Interesting choice.. upgrade my Skulltrail or buy a Core i7

[not5150]

As my Cisco tests wind down, I'm preparing (heh) myself for my return to multiboxing. I want to smoothly play 5-10 toons at once.

I already have a Skulltrail box which was complete overkill for five boxing. However, the darn thing is LOUD from all the fans and me pointing a Vornado fan at the mobo (I leave the side panel off for that). Another thing is it sucks up mega power because of the two quad extremes and the 5400DS mobo isn't exactly efficient.

So my choice now is whether I spend some money beefing up the Skulltrail - ie go from 4 GB RAM to 8 GB RAM and adding a bigger SSD or do I spring for a new Core i7.

Any Skulltrail owners here faced with that choice?

EDIT

Forgot to add... I do have a third choice.. just continue with what I have and cycle the money into a Thailand vacation :)

[Enndo]

Your sysyem sounds very nice already, i would just upgrade to 8 gigs of ram and call it a day, also which video card are you using?

[not5150]

Your sysyem sounds very nice already, i would just upgrade to 8 gigs of ram and call it a day, also which video card are you using?Yeah, that's probably what I'll end up doing because it's still a badass system. Video card is the Palit 4850 512 MB.

One thing I'll also get is a memory cooler because FB-DIMMS get HOT.

[Bovidae]

When you made the decision to buy TWO QX processors, you obviosly were not concerned with power consumtion, so I assume it is still not a large concern.

If noise is the issue here, I'm sure you could find an excellent cooling solution for much less than building an i7 box. pull out dsome fo those fans and plumb it for water.

If you are looking for an EXCUSE to build an i7; SKULLTRAIL IS PHAIL, CAN I HAZ UR OLD STUFZ?

[Multibocks]

If I havent gone insane, I thought Skulltrail was much faster and better for gaming than i7 is... especially multiboxing WoW, where the graphic card dont mean much and the CPU is king.

[not5150]

When you made the decision to buy TWO QX processors, you obviosly were not concerned with power consumtion, so I assume it is still not a large concern.

If noise is the issue here, I'm sure you could find an excellent cooling solution for much less than building an i7 box. pull out dsome fo those fans and plumb it for water.

If you are looking for an EXCUSE to build an i7; SKULLTRAIL IS PHAIL, CAN I HAZ UR OLD STUFZ?I didn't buy the mobo or the processors :)

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/video-love-skulltrail,4843.html

[not5150]

If I havent gone insane, I thought Skulltrail was much faster and better for gaming than i7 is... especially multiboxing WoW, where the graphic card dont mean much and the CPU is king.You're probably correct although I haven't compared them head to head. The 8 physical cores of the Skulltrail running at 4.0 GHz should do better than the 4 physical + 4 virtual of the Core i7 at 2.6GHz. However, the built in memory controller of the i7 probably helps a bit.

I've been running my 4 GB of FB-DIMMs at 667, but the new memory I'm getting is 800. So I should get a nice boost from that. I'll post up some numbers once everything is back up and running.

[Marathon]

Your sysyem sounds very nice already, i would just upgrade to 8 gigs of ram and call it a day, also which video card are you using?

I run 8 gigs of ram and i can say it runs really smooth

[jisc]

Save your money, take the vacation if you want.

Just looks like your looking for an excuse to upgrade the comp, but then it not actually being a problem (fan noise)

Get a water cooling kit if its bad, buy some acoustic foam etc.

Then, go on the holiday if you want. That would be your best bet.

[Bovidae]

When you made the decision to buy TWO QX processors, you obviosly were not concerned with power consumtion, so I assume it is still not a large concern.

If noise is the issue here, I'm sure you could find an excellent cooling solution for much less than building an i7 box. pull out dsome fo those fans and plumb it for water.

If you are looking for an EXCUSE to build an i7; SKULLTRAIL IS PHAIL, CAN I HAZ UR OLD STUFZ?I didn't buy the mobo or the processors :)

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/video-love-skulltrail,4843.htmlYou son of a ... I forgot that...

The only freebies I get from work are coffee and cigarettes (if i run out)

[not5150]

Hehhe... sell the cigarettes to make more money??

When I went to the "no-man's land" between Cambodia and Thailand, there was a cigarette shop where you could buy cartons of Marlboro Reds for $4-$5.

Packets of Reds are very handy in bribing Thai police :)

[not5150]

Put in a NewEgg order for

2 X 4 GB sticks of 800 MHz Corsair FB-DIMM and a GEIL RAM cooler

Should arrive tomorrow :)

[DLoweinc]

everyone else has commented on RAM, I think you will run into a problem trying to render all 10 windows with a 512MB card... I noticed a huge increase going from a 4870 512MB to a 4890 1GB card.

If i were to upgrade again I'd move to an nvidia card with 1796MB or 2GB card as dalaran is still a bitch on loading textures into video memory

[not5150]

Woot... RAM and cooler installed.

Now I've got 8 GB of smoking 800 MHz FB-DIMM. The GEIL RAM cooler installed easily and the it's quite pretty with an LED readout of the RPM and temperature projected onto the fan.

I won't get to play around with 10 WoWs until next week. That's when I will pass the last CCNP test (fingers crossed).