Need help with Building a Machine

[Sinkaitos]

Hello, Im Trying to start 5boxing with 1 machine, however the Machine im currently using isnt nearly good enough so I've decided to build a completely new machine for Multiboxing specifically. I wanna try and keep the price tag reasonable and so here are the parts I have looked at so far (note that I have absolutely NO experience building PC's)

NVIDIA GeForce 880GTS

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor HH80562PH0568M - 2.40GHz, 8MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB, Kentsfield, Quad-Core, OEM, Socket 775, Processor

EVGA nforce 780i SLI Motherboard - A1 Version, NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, Dual Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID

4-8gigs RAM?

does anybody have any advice?

Im looking to use this setup for PvE 10mans with a multiboxing friend and Casual PvP if that has anything to do with the parts.

Thanks in advanced.

[suprafro]

My rig was pretty outdated (single core amd, 7200, 4gb memory), 5boxing was "ok" in instances but performance was still very jittery and far from being acceptable for doing anything in PVP...shatt/org were basically inaccessible. Anyway I put together a new rig a few weeks ago:

1333fsb setup
Q9550, P45 Asus board (forget the model), 8gb memory, 64bit vista, 280gtx, 64gb SSD (OS and wow configuration/instance directories are on a standard drive)

No idea if it's an optimal setup or not, just seemed like a good bang for the buck. Anyway i'm totally happy with the new rig, about $1,000 worth of stuff (and my AV box got hooked up with the handme downs!) game runs 100% flawlessly with 5 clients, you can spin the camera anywhere at anytime and theres never any jitters or stuttering. Craziest thing was how fast PIP swapping became. Before it would take ~5 seconds, now its literally instant (using keyclones PIP)

[faspalma]

That setup is close to what I was running before I added a few upgrades. It was perfectly capable of running 5 accounts. For reference this is what I'm currently using:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
Asus P5E motherboard
8 Gigs of DDR2 800 MHz RAM
One 7200 Rpm SATA Hard Drive
Nvidia 8800GTS 512 graphics card
Vista 64

Use symlink on the Wow folders to help with I/O performance. One thing I would really recommend is running two monitors and using PIP. Hope that helps. :)

[pengwynman]

that setup sounds pretty good, i have the 750i motherboard from EVGA and it works fine, quad core... i'd recommend 8 gb of memory just because it's cheap right now and that would give you a bit extra (i would imagine wotlk will take more memory than bc so it's best to be prepared). also, look at the geforce 9 series, they have the smaller processing tech than the 8 series which should mean less power consumption, less heat, and better performance. you can get good deals on 9800's

[Sinkaitos]

about the 9800 Series, would an XFX GeForce 9800 GT Video Card Suffice? and if so is an Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 2.6GHz Processor an improvement on the one I originally mentioned? If so i could get a pretty good deal for them in a Bundle Pack.

I'm Definitely going for 8Gigs of RAM, from reading alot of the other Topics.

so that just leaves me with figuring out the motherboard, Hardrive and Power Supply. Any advice? if the previously stated motherboard is fine let me know, and thanks everyone whos already helped out, I know I ask alot of stupid questions, i just don't want some huge mistake because of my lack in experience.

[Manarath]

from the computers I have been looking at the motherbaord you mention in your OP seems to be really good.

[pengwynman]

about the 9800 Series, would an XFX GeForce 9800 GT Video Card Suffice? and if so is an Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 2.6GHz Processor an improvement on the one I originally mentioned? If so i could get a pretty good deal for them in a Bundle Pack.

I'm Definitely going for 8Gigs of RAM, from reading alot of the other Topics.

so that just leaves me with figuring out the motherboard, Hardrive and Power Supply. Any advice? if the previously stated motherboard is fine let me know, and thanks everyone whos already helped out, I know I ask alot of stupid questions, i just don't want some huge mistake because of my lack in experience.a 9800 gt would be just fine-- i would tend to lean towards the quad core you originally mentioned, quad core will give you better multitask-ability, should give better performance for running more than 1 instance of wow. motherboard you originally listed should be good, shop around for a good power supply, i've had good experiences with Thermaltake's (i believe the min req power for the 9800gt is like 400w, i'd get bigger than that though). hard drive... people here have been talking about SSD's a lot lately, if you want to put the wow directory on there and symlink it you should get really good read speeds. I'm running a raid1 with regular 7200 500gb drive, 5 symlinked wow directories on it and it doesn't seem to get any slowdown (except in shatt, i think it's because my memory is being maxed out... putting some bigger sticks of ram in when i get home, so we'll see how it is then)

[Sinkaitos]

Yea, your right on the CPU, so im going to get a 9800GT, with the Quad I mentioned earlier.

as for the power supply how does a ThermalTake / PurePower W0129RU / 600-Watt / ATX 2.2 / 120mm Fan / SATA-Ready / PCI-E Ready / Active PFC / Power Supply look?

I'm also pretty sure that i will stick with the already mentioned motherboard aswell.

im going to look into the Hardrive now, and I will post back after I see one.

also, thank you so much for helping me out this much, I really appreciate it ^^

EDIT: I have been looking at an SSD Hardrive, Patriot Warp 32GB Solid State Hard Drive - SATA-300, 2.5", hows that look? Im especially worried about the hardrive since its the part i know the LEAST about, and the 32bg sounds small for 5different WoW directories.

and on a side note, will i be able to Dual screen with the setup thus far?

thanks in Advance

EDIT: Also, i will be getting Vista 64.

[pengwynman]

Yea, your right on the CPU, so im going to get a 9800GT, with the Quad I mentioned earlier.

as for the power supply how does a ThermalTake / PurePower W0129RU / 600-Watt / ATX 2.2 / 120mm Fan / SATA-Ready / PCI-E Ready / Active PFC / Power Supply look?

I'm also pretty sure that i will stick with the already mentioned motherboard aswell.

im going to look into the Hardrive now, and I will post back after I see one.

also, thank you so much for helping me out this much, I really appreciate it ^^

EDIT: I have been looking at an SSD Hardrive, Patriot Warp 32GB Solid State Hard Drive - SATA-300, 2.5", hows that look? Im especially worried about the hardrive since its the part i know the LEAST about, and the 32bg sounds small for 5different WoW directories.

and on a side note, will i be able to Dual screen with the setup thus far?

thanks in Advance

EDIT: Also, i will be getting Vista 64.if by dual screen, you mean 2 monitors then yes. SSD hard drives are a little hit-and-miss from what i've seen, tons of people swear by their speeds, others have weird issues, but i was looking at those patriots and if i remember correctly they seem to be pretty solid. 32GB would by fine for the wow directories if you are symlinking, because it doesn't actually copy the ENTIRE wow directory... it basically reads the symlinked directories as shortcuts pointing to the same files, and only loads the symlinked files once for all clones as opposed to 5 different files. (correct me if i'm wrong on that, i'm kinda new to the symlinking thing) I forget exactly how big each symlinked directory is, but I know it's under 1GB. You would want to get a regular HDD as well, because 32GB is most likely not going to be big enough for all your other apps.
also, that power supply should be fine, i had the 700watt version with my 8800 gtx and it was really stable. i don't believe the 9800's use pci-express 2.0 power connectors so you shouldn't have an issue there either.

[Sinkaitos]

Thanks for the quick reply.

well, how does a Maxtor Basics STM305004N1AAAS-RK 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, Serial ATA-300, Retail look?and if so, would I need the SDD one? the reason i ask is it seems a bit complicated, and all that symlinking sounds confusing. if this hard drive is good enough the 500gb would be more then enough for the rougly 50gb for 5 directories, with a ton of room left over for other apps, not to mention its the exact same price (maybe a bit less).

and really, these are the only parts i would need to build my PC other then the sound card, and DVD/CD Burner correct?

for the DVD/CD Burner im thinking Sony DRU-V200S/BR DVD Rewritable Drive SATA - 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 12x DVD-R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 48x CD-R, 32x CD-RW, 48x CD-ROM, Black, its pretty cheap since i wont be using it a whole lot unless im installing my WoW, or some FPS.

as for the sound card, I have absolutely no clue. I dont want crappy sound but i dont wanna be spending $200 on one either. TurtleBeach 7.1/5.1 Audio Advantage SRM looks alright but its external and im looking for one that I can put inside.

after all that I think all i will need is a case (Correct me if im wrong) and then im on my way. :love:

[pengwynman]

Thanks for the quick reply.

well, how does a Maxtor Basics STM305004N1AAAS-RK 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, Serial ATA-300, Retail look?and if so, would I need the SDD one? the reason i ask is it seems a bit complicated, and all that symlinking sounds confusing. if this hard drive is good enough the 500gb would be more then enough for the rougly 50gb for 5 directories, with a ton of room left over for other apps, not to mention its the exact same price (maybe a bit less).

and really, these are the only parts i would need to build my PC other then the sound card, and DVD/CD Burner correct?

for the DVD/CD Burner im thinking Sony DRU-V200S/BR DVD Rewritable Drive SATA - 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 12x DVD-R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 48x CD-R, 32x CD-RW, 48x CD-ROM, Black, its pretty cheap since i wont be using it a whole lot unless im installing my WoW, or some FPS.

as for the sound card, I have absolutely no clue. I dont want crappy sound but i dont wanna be spending $200 on one either. TurtleBeach 7.1/5.1 Audio Advantage SRM looks alright but its external and im looking for one that I can put inside.

after all that I think all i will need is a case (Correct me if im wrong) and then im on my way. :love:hmmm maxtor....... i've had 4-5 different brands of hard drives and the only ones that i've seen fail were maxtors. i haven't looked at them lately (like in the past 3 years) but i seem to remember them having slightly slower seek times compared to pretty much any other HD. I've had good luck with Western Digital, Seagate, and Hitachi.

If you refer to my last post, I told you that you won't need 5 full WoW directories- if you symlink, all WoW directories put together should be well under 20GB. Believe me, it's worth the time and effort to figure out how to symlink them. I'm not an expert on it, but i was able to figure out how to use that powershell script in the post earlier, i'd be willing to help out when the time comes if you'd like.

as far as sound cards, i have a Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty or something like that, some long ass name, and I LOVE it.

[Sinkaitos]

I might go Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300, OEM then, as its still a 500GB HD, and i still dont know about the SSD one, im trying to go relatively simple and I dont really mind sacrificing the memory to split it into 5 directories.

and for the sound card im looking at a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI Sound Card, its actually one card down from the one you mentioned, witch is a little more expensive then im willing to put into a sound card ($200).

and does that DVD/CD Burner look ok?

if all of that seems fine i guess im down to the Case and Cooling System. How exactly would i go about figuring out what type of Fans i can use?i see things like Socket number and whatnot witch is only complicating the matter, I'm looking to get a pretty good system of fans for it going.

EDIT: I've looked at a couple of cases and the NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower Case - Clear Sides, Front USB, eSATA Ports look AWESOME, and has a great rating, however I dont know if it will support my motherboard. I will link were im looking at it, encase it would help you to tell me if it would support it, http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3911521&Sku=A406-1101 (if im not allowed to post links then please let me know and i will quickly delete it). This beast has 6 Built in fans and lighting, and is apparantly huge, it also supports 8 HD's witch would be great in the longterm for me as I am a hardcore gamer.


also, for what it matters, im getting a logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard. And a Razer Phantom Marine Blue Laser Gaming Mouse, as I've heard there both Great for Multiboxing.

And once again Thank you for your patience with me and all your help. :love:

[Nairi]

Erase all of that and build something new with the i7 quads from intel, complete new socket ddr3 memory zomggggggggg. also sli is worth looking into since it works with windowed gaming.

cpu should be buyable by 17th of this month.

[pengwynman]

Erase all of that and build something new with the i7 quads from intel, complete new socket ddr3 memory zomggggggggg. also sli is worth looking into since it works with windowed gaming.

cpu should be buyable by 17th of this month.this is true, BUT... ddr3 is still a good bit more expensive, and I have yet to see a review that showed a significant increase in gaming performance with a single-gpu setup. also, what kind of prices are we looking at for i7's? i just don't think it will be worth it to start off, unless you have 2-3 video cards.



I might go Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300, OEM then, as its still a 500GB HD, and i still dont know about the SSD one, im trying to go relatively simple and I dont really mind sacrificing the memory to split it into 5 directories.

and for the sound card im looking at a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI Sound Card, its actually one card down from the one you mentioned, witch is a little more expensive then im willing to put into a sound card ($200).

and does that DVD/CD Burner look ok?

if all of that seems fine i guess im down to the Case and Cooling System. How exactly would i go about figuring out what type of Fans i can use?i see things like Socket number and whatnot witch is only complicating the matter, I'm looking to get a pretty good system of fans for it going.

EDIT: I've looked at a couple of cases and the NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower Case - Clear Sides, Front USB, eSATA Ports look AWESOME, and has a great rating, however I dont know if it will support my motherboard. I will link were im looking at it, encase it would help you to tell me if it would support it, http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3911521&Sku=A406-1101 (if im not allowed to post links then please let me know and i will quickly delete it). This beast has 6 Built in fans and lighting, and is apparantly huge, it also supports 8 HD's witch would be great in the longterm for me as I am a hardcore gamer.


also, for what it matters, im getting a logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard. And a Razer Phantom Marine Blue Laser Gaming Mouse, as I've heard there both Great for Multiboxing.

And once again Thank you for your patience with me and all your help. :love:i have that exact hard drive (2 of them actually in raid 1) and it works fine, no problems there.

this is the sound card i have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005
i got it for $100, see if you can look around a bit. you might not notice a difference as much as me, but this thing has crystal clear sound.

cd/dvd drives aren't really a big deal imo. i hardly ever use them except when installing new software sometimes. the one i have is a samsung, works fine... the one you listed should be fine too if it has decent reviews.

case is fine, look at the form factor for compatibility with the motherboard: ATX is supported, and the motherboard is ATX. I actually have a friend that recently picked up that case and it looks pretty good.

if you're looking to get an aftermarket cpu cooler, basically look at the socket type supported. the processor you're looking at is a socket LGA775, so you need a cooler that can fit that.

[Nairi]

Erase all of that and build something new with the i7 quads from intel, complete new socket ddr3 memory zomggggggggg. also sli is worth looking into since it works with windowed gaming.

cpu should be buyable by 17th of this month.this is true, BUT... ddr3 is still a good bit more expensive, and I have yet to see a review that showed a significant increase in gaming performance with a single-gpu setup. also, what kind of prices are we looking at for i7's? i just don't think it will be worth it to start off, unless you have 2-3 video cards.



I might go Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300, OEM then, as its still a 500GB HD, and i still dont know about the SSD one, im trying to go relatively simple and I dont really mind sacrificing the memory to split it into 5 directories.

and for the sound card im looking at a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI Sound Card, its actually one card down from the one you mentioned, witch is a little more expensive then im willing to put into a sound card ($200).

and does that DVD/CD Burner look ok?

if all of that seems fine i guess im down to the Case and Cooling System. How exactly would i go about figuring out what type of Fans i can use?i see things like Socket number and whatnot witch is only complicating the matter, I'm looking to get a pretty good system of fans for it going.

EDIT: I've looked at a couple of cases and the NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower Case - Clear Sides, Front USB, eSATA Ports look AWESOME, and has a great rating, however I dont know if it will support my motherboard. I will link were im looking at it, encase it would help you to tell me if it would support it, http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3911521&Sku=A406-1101 (if im not allowed to post links then please let me know and i will quickly delete it). This beast has 6 Built in fans and lighting, and is apparantly huge, it also supports 8 HD's witch would be great in the longterm for me as I am a hardcore gamer.


also, for what it matters, im getting a logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard. And a Razer Phantom Marine Blue Laser Gaming Mouse, as I've heard there both Great for Multiboxing.

And once again Thank you for your patience with me and all your help. :love:i have that exact hard drive (2 of them actually in raid 1) and it works fine, no problems there.

this is the sound card i have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005
i got it for $100, see if you can look around a bit. you might not notice a difference as much as me, but this thing has crystal clear sound.

cd/dvd drives aren't really a big deal imo. i hardly ever use them except when installing new software sometimes. the one i have is a samsung, works fine... the one you listed should be fine too if it has decent reviews.

case is fine, look at the form factor for compatibility with the motherboard: ATX is supported, and the motherboard is ATX. I actually have a friend that recently picked up that case and it looks pretty good.

if you're looking to get an aftermarket cpu cooler, basically look at the socket type supported. the processor you're looking at is a socket LGA775, so you need a cooler that can fit that.


the new quadcores alone makes it wroth the upgrade, mainly beacuse mulitboxing on 1 computer is pretty much limited by cpu. I havent seen any i7 boards with ddr2, there maybe some there but i havent seen one thus far. as for sli, it just lets you have some eyecandy on all your wow sessions instead of just maxing out graphics on your main and all low on slaves.

I wouldnt of been pushing sli about 2 months ago, new drivers fixes alot of issues.

prices on i7 should start around 400-600ish, also you can get a 4gb kit for $160 or so for ddr3 1333mhz

[puppychow]

first, ignore SSD for any new pc builds. SSDs are nice and maybe boost things a little, but just moving from an older PC to a new PC will be orders of magnitude better (I have a 64GB SSD too, it just makes shatt a little faster but on a great PC shatt is fast to begin with!).

second, I wouldn't do SLI if all you play is WoW. Yes, if you play FPSs and other new games then SLI is awesome, but WoW really won't do much (if anything) with SLI.

I'm debating when to build a new PC too (i have a dual core so its not as huge a rush for me), I'm going to wait and see how the new i7s are. My quick perusals so far show me that the price is going to be outrageous and the improvements mediocore, so imo the best strat is wait until they are released and then buy the quad core q9550 (or similar), Black Friday is coming up thanksgiving time and should be giving great prices on parts.

Also imo any new PC build should include 8GB and Vista64, its just crazy not too. Running 5 wow's under 8GB in Vista is a big improvement over 3GB in XP (remember, XP can only "see" 3GB of memory no matter how much you put in). And 100% definitely agree learn how to symlink, its again one of those small things that takes 10-30 mins to figure out and learn, and gives massive performance improvements.

[Kinc]

Erase all of that and build something new with the i7 quads from intel, complete new socket ddr3 memory zomggggggggg. also sli is worth looking into since it works with windowed gaming.

cpu should be buyable by 17th of this month.

Agree 100%, a upgrade at this point for a 5 multiboxer should be a core i7. I suggest buying a X58 board for 300 euro, a Core i7 920 (2.66GHz default, 3.6-3.8GHz OC) and a tripple channel 6GB DDR3 kit. I jsut love the new Core i7 :D (Which MotherBoard for a GTX 280? ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&postID=145128#post145128'))

Graphic card I would go with 2 pcs 4870 1GB in CFX (yes, not 1 single 4870X2). I use 4870X2 myself and it simply is too loud under load with the revised WoW-engine. 2 4870 1GB gives you about the same perforamnce if choose to run them stock, and a bit better if you would overclock (a single 4870 has better OC margin than one 4870X2 to two the thermal solution). For the the pest price/performance ration with graphic cards I would go with two 4850 512MB in CFX.

Remember that when you use AMD graphic cards for windowed gaming you need to "fool" the driver that you are running full screen 3D. Otherwise the cards will run in 2D mode and give you crappy performance and Crossfire wont work.
You cna flash your graphic cards bioses to get rif of this problem. But that is not ideal if you use your computer for other stuff than multiboxing (or play a lot of games in window mode). An other simpley way to do it is that you start a single instance of WoW.exe in full-screen mode and let is sit at the login-screen and tab it down to minimize the resources it needs.

[Sinkaitos]

Thanks for all the Help this far, anyways, the reason im not jumping right on the SSD's or the newest quads/CPU/GFX is because im really only running 2-3 instances on it, i just need it to be able to handle 5 for a backup, so what im wondering is will this machine that im currently sitting on building (parts throught my posts) be powerfull enough to handle 2-3 with good FPS and MS? And if thats the case, If anybody is willing to help me figure out whats wrong with my current PC, then that would be awesome, i dont really wanna replace its motherboard, just its CPU and maybe an 8800 graphics card. ultamately within 6months im hoping to go hardware.

my Current PC is CRAP, I will list its specs.

AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core Processor 4000+ 2.10GHZ

2.00GB.

32-Bit Operating System (Vista)

and some really old Graphics card. And sadly i also dont know the motherboard or power supply. but im really not interested in making it amazing, just good enough to run 1-2instances well, so as i mentioned, i will probably just get it an 8800 card, with a new quad, witch should give it the power to run 1-2 well

But in all honestly, would making 3Machines to run 1 instance each be a better way of doing this? then run 1 on my laptop and 1 on my PC? Because from some of the guides in the Wiki, I've begun to think it would be both cheaper, and better if i just want to multibox. any ideas?advice? because if thats the case I would just use keyclone as my multiplexer, and i would just run seperate mice. would this acctually be cheaper AND better performance, because when i read some of the guides it looked to me like the KVMs and Y-Mouses were what made the setup cost so much. how cheap could i build 3 machines to run 1 WoW each at good performance? Im really only interested in Multiboxing, and I plan on doing ALOT of raiding and PvP. so i would infact PREFER to build 3 seperate, as it looks like its so much better, and cheaper besides the little accessories with i could get around. so can someone please tell me how much it would cost me to build 3 machines that are ONLY for multiboxing, and will always only run 1 instance of WoW on them. I dont wanna spend a whole lot on each, somewere i read $400-$500(Not including Monitors or Y-Mouses, keyboards, or any Accessory thats helpfull but not needed) if the computer is strictly for multiboxing. and Thanks to anybody who reads this wall of text and helps me out :love:

EDIT: If anybody is wondering, "Suvegas Brain Dump" and "PC and Equipment Guide" are the guides im pulling the 300-400-$500 machines idea from.