A new computer - advice appreciated!

[Thoam]

Hi guys,
I've decided to get back into WoW (the hunger always returns!) and multi-boxing has always taken me as a fun and challenging route. That being said I've decided to get myself a new, nice and shiny gaming rig and I was hoping that you could give me some advice on it's specs:

I'm getting it built through a shop, so prices will be higher - but i'm happy to pay that bit extra as I'd be terrified I'd break somthing, if I did it myself! There's a nice range of customizeability (is that a word?) and here's where I am so far:

(If there's a price, it's been custom chosen from the offered specs)

http://chillblast.com/pconf.php?productid=18781


Case:
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Price: £82.00

Processor:
Intel Core I7 920 2.66GHz (nehalem) Processor overclocked to 3.4 GHz
Price: £225.00

Cooling & Thermal Paste:
Akasa Nero Quiet CPU Cooler
Price: £37.00

Motherboard:
Asus P6T Deluxe X58 Motherboard
Price: £204.99

Memory:
6GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory
Price: £149.00

Graphics Card:
Nvidia Geforce GTX 295 1792MB Graphics Card (750W PSU or Better Required)
Price: £439.00

1st Hard Disk Drive:
500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
Price: £65.00

2nd Hard Disk Drive: None chosen
3rd Hard Disk Drive: None chosen
RAID (Performance or Backup): None chosen

Wired Networking:
Onboard Gigabit Networking
Price: £0.00

Standard Optical Drive:
Standard 20x DL DVD±RW SATA Optical Drive
Price: £0.00

Additional Optical Drive: None chosen

Power Supply:
Corsair High Performance 750W PSU
Price: £85.00

Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Price: £29.99

Floppy and Card Readers: None chosen

Operating System:
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit OEM
Price: £0.00

Performance and Dispatch Enhancements: None chosen

PCI Cards:
54Mbps 802.11g/b Wireless USB Adaptor (for Wireless networks)
Price: £27.99

£1651 inc vat

I was hoping to be able to 5 box on this 1 machine, however, with the 6GB of RAM I'm guessing this may be a problem? I'd still be extremely happy with 4!

After reading around on the forum I see 8GB of RAM is a good figure, sadly this isn't offered. I'm deliberating over the GFX - I could get a Chillblast Radeon HD 4870 1024MB for £244 less than the GTX 295, which would then allow me to get 10,000rpm HD? I'm guessing the 295 won't be a huge noticeable difference due to the SLI, but it would be better for future games etc? Also, do I need that sound card, or would on-board be ample?

(There's also configs for other machines i.e fusion vulcan has i7920 overclocked to 3.8 (seemed a little high so shyed away from?) but you also get different choice of GFX i.e GTX285 IGB. The vulcan also allows for 12GB RAM, but I've read there may be some errors with 12GB and the motherboard?)

Any help is greatly appreciated as I'm fairly clueless!



Thanks :)

[Clone]

6 gig of ram is plenty if you ask me. I manage dalaran with 4 gig tho that is on minimum settings. In my opinion £439 is way too much to spend on a graphics card. You will only need a card that powerful if you are planning on playing games at high resolution on a large screen. Id personally go for a GTX 260 or 4870 as you say for around £200 then spend the extra cash on getting 2 good HD set up in Raid. Someone linked an article on read/write speeds in Raid setups the other week but I cant seem to find the link now.

[Frappuccino]

I think 295GTX is sli'd by default right?
Since WoW doesn't really get anything from SLI it could be a waste. I personally use 2x 280gtx's and 3 monitors. Am assuming you'll use 2 monitors?

Otherwise looks good, very similar to my own PC's specs which runs 5 copies with no problems.

[spannah]

You getting 6 GB Ram because it is DDR3, so you get 3 sticks to get the full effect. So it is either 3, 6 or 12. 3 is definitively to little, 12 is way more then you need, so 6 GB is good.

I agree with Clone, ditch the GTX 295 for a GTX 260, and get some extra HDs instead.

[Chranny]

You getting 6 GB Ram because it is DDR3, so you get 3 sticks to get the full effect. So it is either 3, 6 or 12. 3 is definitively to little, 12 is way more then you need, so 6 GB is good.

I agree with Clone, ditch the GTX 295 for a GTX 260, and get some extra HDs instead.9 is also a possibility. :P And no, you getting 3 sticks has nothing to do with the RAM being DDR3. It is simply an option on the motherboard. There's plenty DDR3 boards who only takes upto 4 sticks instead of 6.

[Thoam]

Thanks for the feedback guys, it's been really helpful! Here's what the system is now looking like, with a few configuration options at the bottom, and a few more questions!

Case:
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Price: £82.00

Processor:
Intel Core I7 920 2.66GHz (nehalem) Processor overclocked to 3.8GHz (Higher overclock)
Price: £225.00

Cooling & Thermal Paste:
Akasa Nero Quiet CPU Cooler
Price: £37.00

Motherboard:
Asus P6T Deluxe X58 Motherboard
Price: £204.99

Memory:
Corsair 6GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory
Price: £149.00

Graphics Card:
Nvidia Geforce GTX 285 1GB Graphics Card (Different GFX)
Price: £235.00

1st Hard Disk Drive:
500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
Price: £65.00

2nd Hard Disk Drive: None chosen
3rd Hard Disk Drive: None chosen
RAID (Performance or Backup): None chosen

Wired Networking:
Onboard Gigabit Networking
Price: £0.00

Standard Optical Drive:
Standard 20x DL DVD±RW SATA Optical Drive
Price: £0.00

Additional Optical Drive: None chosen

Power Supply:
Corsair High Performance 750W PSU
Price: £85.00

Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Price: £29.99

Floppy and Card Readers: None chosen

Operating System:
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit OEM
Price: £0.00

Performance and Dispatch Enhancements: None chosen

PCI Cards:
54Mbps 802.11g/b Wireless USB Adaptor (for Wireless networks)
Price: £27.99


Cost = £1367

So, with this system I've downgraded the GFX, but obtained a higher clocked i7920. The drop in cost of GFX allows me to either play around with the RAM or the HD:

RAM:
I can upgrade from Corsair 6GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory to Corsair 12GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory for +£149

HD:
I can get a second HD - 300GB 10000RPM Hard Disk for +£170 (this would be where I would install WoW and symlink (?))

Getting 2 x 300GB 10000RPM (+£330) Hard Disk for RAID seems really pricey and would prefer not to do really, or is there a dramatic increase in performance?

Just wondering which of the upgrades should give a better increase in performance?

Going back to the old specs and getting the gtx 295 (overclock for i7920 drops to 3.4GHz)
Increasing RAM from 6GB > 12 GB 1333MHz
Buying a second HD (7200 > 10,000 RPM)

So, apart from choice of components, I have a few other questions: 8o

Is 3.8GHz an extreme overclock, or quite stable?

The site also offers "ReadyBoost" is this any good/would prove useful? i.e.

2GB USB2.0 Vista ReadyBoost Memory [+£24.99]
4GB USB2.0 Vista ReadyBoost Memory [+£34.99]
8GB USB2.0 Vista ReadyBoost Memory [+£44.99]

If I were to use two monitors, do I have everything required, or would I need to buy something additional?
And, if I were to use two monitors, would I need a better PSU? I can get a Hiper High Performance 880W PSU for +£10, and even I didn't need it, would it be worth the extra £10 anyway - are Hiper High a better make?

Thanks again!

[BigSmitty]

With respect to the "ready boost" option...

I slapped in a 4GB memory stick (USB 2.0) for $5.00 and it works like a champ. I personally wouldn't be shelling out that kind of dollars/pounds/marks/Euros/whatever for something that is inherent to Vista. More than likely it's a good way to make an obscene markup on something that Vista walks you through when you first plug in the stick.

Just my 2 "pence".

[Clone]

Thats more like it for graphics. I dont have an i7 chip yet but Ive read reports of people going above 4ghz on air cooling. Personally Id get it at 3.8 and then run some tests on it, check temperatures under load (or under multiboxing load atleast). If you think its risky having it that high you can easily lower the overclock yourself. Downclocking is much safer than overclocking :) Id definately reccomend atleast going for one velociraptor hardrive http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-236-WD is what I have and it is quick enough.

A bit off topic but the wireless usb adapter you are getting with that. Will that be your primary method of connecting to the net? If it is Id have to say that a wired connection is much better if you can manage it :)

If you are still swaying towards the 12gb of ram Id like to point you towards this thread Multiboxing Benchmark Full Review - Doghouse Systems Multiboxing Solution ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=19314').

Hope that helps :)

[wowphreak]

You dont need ready boost its design for a marginal system to work a lil better with vista, your box is top of the line.
At best ready boost will slow it down.

[spannah]

You getting 6 GB Ram because it is DDR3, so you get 3 sticks to get the full effect. So it is either 3, 6 or 12. 3 is definitively to little, 12 is way more then you need, so 6 GB is good.

I agree with Clone, ditch the GTX 295 for a GTX 260, and get some extra HDs instead.9 is also a possibility. :P And no, you getting 3 sticks has nothing to do with the RAM being DDR3. It is simply an option on the motherboard. There's plenty DDR3 boards who only takes upto 4 sticks instead of 6.Well I guess I learn something new everyday (about the DDR3), however I wonder what kind of configuration would you get for 9 GB? Do they make 3 GB Sticks?? because 4+4+1 doesn't make a whole lot of sense ...

[Thoam]

Thanks again for the brilliant advice! :thumbsup:

It would appear that upgrading the RAM and ReadyBoost are out of the equation.

I just checked the site, and the 300GB 10000RPM HD is a WD VelociRaptor. So, from browsing a few threads it would seem best to have the OS and WOW on seperate HD, so I'll probably be going for:

1st Hard Disk Drive:
500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk - stick the OS on this

2nd Hard Disk Drive:
300GB 10000RPM Hard Disk - and throw WOW on this

sound ok?


@Clone: My primary method will be wired through:

Wired Networking:
Onboard Gigabit Networking

(This is just where I stick my ethernet cable, yeah? I'm a complete newb at this!)

As for the PCI Cards:
54Mbps 802.11g/b Wireless USB Adaptor (for Wireless networks)

It just looked like somthing that would be good to have, but looking back, it's not like I'm going to be carry my desktop around...!

Would you say it's best to cut it from the system and save £30? :)


Thanks again!

[wowphreak]

If it where me I would slap wow on an ssd.

Considering yer getting a really nice comp with plenty of memory yeh really dont need a separate drive just for wow its not gonna make a difference.

Only reason I suggest getting a ssd is for when yeh run thru dalaran or any city with lots of npc/pcs with a normal drive yeh might notice a lil lag caused by loading lots of different textures.

[alcattle]

most I7 boards can use triple memory so 3x whatever gig sticks. If your board has 6 slots, fill half with 1 gig sticks and other half with 2 gig sticks. Voila 9 gigs

[Clone]

It just looked like somthing that would be good to have, but looking back, it's not like I'm going to be carry my desktop around...!

Would you say it's best to cut it from the system and save £30? :)


Yeh cut that because its not built into the system anyway. If you ever found you needed wireless for something you can pick up one of thise usb wireless adapters from argos for about 20 quid.
The onboard gigabit networking will give you ethernet ports on the back to plug in your wired net connection.

Id install the OS and wow on the raptor drive, and put everything else on the 500gb drive to keep the raptor less cluttered. Dont quote me on that though its just what ive done with mine :)

[spannah]

most I7 boards can use triple memory so 3x whatever gig sticks. If your board has 6 slots, fill half with 1 gig sticks and other half with 2 gig sticks. Voila 9 gigsDang, makes sense, never though about it that configuration, and I am a computer dude ...

In regards to 3 modules at the time, I did some intraweeb research ('http://www.valueram.com/europe/triplechannel/') and figured out it has to do with a triple channel configuration, which `theoretically` should triple the memory bandwidth.

[Chranny]

You getting 6 GB Ram because it is DDR3, so you get 3 sticks to get the full effect. So it is either 3, 6 or 12. 3 is definitively to little, 12 is way more then you need, so 6 GB is good.

I agree with Clone, ditch the GTX 295 for a GTX 260, and get some extra HDs instead.9 is also a possibility. :P And no, you getting 3 sticks has nothing to do with the RAM being DDR3. It is simply an option on the motherboard. There's plenty DDR3 boards who only takes upto 4 sticks instead of 6.Well I guess I learn something new everyday (about the DDR3), however I wonder what kind of configuration would you get for 9 GB? Do they make 3 GB Sticks?? because 4+4+1 doesn't make a whole lot of sense ...3x 1GB + 3x 2GB = 9 GB ;) And if you're referring too 9 GB in a 4 stick board then ya, that'd be impossible unless you can get your hands on 4 GB sticks. :P Unless they start making 3 GB sticks :thumbsup: But yeah, most socket 1366 boards has got space for 6 sticks (granted there's some budget boards with only 4) and the socket 775 boards has 4. ;)

[Thoam]

Another great big thank you to everyone! :D

That's my system configured! I'll be back with tales of my endeavours once I've bought and set it up! :)