5 boxing on a budget questions.

[F9thRet]

I think it's time to retire my old AMD 3200+ to a vent /Internet PC only. It runs 3 WoW's ok, but 2 more would probably force it to jump out the window screaming due to the flames that erupted.

If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it, as I have done some research, But I'm not sure if this will pull it off or not.

MB is a MSI DKA790GX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130191

Around $120.00

CPU is a AMD Athlon X2 7850 2.8 ghz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103678

$70.00

Memory is Mushkin 240 pin DDR2 1066 (8 gig total)

Video will be MSI R4670 -2 1 gig ram DDR3 Crossfire... 2 @ $80.00

Good deal on a case and PS here...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103010

XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S4P4 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

XCLIO A380BK Fully Black SECC 1.0mm thickness ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

OF course I have some DVD burners laying around, along with some SATA drives.

I figure the whole thing will run around $662.00 Plus shipping etc.

The plan is to buy a little bit here and there , until October, and to throw Win 7 in there. (I have a very tight budget due to it being summer time and I am a cattle rancher. I'll never be rich, but I'll never go hungry.)

So is this even a reasonable situation for a 5 box machine? I will be using at least 3 monitors that I have right now, with hopes to add another at a later date.

Once again, my thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope my questions are not so far behind the tech crowd here, as IT's been almost 6 years since I last Built a PC.

Stephen

[grap]

I will be using at least 3 monitors that I have right now, with hopes to add another at a later date.
4 monitors !!!???
you think you can play easily with such 4 monitors. it s too much, no ?

[F9thRet]

Well, Two of them are 19" widescreens set to the side of a 22" widescreen. I'd like to add another 22" on a quad mount, as I lean back in my recliner when I play. mind you this is with XP, and I had to install a 3rd PCI card, and even then, It get's choppy at times.

Worse case situation, is I use the two 22" monitors on there side 1680x1050 I think, and the 19" in the center. I could always then use the 4th monitor on my old PC and watch movies.

Stephen

[cryinsham]

your best bet is to keep the pc you have and continue to run 2 wows through it then somehing like this

CPU= 95w so middle power rating tripple core unlocked multipliers should hit 3.2-3.4ghz on air
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103648 $99

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131376 $65
your decision here i prefer asus/dfi over ecs/msi/ pretty much all others

memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267 x2=90$
im a g. skill memory fan myself but corsair make some good stuff and if they will fit the heatsinks are always a plus ( although i cannot testify to the effectiveness)

video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161276 $189 ( been on sale recently for as low as 160 plus the mail in rebate which i never count)
whereas you are correct in assuming crossfire can support dual monitors the 4670 is a severely underpowered card and wow does not support/fully utilize sli/crossfire setups, for the same price as 2 underefficient cards you can get the current non dual gpu "flagship" card which if you read reviews on is a monster, the reason for the lower price is they are currently clearing inventory for an late july refresh/new gpu debut)

power supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005 $99
NEVER EVER EVER SKIMP ON POWER SUPPLY, off rbands are tempting and the numbers are impressive but stick to the big players here ( corsair,b antec better lines ( no green or value series), silverstone strider/olypus series etc) check out johny guru's power supply reviews for more ideas)

thats $455 a better system, more bang for buck and would run your remaining 3-4 wow's beautifully or all 5 if desired although you;d lag in dalaran etcud suggest spending what you can on "transferabel when you upgrade items" better hd/SSD(preffered)

i left out case because thats pure preference and since im oversea's im limited to local market unless i want to pay out the arse for shipping

[F9thRet]

Thanks so much Cryinsham, Gonna check out the links right now.

Stephen

[spannah]

Thou shall not skip on processor cores for 5 boxing in one PC ;-P

Cryinsham is right on pretty much everything, I would strongly suggest the AMD Phenom II X4 940 ('http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471') instead of the tri-core. That is a little more, but definitively a better investment for 5 boxing, IMO.

[F9thRet]

Thanks Spannah, a friend of mine suggested just that yesterday on another forum. It does seem to be the consensus.

Stephen

[cryinsham]

i agree with span ont he quad vs tri but was trying to max with budget constraints, and sinc eh has a seocnd pc and wants to push 3+ monitors the only efficient way to do that currently is 2+pc's

[F9thRet]

Another real quick question here. With using 2 pc's and say Keyclone, All I would need to do is get a crossover cable, and then just use my router as normal for itnernet?

ie. Crossover cable (have two pc's talk to each other.) Router for internet on both.

Probably an easy question, but been so long since I had to make a home network.

Stephen

[alcattle]

each computer has it's own IP address. All the programs I know of have a place to put the address and talk to each other. Keyclone I beleive takes a copy for each system.

[spannah]

Both computers should be able to talk to each other through the router. You can get the IP address by typing ipconfig in a command prompt window, for each of the computers.
And like mentioned above i do believe you need a license per computer for keyclone. If you have the time but not the cash, probably this a good time to try out HotKeyNet ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=16747')

[F9thRet]

Thanks guys, took me a little bit , but I got it worked out kinda.

Sis in law gave me an old Emachine T6212 (hey it was free), and I'll still be building another one. I grabed another copy of Keyclone, and got them talking to each other via router. Given my old machine, I can run three on it, and one on the emachine (with Vent running) . I will still be building the new one over the next few months, as I want to hit that magical 5 number.

Once again, my thanks to all who helped me with this.

Stephen

[EvoX]

I'm posting a write up in the hardware forums now in hopes of helping soon-to-be 5-boxers avoid my mistakes.