Help with 4-boxing PC build.

[Bodolf]

In a week or so I'm going to place my order for a new PC that will basically be used for 4-boxing WoW and very little else.

I'm trying to figure out just what I'll need. This is what I'm looking at:

Intel Core i5-750 2.66 GHz 8M L2 Cache LGA1156
EVGA P55 TR Intel P55V Chipset DDR3 Socket 1156 mATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB2.0, SATA-II RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, & 2 PCIe X1
8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module
Thermaltake V3 Mid-Tower case
Win7

A few questions for those that know what they're doing:

1. - What kind of graphics card(s) do I need? I'm currently using 3 17" monitors (1 connected via USB that I haven't even attempted to play on and 2 connected to a Nvidia GeForce 9500GT) I'm just dual-boxing now and have no complaints about performance. But after I get the new PC, I'll buy another 17" monitor and start RAF 4-boxing. This means I'll need 2 cards, right?

2. - What kind of HDD should I get? I read somewhere that a Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm will get the job done nicely.

3. - Is there a huge difference in what kind of CD/DVD player I can get? It's conceivable I might watch the occasional DVD on the new machine, but more likely I'd watch something on THIS old machine while playing on the new one.

4. - Is there any info I didn't list that I should list? I'm happy with my monitors, keyboards, mouse, Keyclone, JAMBA, speakers, soundcard (external), etc.

5. - Is anything on this list ridiculously under/over-powered for what I'm going to do with it? I just started shopping around and have no idea of what I really need to effectively 4-box WoW. This list is just a jumping-off point.

RE: Budget, I'm not made out of money, but for the most part, I can afford all that ^^^^ shit.

Any and all input and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[alcattle]

You are off to a good start.
1. no, one card will power 3 monitors. Look at the 57xx series. The problem comes in with boxing software. Most will not allow WoW to play on more than 1.
2. Depending on the rest of your needs, a 1 TB is close to best bang for buck these days. WD also has good drives
3. I would think about a Blue Ray, but any DvD will work. All the new WoW will come on DvDs.
4. Make sure to get a quality power supply, with room to power the graphics card you choose.
5. The few things you list are not under powered at all. a new Quad and 8 gigs will run it all.

It can be done for $1500, but plan for $2000, and grin when you don't spend it all.

[universal]

if you plan to attach 3 monitors to one of the new radeons be aware that one of the 3 needs to have displayport input, since the cards can only supply two over hdmi/dvi and most likely vga. i'd probably get one bigger screen as a replacement for one of your 17''.

i personally had no problems with boxing on multiple monitors.

and as alcattle already said, don't buy a cheap power supply, look for a quality one. you'll most likely don't need a 750watt psu. something in the range of 500watt should be fine.

[alcattle]

yes, good points, but still go by what the graphics card needs for power and add some.

[Bodolf]

Thanks for the responses guys. Sorry I haven't responded myself sooner.

I didn't mention a power supply earlier because I wanted to do as both of you suggested, which is get my video card and other components together and then see how much power I need.

I'm looking at a ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] For the time being, I'll probably play my main on 1 monitor and 3 slaves on a second monitor. I tried that with a couple of trial accounts and it went ok except that half my slaves bars and all of their bags were off screen.

Is that normal? Is it my maximizer settings? Is it the size of the monitor (17")?

The power supply I'm looking at is a 600w XtremeGear. What do you guys think? Is that a decent product? Is it enough (or too much) power?

Thanks again for the previous help.

[alcattle]

I would guess it will not do the job, it is only rated at 23A. That would hardly run a 2 year old GPU like mine.

The sizing problem sounds like software, make sure your software and WoW are set to same size.