Salty tears of a hot boxer.

[Kural]

If you have read one of my many thousands of posts on this forum (;)) , you will see that I was having trouble with the temperature in my room, due to 5 boxes. I got rid of my boxes and bought a Rock Quadcore Laptop for just over £3200GBP. What a mistake.

To call this thing a LAPtop is just completely ridiculous. It weighs more than my fat Grandma and on at least 3 occasions, I have been able to cook a full leg of bacon on the keyboard. If I was to put this on my lap, I would never ever be a father. I even bought a Cryo LX 3-fan notebook cooler.... still gets too hot.

After much arguing, Rock have agreed to give me a refund. So, I have 3200 of the Queen's finest pounds - and I have 1 question.

I want to run all 5 toons from one or (maximum) two boxes. Heat is a real issue in this room as it has one small window and no ventilation. What spec / parts should I buy?

Cheers!

[Kaynin]

A ->good<- casing. Thermaltake/Lian Li/etc. Spend some more money on a good, roomy and well built casing and you should be able to get away with all the heat quite well.

Multiple pc's would probably be a bad thing if heat is already a problem. The more pc's the more heat. So might want to consider venting the room better.

[Kural]

A ->good<- casing. Thermaltake/Lian Li/etc. Spend some more money on a good, roomy and well built casing and you should be able to get away with all the heat quite well.

Multiple pc's would probably be a bad thing if heat is already a problem. The more pc's the more heat. So might want to consider venting the room better.


Bleurgh. I can't vent the room 8o !

It's in a block of apartments and we are restricted from heavy modifications of the structure or fixtures. I have a window that is about 30 inches by 30 inches and it has a security lock on it - so it only opens about 6 inches.

I'm not brilliant with in-depth technology specs - could somebody link me a Mobo to get started?

Edit:

Just saw this http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/37821 Good place to start? Don't want to give this too much overkill - but two Quadcores + 16GB of memory must surely be sufficient to 5 box on one machine?

[Kaynin]

A ->good<- casing. Thermaltake/Lian Li/etc. Spend some more money on a good, roomy and well built casing and you should be able to get away with all the heat quite well.

Multiple pc's would probably be a bad thing if heat is already a problem. The more pc's the more heat. So might want to consider venting the room better.


Bleurgh. I can't vent the room 8o !

It's in a block of apartments and we are restricted from heavy modifications of the structure or fixtures. I have a window that is about 30 inches by 30 inches and it has a security lock on it - so it only opens about 6 inches.

I'm not brilliant with in-depth technology specs - could somebody link me a Mobo to get started?

Edit:

Just saw this http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/37821 Good place to start? Don't want to give this too much overkill - but two Quadcores + 16GB of memory must surely be sufficient to 5 box on one machine?

Overkill.

i7 920 CPU
12Gb DDR3 1600 (6x2Gb)
Asus P6T or similar Motherboard
ENGTX285 1Gb videocard
64-bit OS
SSD with 200MB/s+ reading speed.

Quite sufficient to run 5 on one pc with the least heat generated and quite affordable as well.

That in a good casing would be just what you need. :p Extra's you could put in as you have the money for it. You could SLI the ENGTX285 but, nah, I think one of these babies is sufficient for 5-boxing. Might not see much increase there. Another thing you can do is get several SSD's, one for the OS, one or more for WoW.

Altho since you got the heat problem. A Thermaltake SwordM casing with built in liquid cooling might be nice too. :P
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?S=1240&ID=1418

[ragawaga]

Have a look at the antec 900 gaming case. They have lots of ventilation on on them - it's what I use...but I'm only running three instances on 1 machine....although, my gf also plays in the same room with 1 instance...using the same case.

[Clanked]

A liquid case wouldn't make the room temperature go down. The temp of the CPU and whatnot would be lower, but the heat has to still be transfered somewhere. It goes right back into your room through the radiator.

On a completely off topic note, I have often thought about going for the AirCooled Overclock World Record.
Living in Alaska, I could put my case outside when its -60 for some amazing air cooling :)

[Kaynin]

A liquid case wouldn't make the room temperature go down. The temp of the CPU and whatnot would be lower, but the heat has to still be transfered somewhere. It goes right back into your room through the radiator.

But your pc at least wouldn't go BZZZT---------- from running in a room that's much too hot.


To cool the room you would need something like

http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Portable-air/p/sm/1006184386.htm

Those things generally have a flexible hose 'exhaust' that needs to go outside which has about... 6 inches diameter? Might just be enough to put it through your lil window there. The portable airconditioners are generally something like 200-400 usd..

[Kural]

A liquid case wouldn't make the room temperature go down. The temp of the CPU and whatnot would be lower, but the heat has to still be transfered somewhere. It goes right back into your room through the radiator.

On a completely off topic note, I have often thought about going for the AirCooled Overclock World Record.
Living in Alaska, I could put my case outside when its -60 for some amazing air cooling :)
Well at the moment - London is like the North Pole, I could try that!

I know that the heat needs to go somewhere, but a lot less will come from one box than 5.

On the subject of liquid cooling; Is it not quite dangerous? I suppose I could include it on my home insurance but I worry about putting a part in or something and a tube splits / hangs out / degrades and pees water everywhere. Is this even likely?

[Kaynin]

Well, that might sound nice but a PC works best at a certain temperature. Not too cold, not to hot.

Works both ways. :P

[Kaynin]

A liquid case wouldn't make the room temperature go down. The temp of the CPU and whatnot would be lower, but the heat has to still be transfered somewhere. It goes right back into your room through the radiator.

On a completely off topic note, I have often thought about going for the AirCooled Overclock World Record.
Living in Alaska, I could put my case outside when its -60 for some amazing air cooling :)
Well at the moment - London is like the North Pole, I could try that!

I know that the heat needs to go somewhere, but a lot less will come from one box than 5.

On the subject of liquid cooling; Is it not quite dangerous? I suppose I could include it on my home insurance but I worry about putting a part in or something and a tube splits / hangs out / degrades and pees water everywhere. Is this even likely?

Liquid cooling is dangerous if it's homemade. The profesional stuff is quite safe, no worries. :P

[Kural]

Just out of curiosity, (if I had a better ventilated room!) would this ever be of use for a gamer? It looks insane.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/38909

[Clanked]

Well at the moment - London is like the North Pole, I could try that!

On the subject of liquid cooling; Is it not quite dangerous? I suppose I could include it on my home insurance but I worry about putting a part in or something and a tube splits / hangs out / degrades and pees water everywhere. Is this even likely?Heh, funny you say that. I actually live in North Pole. I'm not kidding. North Pole, AK. ('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pole,_AK')
People in the lower 48 get a kick out of it when on vacation I show them my driver's license.

Liquid cooling IMHO is more of a bragging rights thing than anything, but if done properly there isn't much risk. Almost all of your tubes are going to be inside your case, so them getting cut is a very small risk. (Assuming you don't have lobster knife fights going on inside your computer case)
The biggest worry would be the seals.

[Kaynin]

The biggest worry would be the seals.

Seals and pidgeons. Blasted buggers.

As for that Rackmount, seems unneccesary to me.A good casing would be sufficient.

[Owltoid]

Heh, nice post.

You may want to try a self-contained watercooling unit.

Although you may make some different decisions, I purchased my PC (arriving in about 2 weeks) from www.buyxg.com. Detailed rationale into my decisions can be found here:
New computer has been purchased - specs, rationale, and thanks ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=18795')

It should be able to 5-box, has a self-contained water cooling unit that could be helpful in a room w/o vent, i7, 12GB ram, nice video card, and SSD for $1750 (including shipping from CA to CT and assembly)

[-silencer-]

Liquid cooling IMHO is more of a bragging rights thing than anything, but if done properly there isn't much risk. Almost all of your tubes are going to be inside your case, so them getting cut is a very small risk. (Assuming you don't have lobster knife fights going on inside your computer case)
The biggest worry would be the seals.
Liquid cooling isn't about bragging rights.. for those of us who want the quietest system possible, liquid cooling with a large radiator can be dead silent and offer better performance than air cooling. As for leak worries, that's why I went with compression fittings. Worries erased.

[moosejaw]

While liquid cooling is far more efficient than passive or active air cooling, the heat still has to go somewhere. The radiator is going to slowly heat up and at the same time heat the room up. If you don't remove the heat from the room, you're going to be in the exact same situation as air cooling.

Liquid cooling doesn't magically make the heat disappear. ;)

I'm ordering my 5x rackmount cases today. I'll get some pictures up hopefully soon about how I plan to deal with heat exhaust in my office.
Please do update your rack mount post with the cooling solution. Inquiring minds want to know!!

Maybe you can find a used Liebert unit on ebay. :D

[Owltoid]

While liquid cooling is far more efficient than passive or active air cooling, the heat still has to go somewhere. The radiator is going to slowly heat up and at the same time heat the room up. If you don't remove the heat from the room, you're going to be in the exact same situation as air cooling.

Liquid cooling doesn't magically make the heat disappear. ;)

Heh, good point. I really should append my signature to mention that I really don't know much about hardware.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

idk about heat issues but here ('https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=14607387') is a link to a rig that you can probably 10+ box on if you really wanted to.

i7 920 CPU
Rampage II Extreme MB
12G Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600 RAM
750w Corsair PSU
Antec Twelve Hundred case
1T HDD for OS/apps/anything else
XFX GTX 285 GPU
2x Intel X25-E SLC SSD for RAID 0

total is just around $2,800 with OS, $2,700 w/o (US)

probably the best build you could get for multi-boxing.

hope this helps some ^_^

~YYF

[elsegundo]

you ever thought of having an air duct (with filter) from your computer to the window?

[Reglar]

I can't help with your cooling issues in your room/apartment/flat, but I can say that an i7 920 system even mildly overclocked won't have a problem with an above average ambient room temperature (note I'd upgrade the CPU fan just for safety and they don't add a lot to the cost). You'll get solid 5x boxing from it, and can probably get a more if you take all the graphics options down to the ground.

I run an air cooled (not stock) i7 920 at 4Ghz and have thermal probes on the incoming and outgoing fan intakes and I get about 5-10C differences in temp.

Stick an oscilatting fan near the PC to distribute the hot air into the rest of the room and you should be ok, albeit a bit warmer. Frankly though I don't know many PC rigs that in general won't raise the thermal profile of a small enclosed space.

And on the watercooling aspects of this thread, if you decide to go for it you'll find it eats into your budget more than air. The i7 920 really doesn't need it unless you're looking to push the CPU past the easy overclocking of 4Ghz.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Im sueing Antec those punks

Home made multi-pc case? ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=1239&l=2')

http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Port…/1006184386.htm

It will be really noisey but the open air antec and that above suggested (with the hose going out the window) and you have to vent the cold air to blow down onto yur computer top fan is all you need. Just get some flexable hose like they sell for dryers or the more solid ones for gas heater vents from home depot and duct tape it to the top of the air conditioner and point the output at the input of the top fan on the antec and you will run cool for sure. And the hot air will vent out the window.

[img=http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/4400/doneallcompsrw9.th.jpg] (http://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=doneallcompsrw9.jpg)

[Reglar]

Just out of curiosity, (if I had a better ventilated room!) would this ever be of use for a gamer? It looks insane.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/38909

Personally I think you're better off getting a normal case with proven thermal management. My last build was made with the Cooler Master COSMOS 1010.

[Sam DeathWalker]

LoL I sure come up in 18 months:

[img=http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/453/computers1aj9.th.jpg] (http://img5.imageshack.us/my.php?image=computers1aj9.jpg)

[-silencer-]

idk about heat issues but here ('https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=14607387') is a link to a rig that you can probably 10+ box on if you really wanted to.

i7 920 CPU
Rampage II Extreme MB
12G Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600 RAM
750w Corsair PSU
Antec Twelve Hundred case
1T HDD for OS/apps/anything else
XFX GTX 285 GPU
2x Intel X25-E SLC SSD for RAID 0

total is just around $2,800 with OS, $2,700 w/o (US)

probably the best build you could get for multi-boxing.

hope this helps some ^_^

~YYF
While I agree with some of those specs, why spend $1000 on 2x SSDs when you can get one inexpensive SSD for $100 and be close to as fast for our purpose? Or if speed is really important, spend $380 on the Acard ANS-9010 and $220 on 8x2GB DDR2. That's $600 for performance that will destroy RAID0 SSDs for 2/3 the price. I'd rather have one 300GB Velociraptor for the OS/apps, and 16GB RAID0 SATA ram drive than two 80GB SSDs.. and the Vrap/ramdrive will cost less.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

when i posted that i forgot to mention that it would be cheaper to get just a normal SSD or 2 and i also had not read much about the Acard to want to advice anybody on getting it, now that i have done a little more research on the product i would extremely recomend it over any other option. anyway yes i would have to agree with you silencer that the acard is the best option for our uses.

to revise my old post it would be best (if money is tight or you want to save a little) to go with a lower end SSD and/or lower end RAM. if it isn't a problem then get the Acard and you could still change the RAM. i didn't take much time to put that build together so it stil needed a little refining. i just whent with what i knew would be of good quality. guess i should have stated that in my post and i am sorry for any misleading info that i gave.

~YYF

[BobGnarly]

The key will be getting all your toons to run on the least amount of hardware you can. It's definitely possible to run 5 clients on one box now, and you don't really even need the bestest video card out there. I currently have a E6600 dual core and a gtx260 and it runs 5 clients pretty good except when in Dalaran (and I think we all know that Dalaran just doesn't run good). So I'd get something that just fits the bill to minimize the heat.

[F9thRet]

Not sure if this will help, But I had a similar problem years ago while in college.

What i did, was I went out and bought a small fridge. Dorm room size, and put a couple of holes in the side for the Cables. Resealed it with this foam called Great Stuff. Now the old Pentium 1 was in a cool location. I left the door open at all times as I didn't want condensation to become a problem. It worked like a charm for me, both when I was in Texas and also In Arizona.

all the same, best of luck to you, hope you get it figured out.

Stephen

[Kaynin]

Not sure if this will help, But I had a similar problem years ago while in college.

What i did, was I went out and bought a small fridge. Dorm room size, and put a couple of holes in the side for the Cables. Resealed it with this foam called Great Stuff. Now the old Pentium 1 was in a cool location. I left the door open at all times as I didn't want condensation to become a problem. It worked like a charm for me, both when I was in Texas and also In Arizona.

all the same, best of luck to you, hope you get it figured out.

Stephen

Very energy consuming though. :P

[F9thRet]

Not sure if this will help, But I had a similar problem years ago while in college.

What i did, was I went out and bought a small fridge. Dorm room size, and put a couple of holes in the side for the Cables. Resealed it with this foam called Great Stuff. Now the old Pentium 1 was in a cool location. I left the door open at all times as I didn't want condensation to become a problem. It worked like a charm for me, both when I was in Texas and also In Arizona.

all the same, best of luck to you, hope you get it figured out.

Stephen

Very energy consuming though. :P

That is so true. I could do the same today, as I am using windmill power for the ranch, and even make a buck or two selling back to the coop, But this might be a problem for the OP here.

Stephen