 3) high draw computers? It'll support the quad 9800GT folding box, my gaming rig (soon to be tri-sli with 280GTX's) and possibly a second quad folding box.

Thanks for any help ya'll can offer

 

[JRitt]

a single 20A 120v circuit will easly handle 3 quad GPU (with 8800gt's) folder or 2 quad 9800gx2 folders or 5 quad core SMP folders with a GPU folder in each.

 

[Xilikon]

If you are working hard to add a new circuit, you might as well pull 2-3 20A circuits at once and be done. You just need 2-3 wires and 2-3 breakers then in the room, just lay out the circuits whatever you want (maybe 1 circuit per wall).

 

[SatTech]

Well, the biggest question is: is it going to be possible to run weatherproof conduit up the outside of the house, as opposed to having to pull it from the ground floor up through the walls. It's an exterior wall and is full of insulation. I really don't want to spend thousands to just add 1 or 2 circuits, and given my current work schedule (stuck on the boat until Dec 17th), the last thing I want to do on my next 2 weeks off over x-mas is do a bunch of drywall/painting.

 

[psyshack]

You could use ridged conduit and LB's to get it up stairs. Or fish it around thru the house some way. Either way use 12 ga. wire and pull more circuits than you need. Use 20 amp breakers and make sure the grounds are good. Check local code and see if you need to bond the ground and neutral bars in your panel. I myself always bond them.

Have fun sparky.