Multiboxing Benchmark Full Review - Doghouse Systems Multiboxing Solution

[Sina]

Ok guys, the store page is up. Go here to check it out: http://www.doghousesystems.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Armor%5FTS%5FMB ('http://www.doghousesystems.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Armor%5FTS%5FMB')

Use the coupon code "dualbox" at checkout and receive free residential ground shipping in the continental US.

Phew, where do I start....
First I should apologize for the delay in posting the scores as we have been waiting on the 285 test scores to come in as well as some extra ddr3 to test 6g v 12g.

How to duplicate my scores:
I use 2 displays:
On display 1 ( KDS 26') : Client 1 at 1280x1024 ( although this may not be the usual res that you play at, for all practical purposes for benchmarking it allowed for a more stable test )
On display 2 ( 22'): Client 2, 3, 4, 5 at 800x600 FPS cap at 15 ( again, this allowed the main client to be the true benchmark. )


NOTE: I personally play 1900x1200 and 800x600 with no cap, but for the sake of benchmarking I lowered the res. In contrast to the scores, 1900x1200 will lower your frame rates by 9.81%. Affinity profiles were also tested. Scores 1 are with NO affinity profile, all clients are running on i7 default profiles. Score 2 affinity profile is Client 1 : core 1 Client 2: core 2 Client 3: core 3 Client 4: core 4 Client 5: core 2

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7762/img0112lo0.jpg
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/2480/img0119vc7.jpg http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/1750/img0122rv9.jpg

Take all 5 accounts to Howling Fjord and type /timetest on all accounts. Fly ( simultaneously ) to the farthest west fp near nexus. This will give you a flight over Dalaran and some of Dragonblight.
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1861/cityri9.jpg

Here are the scores:
7200 RPM WD 500Gig
Asus P6T Deluxe
CPU AS STATED
GPU AS STATED
6GiG DDR3 Hyper X Kingston 1333mhz
Corsair 1000w PSU
Windows Vista 64-Bit

Hosted PDF of scores : LINK ( COMING IN A SEC )
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6323/testscoresjg3.jpg

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/4562/picturesnewhp3.jpg
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1378/graph2mc8.jpg

Here is the same test with 12gig rather then 6 in comparison. Although there maybe areas in World of Warcraft that 12 gig will shine in, on an average situation like a flight path or zone in's and out's 12gig seemed to be way overkill. My suggestion is to throw the funds for 12gig into a higher CPU or GPU.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5445/6gv12gdy7.jpg
Conclusion: How do we pick our parts?
Well, unless you have a money tree in your back yard, you are probably trying to maximize your PC's performance by placing a larger percentage of your budget into specific components. As you can see in this test, the 2 major variables that changes the FPS is going to be your CPU and your GPU.

Part by Part build analysis:

Motherboard: Asus P6T was selected over Intel's DX58SO because of one main factor, 6 Dimm slots. ( allowing up to 24gig of mem but as our tests have shown, 6 gig was plenty, but for those who feel more comfortable with 12 GIG it is being offered as an upgrade option. ) Only reason we did not offer 12 gig as our default was the prices of DDR3 are hard to justify the minor increase in performance.

CPU: Intel's Core i7 920 is a good starting point. Although the 965 is going to increase your frames, the price is WAYYYYY to much to call for a default position. If you feel the need to push your frames another 10%+/-, the 965 upgrade is a good one.

GPU: 285 and the 4870 are great price points, although the scores you can receive from the GTX 295 are absolutely mind boggling in other games. If you are an avid gamer and want to see SLI performance in games like Crysis, Farcry 2, ...ect I would encourage you to upgrade your video card from the 285 default to the 295. (see scores of other games below) If you only play wow, I would suggest the 285, the 295 and the 285 will have no difference in performance. As we all know, SLI does NOT function in wow correctly.

920 CPU + GTX 295 Scores
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8932/920295ks9.jpg

Memory: OK, here is a touchy subject. I ran multiple tests with 6GIG and 12GIG and saw no difference in FPS. BUT, I did see a minor differentiation in load times and an overall "smoother" feel to the game. For those who feel the need 12 GIG is an option but again I would recommend upgrading your CPU over memory if you haven't already.

Hard drive: Another touchy subject. With an Intel SSD we did see a small jump in FPS and faster load times ( and smoother ) in heavy areas like Dalaran and WG. I couldn't think of anyway to test this numerically besides using a stopwatch for timing zone ins, but its impossible to recreate these numbers consistently. A 32GIG SSD is a good upgrade but don't expect anything more then cleaner load times. Raptor drives are also a good option and have more storage space per dollar.

Feel free to leave a constructive comment on improving this method.

Doghouse systems has created a system specifically for the dual-boxing community and multiboxers in mind, including a 3 years parts and labor warranty.

Doghouse Systems Multiboxing PC COMING SOON! ( Check back in an hour )



http://bucket.doghousesystems.com/photo_SS_view1.jpg
http://bucket.doghousesystems.com/photo_SS_view2.jpg

[ghonosyph and the moocrew]

okay sorry sina :D apparently the forum timer i see isnt in my time zone and i'm an idiot... hell its been a damned long day at work... but still! ROMG POST IT! Lol <3
okay sina, i'm pretty sure its been more than an hour! lets go! post this puppy before i drool my bottom lip off! lol!!

Couple questions for you, as this seems to be a great way to start:
1. How well do 5 clients perform in busy areas where lag would be prevalent on a crappier system ie dalaran, 25 man raids where lots of stuff is goin down, busy instances where lots of aoe is going on? Only reason i ask is because some of the newer non superduper geeks(no offense im a nerd at heart) who dont know squat about the importance and intricacies of computer building, but would love to build/buy a system capable of handling our performance needs without trial and error need to know(woo hoo go run on sentence ftw!)

2. Are we looking at a cost of around 2000 to 2200? I'm hoping for 12 gig and the "smoother" feel of load times and gameplay as i'm really wanting to be able to raid with my guild on my 4 box team... is this gonna be achieveable via a 2 monitor setup(2 22 inch hp widescreen monitors **monitors already purchased**) for around that price?

3. if we have a positive response from 1 and 2, when /how soon do i get my new baby!

4. cooling issues? i play upwards of 7 hours or more a day some days.... will my baby die of heat stroke? and what kinda colors for the guts can we choose? =)


ROMG! Hello money, meet pocket.... welcome to hell! BURN BEESH BURN!

[Sina]

okay sorry sina :D apparently the forum timer i see isnt in my time zone and i'm an idiot... hell its been a damned long day at work... but still! ROMG POST IT! Lol <3
okay sina, i'm pretty sure its been more than an hour! lets go! post this puppy before i drool my bottom lip off! lol!!

Couple questions for you, as this seems to be a great way to start:
1. How well do 5 clients perform in busy areas where lag would be prevalent on a crappier system ie dalaran, 25 man raids where lots of stuff is goin down, busy instances where lots of aoe is going on? Only reason i ask is because some of the newer non superduper geeks(no offense im a nerd at heart) who dont know squat about the importance and intricacies of computer building, but would love to build/buy a system capable of handling our performance needs without trial and error need to know(woo hoo go run on sentence ftw!)

2. Are we looking at a cost of around 2000 to 2200? I'm hoping for 12 gig and the "smoother" feel of load times and gameplay as i'm really wanting to be able to raid with my guild on my 4 box team... is this gonna be achieveable via a 2 monitor setup(2 22 inch hp widescreen monitors **monitors already purchased**) for around that price?

3. if we have a positive response from 1 and 2, when /how soon do i get my new baby!

4. cooling issues? i play upwards of 7 hours or more a day some days.... will my baby die of heat stroke? and what kinda colors for the guts can we choose? =)


ROMG! Hello money, meet pocket.... welcome to hell! BURN BEESH BURN!1) Dalaran is going around 25-30 (using an my 7200 rpm raid edition drive) at worst. I have seen it over 50+ before but it just depends on the resolution you play on. If you want to play it safe and pull 40+ i would play at 1280x1024 with everything turned up except shaders. Looks great and doesnt slow the system down one bit.

2) YES i just completed some heroics and i have raided with 4 in nax 25 man without any issues. In fact i get better frames in instances with raids then i do in some zones. ( IE DAL WG) Yes 2 22' will not be a problem.

you are SPOT ON, on the price. More info soon cant disclose much :)

3) it will be up today i promise. We usually take 2-3 weeks after payment to be at your door step.

4) no cooling issues as i have left it running for 72 hours as our standered burn in. Gut colors are blue, if that needs to be changed we MIGHT be able to work something out.

[ghonosyph and the moocrew]

woooo hoo ~! frame rates from what i see can be high, but you can still experience choppiness, and thats what i'm hoping to avoid** but im sure thats what you're talkin about =D

i was hoping for a green glow in the center of the system with the blue kinda outlying the rest of the box, perhaps we could dump two little cathode lights in the middle behind something to give the multilayer experience i'm lookin for color wise :D (perhaps make it an option for an extra 40 bucks or somethin :) theres a couple ideas i have, and i dont think it'd be out of the ordinary to at least add them myself later too =) hehe

what about noisyness? how quiet is the system in question? my hearing is very sensitive and i think i'd kill myself if i could hear my fan running lol

Thanks for putting in all the leg work, i'm really excited to see this happen right before my BIG tax refund lol makes spending the money on a new box this much easier, knowing im buying a system that will be built EXACTLY for what i'm wanting to do :)

YOU ROCK! |,,| >.< |,,|

^.^ :love:

2-3 weeks? ACK! =/ hmm, i suppose you've gotta wait for parts to come in and what not, lol impatient i am! I cant wait to see what you post for us next! 8o

[Zal]

And this computer costs how much?

[ghonosyph and the moocrew]

hell i dont care, i planned to spend 2200 or so on my new rig, and thats about right where the cost will be according to what sina just posted in response to my post... i'm thinkin i'd pay just as much to buy all the crap and pay for it to be put together(cause i dont know how myself lol) so for me this is a plus. considering i spent almost 1900 on my first rig from best buy 2 years a :thumbsup: go, 2200 isnt as bad for something custom and awesome :)

[Sam DeathWalker]

The i7/x58 and asus motherboard (maybe go rampageII) and 920 and single 285 are all excellent choices, giving first quality performance without wasting your money. But this has been known for some time.

The question is would you go Raid0 X 2 36G raptors or Acard or my pick of the Day the Sandisk 5000 SSD or the Intel X-25 SSD, as the place to store your wow folder.

Thats the performance test (go into a big city during prime time and see fps running though encounting many new characters, and see if the individual character textures get loaded or not and how fast they do) we really need. Unless you are 100 percent sure that when you zone into a big city it loads all the character textures of every character in the zone at the time.

Out of curosity, when you have 12G ram and 5 instances of wow how much memory does wow use for itself total? If it uses most all of the 12G then where the wow folder is isnt as important as if its useing under 3G or so of Ram.

[Valdemarick]

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202'), $290
ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131346'), $300
EVGA 01G-P3-1281-AR GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130442'), $355
Kingston 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134854'), $120
WD 500GB 7200 RPM SATA ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320'), $75
CORSAIR 1000W ATX12V ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007'), $260
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488'), $100

Minimum cost: $1500

This does not include the case nor the surcharge for labor involved with building this system. My estimate would be between $1800 and $2000. Anything more and I would call shenanigans.

[Sam DeathWalker]

You are not including the Case, CD rom or DVD rom drives, or the Heatsink.

And this is the better motherboard, for $60 more:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-Rampage-II-Extreme_W0QQitemZ110349823395QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH _DefaultDomain_0?hash=item110349823395&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

[Valdemarick]

You are not including the Case, CD rom or DVD rom drives, or the Heatsink.I noted that the case was omitted. Since the others were not even mentioned, I did not either. I sure hope they include those things... but who knows?

[Valdemarick]

And this is the better motherboard, for $60 more:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-Rampage-II-Extreme_W0QQitemZ110349823395QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH _DefaultDomain_0?hash=item110349823395&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C 240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50They specifically said they were using the P6T Deluxe. I'm not arguing the quality of that motherboard... just quoting prices from what they said was being used.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well there are two types of people, those who can put a system together themselves, we will save a few Hundred bucks in exchange for 8-10 hours (asssuming all parts work) of work. Setting up the bios, putting the thermal compound on properly, hooking it all together, makeing sure all the screws are proper tight, installing the OS .... all time consuming steps well worth paying someone a few hundred to do for you.

Those who don't will pay the couple of hundred extra, and be well worth it, the guy has to make a living ... I would not begrudge him fair profit.

[suicidesspyder]

Hey sina when you get everything set and the price give me a link to the exact one i might think of buying one to handle my slaves but continue to play my main alone on my laptop. Other then that wow is all i can say. If someone actually takes the time to test their system and it does well for a specific purpose then its something i am more inclined to buy. This way i know what i am getting and it will be able to handle what i want to do with it.

[ghonosyph and the moocrew]

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202'), $290 (was hoping for something a bit higher in power,3.2 or so... perhaps an extra 100 bucks?)

ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131346'), $300 hmm im thinkin this will be alright :P

EVGA 01G-P3-1281-AR GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130442'), $355 a bit pricy, but what the hell, its gotta be good right? i've got a geforce 9800 gtx oc in my pc now and it preforms quite well.... wonder if it will fit into this system so i can run 3 monitors? lol

Kingston 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134854'), $120 (lets double this, i would prefer to run 12 gigs instead if its compatible!)

WD 500GB 7200 RPM SATA ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320'), $75 (there are pricier options, as well there is much debate on what to use for HD's, wouldnt dual drives be better for what has already been discussed, ie one drive for the OS, one for wow? I'll let the pros lead the discussion but benchmarking has already been done, gotta place my trust somewhere)



CORSAIR

CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007'), $260 average pricing, quality product, only thing i'd hate about this is the red light on the back **

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488'), $100 i'm thinking ultimate on my pc, perhaps a few extra bucks? i dont feel like lookin it up but wtf ever :)

this isnt counting the case, which i considered to be around 200 for something custom and sexy. Dont forget these guys are also a business, so they gotta make SOME money ** so i think for what i was hoping for, the price seems about right... we'll wait and see what sina posts for us as the specs which we all theorycraft about may be different from what he's selling it for! most people know you can buy the parts cheaper and put it together yourself, but what if you're an idiot like me and not well versed in the understanding and assembly process? =) cmn sina we're waaaaaaaaaaaaaiting! <3

[Sina]

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202'), $290 (was hoping for something a bit higher in power,3.2 or so... perhaps an extra 100 bucks?)

ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131346'), $300 hmm im thinkin this will be alright :P

EVGA 01G-P3-1281-AR GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130442'), $355 a bit pricy, but what the hell, its gotta be good right? i've got a geforce 9800 gtx oc in my pc now and it preforms quite well.... wonder if it will fit into this system so i can run 3 monitors? lol

Kingston 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134854'), $120 (lets double this, i would prefer to run 12 gigs instead if its compatible!)

WD 500GB 7200 RPM SATA ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320'), $75 (there are pricier options, as well there is much debate on what to use for HD's, wouldnt dual drives be better for what has already been discussed, ie one drive for the OS, one for wow? I'll let the pros lead the discussion but benchmarking has already been done, gotta place my trust somewhere)



CORSAIR

CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139007'), $260 average pricing, quality product, only thing i'd hate about this is the red light on the back **

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488'), $100 i'm thinking ultimate on my pc, perhaps a few extra bucks? i dont feel like lookin it up but wtf ever :)

this isnt counting the case, which i considered to be around 200 for something custom and sexy. Dont forget these guys are also a business, so they gotta make SOME money ** so i think for what i was hoping for, the price seems about right... we'll wait and see what sina posts for us as the specs which we all theorycraft about may be different from what he's selling it for! most people know you can buy the parts cheaper and put it together yourself, but what if you're an idiot like me and not well versed in the understanding and assembly process? =) cmn sina we're waaaaaaaaaaaaaiting! <3
Gents,

We are in the process of uploading all the content now to our store front. Give me a few and i promise it will be up and i will answer all your questions.

p.s yes it is a full system with the 3 year warranty.

We are also bundeling some goodies for you all. More to come soon. Sorry for the delay.

Sina

[Valdemarick]

was hoping for something a bit higher in power,3.2 or so... perhaps an extra 100 bucks?

Kingston 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134854'), $120 (lets double this, i would prefer to run 12 gigs instead if its compatible!)

WD 500GB 7200 RPM SATA ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320'), $75 (there are pricier options, as well there is much debate on what to use for HD's, wouldnt dual drives be better for what has already been discussed, ie one drive for the OS, one for wow? I'll let the pros lead the discussion but benchmarking has already been done, gotta place my trust somewhere)

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488'), $100 i'm thinking ultimate on my pc, perhaps a few extra bucks? i dont feel like lookin it up but wtf ever :)

Dont forget these guys are also a business, so they gotta make SOME money ** so i think for what i was hoping for, the price seems about right... we'll wait and see what sina posts for us as the specs which we all theorycraft about may be different from what he's selling it for! most people know you can buy the parts cheaper and put it together yourself, but what if you're an idiot like me and not well versed in the understanding and assembly process? =) cmn sina we're waaaaaaaaaaaaaiting! <3The problem with upgrading from the Core i7 920 is that the next step is almost $300 extra. Don't let the low 2.66ghz number fool you though, this processor is extremely fast.

With the listed motherboard, doubling the ram to 12gb is a perfectly acceptable and easy route to take. It would cost exactly twice as much as the current ram. Looks like a fine upgrade choice.

I also agree about the hard drive. This seems to have been where they cut some corners on the pricing. I would recommend instead a 300gb raptor or a raid 0 of two of the cheaper raptors. The SSD and integrated DDR RAM drives are much pricier than the raptor options, but afford little gain.

I wasn't sure which version of Vista 64 they were going with, so I listed the cheapest while still regarding it for gaming use (home premium over basic).

Also, I understand this is a business. My initial estimate of $1800-2000 may be a bit frugal, since I did not consider optical drives nor a 3rd party heatsink for the processor. After reevaluating the data, I would say $2200 is a more reasonable price for this system. I'd be hard pressed to recommend it, if it cost any more than that. But when all is said and done, if you can get this build for $2200 or less, and are not comfortable with building it yourself, I'd recommend it.

[ghonosyph and the moocrew]

thats just it, even if i've gotta pay a few more bucks i'd rather have it the way i want it and built specifically for what we do. :D which is why i'm so excited to see something like this built just for us! :thumbsup: cant wait to see it! Not so we can pick it apart or suggest changes, but because i want one now !lol :cursing:

[Valdemarick]

i want one now !lol :cursing:

We usually take 2-3 weeks after payment to be at your door step.:S

[elsegundo]

do you have any recession-friendly systems? no seriously, most i do is tri-box so i dont really need all that. just wondering.

[Sina]

Ok guys, the store page is up. Go here to check it out: http://www.doghousesystems.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Armor%5FTS%5FMB ('http://www.doghousesystems.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Armor%5FTS%5FMB')

Use the coupon code "dualbox" at checkout and receive free residential ground shipping in the continental US.

[Valdemarick]

Base Price $2,195.00Booyah. Nicely done.

Also, kudos on having "upgrade" options available to fine-tune the build. Looks like a really great site.

[ghonosyph and the moocrew]

lol :) i'm still looking at around 2500 with the other extras im wanting, which is more than i want to spend, so i guess i'll just take a grain of salt and put together something myself and hope for the best !

[Sina]

Gents we are allowing for free shipping for a limited time. Please feel free to contact me via PM or this thread for a custom variation if need be.

Thanks. Happy boxing.

[Sina]

Doghouse is launching a notebook today, i have not been able to test it for multiboxing beyond 2 clients but i will try to setup a quick test for low settings 5 clients.

[Sina]

6gig vs 12gig test added to main post.

[Owltoid]

Thank you for the tests, but I don't see them concentrated in areas that multiboxers actually need the power. On my shitty laptop I've been running 4 accounts without many problems in 5 man instances and using flightpaths. However, I can't imagine walking in Dalaran, playing AV, or doing Wintergrasp with any more than one. In order to see if the money is better spent on upgrading RAM or GPU, I would like to see tests in actual high stress environments. I understand it won't be as consistent as a simple flight path, but it would be much more applicable.

[Sina]

Hmm,
Anyone know a way to record your game frame rates without using a heavy duty application like fraps. Maybe a mod that will create a database of your average frame rates?

If i can find something like that, i can do some tests with dalaran.

IE:

5 laps through Dalaran
Sewer - Tower
Nexus - Tower

[Owltoid]

Hmm,
Anyone know a way to record your game frame rates without using a heavy duty application like fraps. Maybe a mod that will create a database of your average frame rates?

If i can find something like that, i can do some tests with dalaran.

IE:

5 laps through Dalaran
Sewer - Tower
Nexus - Tower

Recount has a graphical utility that records FPS. I'm not sure how useful it would be, but it's fun to look at :)

[Sina]

Hmm, doesnt seem to actually record it. Just shows the fps like the ctrl + r

[Sina]

Found a mod called fpsit, records your fps and puts it on an excel table.

[Sina]

hmmm, i wonder if the new ion platform would make a good hardware boxing platform...

www.nvidia.com

[Sam DeathWalker]

9400 is low end graphics and Intel "atom" not familar with it but doubt its up with the I7 stuffs ....

[Sina]

ION is a low end ( on par with 8600 + ) graphics circitry that can be considered on board basically. Atom is a small footprint , green processor that is around 1.6 ghz i belive.

I bet it will run wow at extremely low settings and costs next to nothing... just curios if getting a few of them together would be a good solution for hardware boxers that only care for the bare min.

[Sina]

think we have enough space on this ssd ?

OCZ's New Blazing Fast 1TB Z SSD Drive
The new Z Drive from OCZ is a storage device ('http://www.tomshardware.com/news/OCZ-Z-Drive-RAID,7181.html')
http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/file:///C:/Users/SINA%7E1.PRO/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif ('http://www.tomshardware.com/news/OCZ-Z-Drive-RAID,7181.html')
that connects to an x8 PCIe slot and offers 1 terabyte of storage capacity ('http://www.tomshardware.com/news/OCZ-Z-Drive-RAID,7181.html'). The Z Drive is about the same size a dual-slot graphics card ('http://www.tomshardware.com/news/OCZ-Z-Drive-RAID,7181.html')
http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/file:///C:/Users/SINA%7E1.PRO/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif ('http://www.tomshardware.com/news/OCZ-Z-Drive-RAID,7181.html')
so its not exactly small, but the device is stated to offer maximum read and write speeds of up to 600 MB/sec. and 500 MB/sec., respectively. According to the demo OCZ had on display at CeBIT though, the Z Drive was actually showing minimum and maximum read speeds of 654 MB/sec. and 712 MB/sec., respectively. Incredible.
In a lot of ways, OCZ's new Z Drive appears similar to Fusion-io's ioDrive ('http://www.fusionio.com/PDFs/Fusion%20Specsheet.pdf'), both of which connect to a PCIe slot and offer seemingly similar transfer speeds. Unlike the smaller ioDrive however, the new Z Drive is apparently comprised of just four 256 GB MLC-based SSDs in RAID 0. The Z Drive also features a hardware-based RAID controller ('http://www.tomshardware.com/news/OCZ-Z-Drive-RAID,7181.html') and 256 MB of local cache. Lets hope the use of local cache did not unfairly inflate the results we are seeing though, as previous reviews ('http://techreport.com/articles.x/16291/6') of four Intel ('http://www.tomshardware.com/news/OCZ-Z-Drive-RAID,7181.html') X-25E SSDs in RAID 0 showed transfer speeds only hitting as high as 366 MB/sec.
As expected, the new OCZ Z Drive will not be cheap. According to Revioo.com ('http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.revioo.com/news/zdrive-ssd-ocz-n12467.html&ei=7vyuSentEY3aMZ61uOoE&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://revioo.com/news/zdrive-ssd-ocz-n12467.html%26num%3D100%26complete%3D1%26hl%3Den%2 6sa%3DG'), $1500 is the expected price, but that is still less than ('http://www.google.com/products?num=100&complete=1&hl=en&ei=EAKvSfD5HpDUnQfpwoS6Bg&resnum=0&q=iodrive+buy+80GB&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=EgKvSbv_GJDMnQeY5aW-Bg&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title') the cost of an 80 GB Fusion-io's ioDrive and possibly less than a do-it-yourself solution. No word yet on availability, but the Z Drive being demoed at CeBIT was apparently a fully functioning prototype.

[Sina]

im curious: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/amds-ati-firepro-2450-quad-display-card/

[Sina]

shameless bump!

i am adding the 4890 and gtx 275 today. Just got the samples in.