Dual maybe Tri-boxing Help

[White91CRX]

OK i am new to this whole scene...and i like what i have read and seen so far...i do have one question for all the experts.

I am wondering if my pc will be capable of running 2 maybe 3 WoW accts at once... Here are my specs

Intel P4 3.30 GHz
120GB Hard Drive
1Gig memory (about to upgrade to 2gig)
Nvidia 7800 GT 256MB


Please help me out with any suggestions or comments.

Thanks

[Wilbur]

Hi there.

Your PC *should* be good for running two instances, however I think three might be pushing it for a decent frame-rate. You'll definately need the two gigs of RAM, and If I were you I'd think about upgrading the mobo/CPU as well.

Generally speaking Dual or even Quad Core CPU's are whats needed for running multiple Instances on a single computer.

[keyclone]

an interesting thing to have might be a form to select cpu speed, type, memory size, target resolution, etc ... and have a projected number of wows supported by the box.

would be a handy user tool

[Gallo]

with 2gb RAM you should do fine. I run with the same graphics card, and I have an Athlon 64 4000+ w/ 2gb RAM. I run 2 instances of WoW fine, takes up about 80% CPU, no choppiness.

[Elesar]

Hi there.

I dont normally play WoW, but I decided to install to see what I could push out of my system.

Specs:
AMD AthlonX2 64Bit 4200+ (O.C. a tad from 2.2GHz to 2.36GHz - Brand new, still breaking it in :D)
Asus A8-VXE mobo
2GB RAM
nVidia 8600GT 256MB (O.C. from 620MHz to 699MHz on core, stock RAM freq)
2X 200GB Maxtor Diamondmax 10 HardDrives on SATA (Not raided)
SoundBlaster XFi Platinum
Display 1: Acer AL2216W 22" Widescreen @ 1680x1050
Display 2: Gateway (Forgot the p/n) 19" Widescreen @ 1440x900


What I can run:
Main instance of WoW at max graphics settings, 1680x1050 resolution.
3 alt instances running at minimum graphics, no sound.

I get right about 45 FPS on the main and 30 FPS on the alts.

OR:

One instance of Vanguard:SoH at about 40 FPS :P

Also for software, I mainly use Keyclone, but I also play around with an AHK script that I got from here and modified a bit. I have to play with the AHK one to help my brother understand it cause he doesn't want to buy Keyclone :P

[White91CRX]

ok...i need a little more input... I have decided to go with a mobo/cpu combo upgrade as Wilbur suggested (Thank you)!!!

What do you guys think about this for a tribox ??

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3290779&Sku=MBM-G33FBC-E6550

along with 4g of DDR2
my current video card - Nvidia GeForce 7800GT 256MB

please comment

[Wilbur]

Make sure the RAM you get is at least PC6400 (800 MHz) otherwise it'll be slower than it should be :-)

[Elesar]

Also, unless you are running a 64bit operating system, your 4GB of ram will only show up at about 3.3GB at best.

I personally ran 4 in one of my systems for a while, but didn't really see that much of a boost over the 2GB mark, at least without changing to a 64bit op system that can properly utilize your hardware :D

If you have 2x1GB and 2x512MB sticks, then you can configure to run at 3GB, which is the max for a standard x86 op system, otherwise I would suggest just sticking to 2GB.

The upgraded mobo and proc look good (although I personally loath Intel processors, but hey, I've only blown three of them up :P ) They should do you good, I have a couple friends that swear by the Core2 series.

Now, if you want peek performance, and know how to run a linux system, Ubuntu x64 would be the way to go, then XP Pro x64, then finally, Vista Ultimate x64. Vista is nice and pretty and all, but the overhead on the op system is horrid compared to Linux, or even XP.

I run XP primarily because it supports Vanguard, which is not currently supported by Whine or Cedega, at least not the last time I checked. Other than that, I would be running Linux on all my systems.