Help for a newb

[iambob]

Hey,
i recently decided to try out hardcore(20-40 toon) multiboxing and i'm tempted to buy a pc for it
i have done some 5 boxing with my old laptop at low graphic but that couldnt really handle 5 wow at all due the core2 duo T6600 imo.
i wonder if anyone could help me out founding a good pc for it.
i was looking aroun in forums and found that everyone keeps sayin that 2600k is the best for multiboxing.
if anyone could help that would be really nice
my budget is 1000-2000 euro and i want to run min 20 wow at once doesent really mather the graphic as i have my laptop to use it as main that can run at full graphic
i'm also open for prebuild pc-s as i'm cba to buiild a pc if not necessery also i have almost 0 skill at cpu overclocking so that would be aslo a challage

Ps: sorry for my bad english
note: currently i'm in ireland so orders would be nice to have around

[Ashley]

20 accounts on one machine isn't viable.

You're best off with two machines.

My 10 box machine cost me £700 (excluding case, monitor, hard drives, keyboard, mouse).

[iambob]

could u sare some info about your pc and the capability of it like fps,graphical settings please
atm thinking of buying 2 or maybe 3 pc for it
but what presc could i pick for around 700 euro to run 10 box at min

[iambob]

another question should i pick 2500k with water cooling and try to overclock by my self or get a simple 2600k with default cooler. does the default cooler allows overclock?

i came up with a bould with
i5 2500k with
liquid cooling
24gb ddr3 1333mhz ram
asus p8p67-m pro
nvidia geforce 1bg gt520
400 watt oiwer supply

could anyone tell how mutch it could run or any particle is wrong or should be replaced?

[F9thRet]

Just a guess here iambob (Welcome to the boards btw.) But the first thing that catches my eye, is the Power supply. Believe me when I say, you will want more than 400 watts if you want to do anything close to 10 boxing, let alone adding in a HD, DVD/blueray, etc. etc.

Even on my 5 boxing machines, I don't go lower than 550 watts, and most of them are at 650+. I implore you, do not go cheap on the Power supply.

That being said, I'm not that familiar with the i5 or even the i7 series, although they have great marks here from others. 5 boxing would be a breeze and with 24 GB Ram, that looks damn Boss. 10 boxing seems very viable, if the i4 allows it. (Like I said, I'm not sure, I know the i7 will.)

my five box machines are as follows.

AMD Phenom 9850 quad core
4 gb ram
4350 ATI Radeon
I use 2 500 Western Digital HDs and one 64 gb SSD.

I hope this helps, and I'm sure someone more knowledgeable about the Intels will be along.

Stephen

[Ashley]

i5s are fast, but if you're going for 24gb ram, why not just go the whole hog and get an i7-2600k?

i7-2600k is far superior to the i5 lol.

And 400 watts rofl, the lights in my room use more power than that :>

[Ualaa]

For pure gaming, there isn't a lot of difference between the i5 2500K and the i7 2600K.
Especially if you're going to five box...

The i7 has hyperthreading, which means one logical core for each physical core (the i5 only has physical cores).
The i7 is about $100 more expensive.

If you're doing something in addition to gaming, and more so as you multitask more, the logical cores start to become more important.
If you're spending $200 on an i5, $300 on an i7 isn't that much more expensive.
Especially if you're going to be putting more than five accounts on the system.

For your usage, the logical cores will likely be a benefit.

[Bollwerk]

For pure gaming, there isn't a lot of difference between the i5 2500K and the i7 2600K.
Especially if you're going to five box...

The i7 has hyperthreading, which means one logical core for each physical core (the i5 only has physical cores).
The i7 is about $100 more expensive.

If you're doing something in addition to gaming, and more so as you multitask more, the logical cores start to become more important.
If you're spending $200 on an i5, $300 on an i7 isn't that much more expensive.
Especially if you're going to be putting more than five accounts on the system.

For your usage, the logical cores will likely be a benefit.
I disagree. In older versions of Intel CPUs, yes. But MiRai's tests of the 2600K (http://www.dual-boxing.com/showthread.php?p=336875#post336875) show that the hyperthreading makes a pretty big difference in this generation, if you're boxing many toons.

My own personal experience has verified this. I had a 2500K for a while and was pegging all 4 cores consistently (5-boxing). After reading MiRai's tests, I bought a 2600K and now run at about 50%-70% average CPU load.

[Ualaa]

The post you linked is for a 10-box test.
The more clients you're running, the more benefit you'll get from hyperthreading.

For the price difference between the two, the i7 2600K is probably the better choice.
Unless you're sure, you'll be running a smaller number of clients and won't be doing much of anything else while you're boxing.

[jstanthr]

the i72600 also gives you four more cores over the i52500. for 10 on one box, i would highly reccomend the 2600i7, if your budget allows the i7 3930k would do even better (12cores vs 8cores) the most clients i ahve "playably" launch on the 2600k is 13, and i have gotten 18 playable on the 3930. both using multiple gfx cards. the gtx580 3gb would be your best viable option for using a single card for around 10 clients. Going with as much ram as you can get, and some ssd's in raid will also tremendously help, and as far as the PSU goes, i wouldn't even think of anything under 750 watts. Once you get things loaded up, and even with a mild overclock, your gonna want the extra headroom. Single rail powersupplies are better as far as ease of setup (not watching what rails your loading during build) they tend to cost a little bit more, but are worth it in the long run IMO.

[EaTCarbS]

Two i7 rigs with at least 12g ram each should run 20 clients without much problems. I wouldn't do more than 10 on one machine.

[Bollwerk]

The post you linked is for a 10-box test.
The more clients you're running, the more benefit you'll get from hyperthreading.
True, but since each WoW client can use at least 2 threads/cores, it seemed logical that similar results would hold for 5 boxing, as with 10 boxing. As I mentioned, it made a significant difference for me to go from a 2500k to a 2600k and I only 5-box.

[Ualaa]

When you're talking the cost of a CPU, Motherboard, Ram, Video Card, SSD, etc...
An extra $100 bucks or so... that's not really a lot of money comparatively.

If you have it to spare, the i7 2600K is probably the way to go.
If you're on a tighter budget, the i5 2500K is still a really nice processor.