advise needed for my first steps into multi boxing

[Genghis]

Hi,

first of all let me congratulate you guys on this wonderful community. It's been a pleasure reading about multiboxing for a while in an environment where everyone seems to help eachother and discuss in a mature way.

I've been reading about multiboxing for some time but i always seemed to think that it would be to pricy and to technical to get into it.
But after alot of reading and putting some thoughts into i think i'm ready to try it out.

I already have a system with following specs:

WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar SE 320GB (WD3200KS, 7200RPM, SATA II, 16MB)
SAMSUNG 19" 940BW (500:1, 2ms, DVI, Zilver/Zwart)
ASUS EN8800GTS/HTDP/640M (PCI-E, 640MB DDR3, TV-Out, Dual DVI)
CORSAIR TWINX 2048MB (2x1024) 800MHz DDR2 PC2-6400 CL5
INTEL Core 2 Duo E6600 (Socket 775, 2.4GHz, FSB1066, 4MB Cache, Boxed)
ASUS P5B (Socket 775, Intel P965, DDR2, PCI-E, SATA, Gigabit LAN, 7.1 Audio)
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar 320GB (7200RPM, ATA100, 8MB)
NEC AD-7173A 18x DVD+/-RW 8x DL 5x DVD-RAM + Labelflash (zwart, bulk)

As i'm interested in 5 boxing i'm having some questions.
How many instances of wow could this system handle (perhaps with memory upgrade)?
And what would you guys suggest as a new main system for the other instances?
I was thinking about building some i7 920 system but don't know if its advisable and i'm always in the mood for people's opinions.

Thx for reading and excuse me for any language mistakes since english isn't my native language.

[-silencer-]

Don't bother 5-boxing on a dual core with 2GB of memory. Get another 2GB at a minimum. Then you will really want to consider a quad-core. I 5-boxed with an overclocked E6600, 4GB ram, and 8800GTX for months.. but that system is pushing it hard to be playable. You'll be "able" to 5-box with 4GB on your system, but you may not like how you have to limit fps on the followers and still get bad performance at times on the main, especially in outlands/northrend.

A Core i7 920 with 4+GB of memory is a big upgrade from an E6600, but not as much from a Q6600..

[Tsunami]

you will need a quad core to 5 box on a single computer. upgrading your core 2 duo to a quad core will not cost that much more. get atleast 8 gig ram and a decent video card.....9800gtx+ being the min. I would recommend. 4850, 260, 280 or 4870 being ideal. add a second monitor for your alts.

[cairnz]

With WOTLK you definitely want 8GB of ram. You can have the fastest CPU in the world and it'll still be sluggish when you're low on ram.

Pri 1 - 64bit OS & 8GB Ram (You don't want to run 2008 Enterprise 32bit (which supports enough ram, but has other drawbacks)).
Pri 2 - Quad-core.
Pri 3 - Gfx card

That's how i would prioritize.

[-silencer-]

you will need a quad core to 5 box on a single computer. upgrading your core 2 duo to a quad core will not cost that much more. get atleast 8 gig ram and a decent video card.....9800gtx+ being the min. I would recommend. 4850, 260, 280 or 4870 being ideal. add a second monitor for your alts.

Not exactly true.. I ran 6 instance of WoW on an overclocked E6600 with 4GB of ram for nearly 6 months. The memory is the main limitation on his machine - you *can* 5-box with a dual-core.. it's just not as smooth as a quad core, even with the same videocard.

[GizmoxLoW]

Im actually 5 boxing with an E6600 and only 3gigs of ram! long as i dont try to go through dalaran im fine. my vid card is a xfx 9800gtx. i use keyclone to set my fps to 30 for my main window and 15fps for my clones on low settings except a few things like distance and spell detail. still running windows xp pro. i have vista on a similiar machine and imo its the 2nd biggest pos OS from MS since ME.... guess thats why some pc shops are charging more to have xp installed on a new machine than vista

[Genghis]

thx for the replies but i have some more questions.

How many instances could i possibly box with my current hardware?

And would it be possible to comfortably 5 box on the following machine:

1 ASUS P6T Deluxe (S1366, Intel X58, FSB1600, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3, SATA, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit... 268,90 268,90
1 INTEL Core i7 920 (Socket 1366, 2.66GHz, FSB1333, 8MB Cache, Boxed) 278,90 278,90
1 ANTEC Nine Hundred (zonder voeding) 88,90 88,90
2 OCZ 6GB Kit Intel Core i7 Low-Voltage Triple Channel (3x 2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 PC3-10666... 188,90 377,80
1 ASUS ENGTX260/HTDP/896M (PCI-E 2.0, 896MB DDR3, TV-Out, Dual DVI, HDMI, Fan) 266,90 266,90
1 ANTEC TruePower Quattro 850W 161,90 161,90
1 MICROSOFT Windows Vista Home Basic NL 64-bit (OEM, enkel bij aankoop nieuw systeem) 84,90 84,90
1 OCZ Core Series V2 30GB (SSD, SATA, 2.5") 117,90 117,90
1 SAMSUNG SpinPoint 1TB (HD103UJ, 7200RPM, SATA-II, 32MB) 92,90 92,90
1 SAMSUNG 22" T220 (Widescreen, 20000:1, 2ms, DVI, Rose Black) 218,90 218,90
1 LOGITECH G11 Gaming 53,90 53,90

Would it be advisable to buy vista home or premium?
And will i see a big improvement if i would use the 1600 mhz ram instead of the 1066 mhz ram?
Also be free to reply if you have any other comments.

[-silencer-]

i have vista on a similiar machine and imo its the 2nd biggest pos OS from MS since ME.... guess thats why some pc shops are charging more to have xp installed on a new machine than vista

I installed Vista 64 on my new machine and so far, I love it. I have absolutely NO complaints - I was one of those previous skeptics after trying out Vista close to 2 years ago and hating it then. I was also one of those who stuck with Win98 SE though the WinME and XP launch. Like my wait into getting XP, it needed driver support by manufacturers to be a good OS - now that we have the support, there's no reason not to get it if you're building a new machine.

[-silencer-]

Would it be advisable to buy vista home or premium?
And will i see a big improvement if i would use the 1600 mhz ram instead of the 1066 mhz ram?
Also be free to reply if you have any other comments.

Vista Home Premium is the one to get if you like a fancy new interface (Aero). If it's not too much more expensive, I'd go with faster ram on a new system, but it's debatable as to how much it'll help in gaming. That 1333MHz OCZ memory is fairly standard for speed - not a bad choice.