New pc, what do i need?

[Wokomehee]

I have been looking around for a "pc guide" but im still not sure what to buy, so im asking for help here. I want to buy a new pc for 5 boxing. (currently boxing with 2 pc's) If anyone could help me fill inn what i need, i would really appreciate it, as i bought a new pc 11 months ago and it fails to run 5 x wow.


I want to buy a pc called Alienware Aurora ALX, but it has alot of options, and im not sure what i need.

Ram: (i have heard 12GB is ok for 5 clients, but 1066 or 1333Mhz?)
Processor: ?
Os: Win 7 64 bit, but its 3 diff ones?
Video card: 1 or 2, and how much GB needed?
Hard drive: I guess the size aint that important, but some say "raid", do i need that?

..anything else i must look for/whats important?


I realise this is alot to ask, and im really happy if i get some answers =)

[Nitro]

Is building your own pc out of the question? You get so much more for your money if you build it yourself.

[Pycno]

RAM, 1GB on each client should suffice, so 6 or 8gb should be plenty for 5boxing.
CPU, get a quadcore - i7 or i5.
Videocard, I personally always use single-card options as there tends to be more issues with dual card options.
OS: I would go for the cheapest Win764bit, I believe this is the home edition.
Hard drive: I wouldnt recommend a raid setup unless you are experienced with computers, raid are less reliable then single hd and I dont want to be blamed for lost family images and the like.

[zenga]

When it's been only 11 months since you bought a machine, make sure that you buy a machine that is overpowered or that you can upgrade easily, as you might want to run cataclysm in the (near) future. I've found that many of the 'pre made' pc's are very difficult to upgrade.

[Bovidae]

@Nitro: Judging by the OP, yes, it is out of the question.

IMOP the Alienware Aurora ALX is overpriced, but that is true of many pre-built i7 rigs. I'm bored, and at work, so I'll go through the customizer with you.

Processor: the i7 920 has proven itself the beast of the line-up; cheap, overclockable, durable. So much so that Dell offers an OC option from 2.66 to 3.2ghz for ONLY a $200 upcharge. Highway robbery for an overclock job, but your only OC option if you're buying from Dell.

Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit; if you don't know the difference already, you won't miss the addons that make Ultimate ultimate.

Video cards: While dual gpu utilization has improved recently, it hasn't won me over. That said, Dell is only offering 1 option with a single processor and its ATI... (I'm not an ATI fan) nor am I a fan of putting two $100 GTS250's into a $3000 rig. I use an old 512mb card and will be upgrading shortly, 1gb seems like enough, but if you can afford the better card, go for it.

Ram: 6gb would be sufficient, 12gb would be better, 24gb just costs too damn much. You will never notice the difference between 1066 and 1333 in RL usage (you would in synthetic benchmarking)

Hard Drives: Dell is offering Raid 0, which is essentially two hard drives, each of whom get half the data, so they only have to do half as much work, theoretically making it twice as fast as a single drive. (further reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID) I would venture a guess that 600GB RAID 0 (2x 300GB SATA-II, 10k RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs) are dual VelociRaptors (two thumbs up)
Additional Hard Drives: They offer Raid1 arrays, which again, are overpriced, but offer you good storage that is protected from loss due to HDD failure.

[Sajuuk]

@Nitro: Judging by the OP, yes, it is out of the question.

IMOP the Alienware Aurora ALX is overpriced, but that is true of many pre-built i7 rigs. I'm bored, and at work, so I'll go through the customizer with you.

Processor: the i7 920 has proven itself the beast of the line-up; cheap, overclockable, durable. So much so that Dell offers an OC option from 2.66 to 3.2ghz for ONLY a $200 upcharge. Highway robbery for an overclock job, but your only OC option if you're buying from Dell.

Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit; if you don't know the difference already, you won't miss the addons that make Ultimate ultimate.

Video cards: While dual gpu utilization has improved recently, it hasn't won me over. That said, Dell is only offering 1 option with a single processor and its ATI... (I'm not an ATI fan) nor am I a fan of putting two $100 GTS250's into a $3000 rig. I use an old 512mb card and will be upgrading shortly, 1gb seems like enough, but if you can afford the better card, go for it.

Ram: 6gb would be sufficient, 12gb would be better, 24gb just costs too damn much. You will never notice the difference between 1066 and 1333 in RL usage (you would in synthetic benchmarking)

Hard Drives: Dell is offering Raid 0, which is essentially two hard drives, each of whom get half the data, so they only have to do half as much work, theoretically making it twice as fast as a single drive. (further reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID) I would venture a guess that 600GB RAID 0 (2x 300GB SATA-II, 10k RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs) are dual VelociRaptors (two thumbs up)
Additional Hard Drives: They offer Raid1 arrays, which again, are overpriced, but offer you good storage that is protected from loss due to HDD failure.

200 dollars to have dell overclock your PC may not seem reasonable, but if you factor in additional cooling and the time to run stability tests/ensure said stability could be worth 200 dollars. (That's with a higher overclock, I don't see a reason outside of heat restrictions for an i7 920 to not be able to do 3.2Ghz) For my current overclock (3.8Ghz) I actually took over a day consciously running very stressful tests on my computer (linX at max settings) to ensure stability under the voltages that I wanted. After that I had to tweak settings a couple times after I blue screened. (The day running LinX I basically left the computer alone, after that I did my daily what-not while running folding@home to stress it) . It took a couple days of actively stress testing (Folding@home/whatnot) before I got my computer to where it is now - Running stable for months. That's what Dell is trying to ensure by charging so much for a meager upgrade. They don't want to have to troubleshoot their own overclocks for joe schmoe. Basically, if you're going to overclock, do the research and do it yourself, rather then spend dell 200 dollars.

Why the non-love for ATI? They currently have one of the most powerful line-ups of new tech, and very nicely priced old tech (old tech being 4870/4850/4890) cards that perform either on-or-slightly less up to par (in some cases, mileage and benchmarks may vary, just stating that for the sake of the thread) than the latest nvidia tech. Nvidia will NOT have a new generation of enthusiast level cards out until march of 2010. Also, do you realize that that GTS 250 is actually three generations old, give or take a few tweaks? GTS 250 = 9800GTX = OC'd 8800GTS (Although some die shrinks did happen, meaning less power usage)

[Wokomehee]

Thanks alot for the input guys! =) Im still gonna check a bit, turns out i have a friend that might want to build a pc for me. If i get more that way, i guess ill go for that.

I got some help with setting in the guild too, and right now my current pc runs 5xwow with innerspace ok. Meaning, some lagg, but playable in instances. For pvp, fast movements in AV etc, not good enough tho, hangs a bit etc... still, nice to be able to do pve until i have something better =)

[Owltoid]

1.) Go to www.buyxg.com (http://www.buyxg.com)

2.) Get an i7 920, 12GB RAM, a good video card, a very cheap SSD just to run WoW

3.) Profit with all the money you saved.

I bought my system 6 months ago and paid $1,500 for it. You still couldn't get that system anywhere else other than www.buyxg.com (http://www.buyxg.com) unless you build it yourself off of Newegg (and even then you'd save only a small amount of money)

[Bovidae]

200 dollars to have dell overclock your PC may not seem reasonable, but if you factor in additional cooling and the time to run stability tests/ensure said stability could be worth 200 dollars.
If they provided those additional services, maybe they could charge for them. I have seen other small time builders offer burn-in and benchmarking as an option, but have seen them charge in the $40-$80 range. Clocking a 920@3.2ghz does not cost them ANY time, additional cooling hardware, nor could it possibly impact the warranty return rates.


Why the non-love for ATI? I had a five year bad relationship with two ATI's and have heard stories they are still turning the same tricks with their drivers. I am happy in my current love affair with Nvidia


Also, do you realize that that GTS 250 is actually three generations old, give or take a few tweaks? GTS 250 = 9800GTX = OC'd 8800GTS (Although some die shrinks did happen, meaning less power usage) QFT, my aforementioned love affair is with a G92 8800GTS 512mb. It may be three years old, but I am having a hard time finding a suitable replacement.