Considering New Computer -- Thoughts?

[Mosg2]

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
MOTHERBOARD: (3-Way SLI Support) MSI X58 Pro-E Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFire DDR3 Mainboard
MEMORY: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module [+238] (Corsair or Major Brand)
OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition)
VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Card [+27]

I've got a 32GB SSD in my current computer that I'll drop into it. All of this for $1146. Decent or should I tweek it a bit? I'm currently 5-boxing on a Q6600 with a 8800gtx and 4 gigs of ram and it's definitely starting to show its age. Just looking for some solid input :) Thanks in advance!

[alcattle]

seems like to much to pay for what you get. At work so can't run a price check. I might look at an I5 set up to put the money where it helps WoW.

[Mosg2]

What's the difference between the I5's and the I7's for 5-boxing? I've scoured the Hardware forums and not seen much.

[Igg]

There isn't much right now but i5 is a deadend in term of future upgradeability since most of the newer CPU coming out next year will be on the 1366 (i7) platform again.

Your choices looks good but SSD is a must for 5 boxing imo, There's something to be said for hearthing 5 characters into dalaran at the same exact time and load under 1 second :)

You might want to also consider a second graphics card to handle the 4 on the other monitor

My rig is I7 920 @ 4.0ghz, 12gb of ram , 2x285gtx and 2 intel x-25m in raid 0.

[Mosg2]

I thought that WoW got funky with the double cards? Has Windows 7/whatever fixed that?

[Igg]

Windows 7 has fixed it sorta but sometimes it doesnt work right on my rig.

I monitor the 2 cards with GPU-Z watching their clock speed & temp,

W/ W7 Professional, the second card would not click up to full speed despite having 4 clients on it

But with innerspace forcing wow to use the correct GPU, the card would work perfectly and as hard as the first, therefore balanced load on both cards. (this is based on my observation of the temps of both cards.).

[Mosg2]

Hmmmm interesting. I'll have to price out what's possible with dual cards currently taking into account my budget. Thanks a bunch for the info Igg!

[Igg]

It seems like you're going the prebuilt route?

[offive]

I was waiting for the new i9 cpus next year. The rumors about compatibility, are just that rumors. I was going to go i7 920 until I read about the i9s. With other rumors about faster memory and USB3 coming in the same time frame as the i9s it all makes me want to wait and make a big jump rather than waste money on intermediate step. That said your specs look similar to what I was thinking about. MSI is a good brand, had good luck with them and ASUS. I tend to stick to NVIDIA video due to the many issues over the years (decades?) with ATI drivers and blown up boards (I know people who say the reverse too).

[alcattle]

There isn't much right now but i5 is a deadend in term of future upgradeability since most of the newer CPU coming out next year will be on the 1366 (i7) platform again.

.
I wonder where you got that information. I read that both will be around with the 1366 supporting higher end CPUs like the 965 extreme. The i5 has a lot of life in it and there are many CPUs on the table coming out for it.

[offive]

Summary from an article on the difference between i5 and i7.

Overall, the new Core i5 processors are far more evolutionary than revolutionary. While these new processors are actually quite a bit different from the Core i7 processors currently available, many features, such as the enhanced turbo boost and dual-channel memory, are shared with new Core i7 processors. The difference between Core i5 and Core i7, then, will be somewhat dependent on which particular Core i7 one is comparing Core i5 to.
Even so, Core i5 is clearly meant to be a more mainstream processor. Those who use their computers for heavily multi-thread applications will miss hyper-threading and the triple-channel memory, which means that a Core i7 on an LGA1366 socket will be best. For most us, however, Core i5 is more cost effective (it's available around $200), and quite adequate for our needs.

Rest of the article- http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/48391.aspx

I think single box multiboxing would probably fall into the power user class.

[Ualaa]

I was running a Q6600 (stock speed), 8gb of 800mhz ram, 10k rpm Raptor, HD4870X2 video. Vista 64-Bit, Home Premium.

I upgraded to i7 920 (stock speed), 12gb of 1600mhz ram, new motherboard obviously (Asus P6T), other components the same.

Initially the computer place put Vista 32-bit on the system.
Outside of cities, even only able to use 2gb of ram, epic flight was much smoother.
The system had a heart attack, when I 5-box hearthed to Dalaran.

Since getting the 64-bit version of Vista back on the system, its smooth anywhere.
I run with every option at the minimum.
Except Spell Effects and View Distance at maximum on one toon.
Without Crusader Aura on the lead toon, I cannot break follow on epic flyers in mid-air.

Not sure on your pricing.
I live in Canada, so we're overcharged and overtaxed on pretty much every product.

[Bovidae]

I upgraded to i7 920 (stock speed), 12gb of 1600mhz ram, new motherboard obviously (Asus P6T), other components the same.

Initially the computer place put Vista 32-bit on the system.


Tell us who did this for you, so we may ridicule them

[Mosg2]

I'm still undecided on what to do. After hearing that dual graphics cards are workable under Windows 7, I'm considering going that route.

Pretty well decided that the I5 is going to give me, personally, better bang for the buck. I'm not sure if I want to go through the hassle of getting it all off of newegg.com or tigerdirect.com and putting it together myself or pre-building it with cyberpowerpc.com or some other site.

Any more thoughts?

[Ualaa]

Tell us who did this for you, so we may ridicule them


http://www.memoryexpress.com/

The Calgary SW store.

[Sajuuk]

What's the difference between the I5's and the I7's for 5-boxing? I've scoured the Hardware forums and not seen much.
Nutshell: i5/1156 i7s are more 'mainstream', but apparently the 1156 i7s will still have 8 threads.



http://img200.yfrog.com/img200/1501/capturebyo.jpg


You might want to also consider a second graphics card to handle the 4 on the other monitor
With the fast PiP swap of innerspace, it's not really needed. Sure, I got four monitors to mess with this, but then I quit multiboxing and keep the extra two turned off almost all the time.