Main Rig OverKill

[Zerocool2024]

So, I am going to attempt the whole 5-boxing thing at some point soon. But my current Main Rig is not really running all that great (Out dated mostly) so I am going to replace it. I already have a few Alt-Box rigs in shipment (Roughly around 500$ or so each). I will mostly being playing wow and such, but, I do like my occasional FPS, or rather graphics intensive games.

For now, My play will consist of PVE, less I am told otherwise.

So, here is the question on the Main Rig set up.

(Quad-Core)Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz

MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard

4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair )

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB (Three of these)

And a Regular 7200 HD.

How does the whole 3 Video card thing work? I mean, does one run the game, the other back it up in case of a spike in graphics, and the last one picks up what?

Any thoughts based on the build is welcome, just trowing it out there to find out if it is worth it or not for 3 VC's.

Thanks.

[Xzin]

You only NEED 1 video card to 5 box with.

You CAN triple SLI it with a 680i mobo, Vista and the correct connector.

But not sure if that will work with multiple WoWs or not.

[d0z3rr]

Just make sure you OC the q6600 to at least 3ghz when you get it.
You only need one 8800 ultra, sli is total overkill for WoW.

And make sure your OS is 64bit, so it actually uses the 4gb of ram.

[Lost Ninja]

Save your money and buy some real fast HDD which will give you far more bang/buck than an extra GPU, especially as I understand the SLI implementation in Nvidia's drivers are currently bugged all to heck... :(

[Zerocool2024]

Cool, Thanks for the quick reply to my questions.

[torelorm]

I picked up this Core 2 Duo E6750 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115029) for $90 less than the Q6600 and most of the reviews I have seen have the C2D performing better on most games (since very few utilize a quad core) and it is a bit more overclockable due to a better temperature range.

Using my new E6750 with Vista 64, a single 8800GT, and dual 500GB drives in a raid 0 array I was pulling 65-70FPS in a 25 man SSC raid last night. I was VERY impressed.

Fast hard drives do make a difference. Check out the info on the Intel Matrix raid. Pretty cool stuff and people are positing awesome numbers.

[Zseth]

Just thought I'd put my 2 copper in and say go with the Phenom Quad-Core, solid overclocking and stable platform. Read in the Hardware section if you want more info.

[Bollwerk]

I picked up this Core 2 Duo E6750 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115029) for $90 less than the Q6600 and most of the reviews I have seen have the C2D performing better on most games (since very few utilize a quad core) and it is a bit more overclockable due to a better temperature range.This is true if you are just running a single game, but for multi-boxers here, you ideally want 1 core per WoW instance. so if your going to run more than 2 WoWs at the same time, I'd definitely go with a quad core. (which I did) =)

[Zerocool2024]

Cool, thanks for all the info guys.

Yea, for right now, I am going to 3-Box 5 toons, have the main do three, or two maybe, then the other two computers take care of the rest, I will see how it goes. I have enough monitors for everything, and I still need to get some more hardware (Namely the multicaster and switch ect..) Or I will just go with the Wireless Keyboard/mouse combo (all three being the same) and do it that way.

I will have to consider the HD thing, getting something better than 7200 I guess. Or do the whole raid thing, which I don't really know that much about.
But from what I get, it makes the game run better, or faster, either way, lol.

But I guess the one question that has not been answered is.
How does the 3 Video cards in SLI work? I understand how the VC's work, but when it comes to more than one, I don't get it. Do they piggy back off each other to an extent, or does one just pick up here and there what the other one does not get?

[marvein]

I picked up this Core 2 Duo E6750 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115029) for $90 less than the Q6600 and most of the reviews I have seen have the C2D performing better on most games (since very few utilize a quad core) and it is a bit more overclockable due to a better temperature range.This is true if you are just running a single game, but for multi-boxers here, you ideally want 1 core per WoW instance. so if your going to run more than 2 WoWs at the same time, I'd definitely go with a quad core. (which I did) =)

its overkill. Running 5 copies of WoW on an e6320 with an 8800GT on dual 22" widescreens, main wow is at 1024x768 and high detail the remaining 4 are on the other screen running at 840x510 at medium detail. 35-40FPS on every one of them and <80% CPU usage with all those+keyclone+several instances of IE windows for research.

This same machine also runs crysis at full detail @1280x1024 and average 50fps.

[Xzin]

Triple SLI

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/8702/index.html

[aetherg]

You will honestly not see much or any difference between one video card and triple SLI. Spend the money on faster RAM, a RAID array, or a massive monitor; those are things you will notice a difference on.

[maxcom]

I actually lost FPS with SLI, ymmv

[Zerocool2024]

You will honestly not see much or any difference between one video card and triple SLI. Spend the money on faster RAM, a RAID array, or a massive monitor; those are things you will notice a difference on.

Heh, well, I am playing off a 47Inch LCD TV and a 24Inch LCD.

I assumed the 4 gigs of ram (With Vista 64) would be fine. I was told about the RAID bit by a couple of people now, so I guess I probably should go with that as well. I mean, WoW will not be the sole purpose of this Rig since it is my Main Rig and I will be doing a little bit of everything with it. So far I have gotten pretty good responses on what is good, which helped me figure out which path to take. But I guess with a good enough Hard drive, mid to higher level video card (Single) and quad CPU and at least 2 gigs of ram will get me what I want.

[marvein]

You will honestly not see much or any difference between one video card and triple SLI. Spend the money on faster RAM, a RAID array, or a massive monitor; those are things you will notice a difference on.

Heh, well, I am playing off a 47Inch LCD TV and a 24Inch LCD.

I assumed the 4 gigs of ram (With Vista 64) would be fine. I was told about the RAID bit by a couple of people now, so I guess I probably should go with that as well. I mean, WoW will not be the sole purpose of this Rig since it is my Main Rig and I will be doing a little bit of everything with it. So far I have gotten pretty good responses on what is good, which helped me figure out which path to take. But I guess with a good enough Hard drive, mid to higher level video card (Single) and quad CPU and at least 2 gigs of ram will get me what I want.

with how cheap RAM is and the fact you are using vista 64 you should get the 4gigs. A RAID 0 will give you some performance boost in wow (a small one) when running 5 clients or you can leave the drives seperate and just spread out the client folders between them. keep in mind that RAID 0 gives you no redundancy so if a drive dies you lose it all if you dont have a backup :)

[Xzin]

You will honestly not see much or any difference between one video card and triple SLI. Spend the money on faster RAM, a RAID array, or a massive monitor; those are things you will notice a difference on.

For WoW, this is probably right.