First Time multiboxer

[SuperMiguel]

First i currently have a computer with a Q6600, GTX 460, 8GB of ram with it hanlde multibox or i have to get something better? (want to have 4-5 guys)

Now lets say i want to multibox 5 characters... Since i need to get few new accounts, is there a way to make the leveling faster? seems like 1-90 its a looooong road...!

[MiRai]

Welcome. First, I'm going to say that it helps to not ask multiple questions that do not pertain to each other in the same thread because it can end up becoming confusing and it's more difficult for people using the search function to find what they're looking for.


First i currently have a computer with a Q6600, GTX 460, 8GB of ram with it hanlde multibox or i have to get something better? (want to have 4-5 guys)
That Q6600 is going to hurt you bad. As always, we suggest you create some trial accounts and walk around in a well populated SW or Org at peak time to gauge your computer's performance.


Now lets say i want to multibox 5 characters... Since i need to get few new accounts, is there a way to make the leveling faster? seems like 1-90 its a looooong road...!
I'm not going to answer this question in depth because we're in the hardware forum, but I'll say that you should be looking into Recruit-a-Friend (RAF). I'm sure you can find a handful of threads about it in the New Multiboxers & Support (http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/15-New-Multi-Boxers-amp-Support) forum.

Feel free to continue to ask questions if you have them, but I ask that you utilize the specific sub-forums (e.g. not the General forum for specific support questions).

[SuperMiguel]

So you guys are paying $70+ a month to blizzard for the multiple accounts? is there a trick to this? I guess is not hardware, but if some mod can move it to that new section

[MiRai]

So you guys are paying $70+ a month to blizzard for the multiple accounts?
If you're asking if you need one account per character, then the answer would be yes.


is there a trick to this?
If there was, then Blizzard would put a stop to that real quick. I don't know of any games that allow you to log multiple characters in from the same account at the same time.

[luxlunae]

Nope no trick, multiboxing in wow is much more expensive than playing normally.

But then, cheaper than a nice restaurant and drinks. Just depends how you look at it.

[SuperMiguel]

Gotcha, so is there a perfect number i should look at? (number of characters? ) i do have 10 lvl 86-90 in my account i guess i could transfer them around to other accounts, but they would be all different, which i think most of you recommend making them all the same?

[heyaz]

So you guys are paying $70+ a month to blizzard for the multiple accounts? is there a trick to this? I guess is not hardware, but if some mod can move it to that new section

If this is already one of your concerns, I'm going to say multiboxing probably isn't for you.

[SuperMiguel]

If this is already one of your concerns, I'm going to say multiboxing probably isn't for you.

not a concern just a wondering :P

[Chivalrous]

I pay $89.94 usd per month to blizzard. I bought a 1 year subscription to ISboxer. I upgraded my computer. It was all worth it to me, I've already had many hours of entertainment. Cost is relative, in some bars a nights drinking can be over $100.

i 5 box and if you upgrade your PC I have two pieces of advice. 1) dont SLI, it's better to performance to get a better card than 2 lesser cards. 2) WoW is CPU heavy, not so much ram heavy. I have 64gb of Ram and never use over 15% or so, but my CPU is a AMD FX-8350 and while in Stormwind it's jumping up to like 90% utilization. It is 8 core 4.2 ghz. It works fine but maybe I should have gone with intel. For cooling I use the Corsair H100 liquid cooler and it is excellent. I played 20 hours straight last weekend and my cpu ran 38-42c the whole time. Make sure your case can mount the radiator if you go with liquid cooling.

[SuperMiguel]

So i see all your toons are different? Druid, Pally, Hunter, Shaman and Warrior... though they all had to be the same?

89.94?? 14.xx * 5 = $75

Maybe ill just upgrade my system, prob to a 3930k based system, seems like one of the best around

[Chivalrous]

So i see all your toons are different? Druid, Pally, Hunter, Shaman and Warrior... though they all had to be the same?

89.94?? 14.xx * 5 = $75

Maybe ill just upgrade my system, prob to a 3930k based system, seems like one of the best around

I pay for 6 accounts. My wife plays also, and you can have any class composition you'd like.

[SuperMiguel]

Not sure if it will be fun at all but i can try on my current system to do it, by transfering a single toon to another account so it would be mage+priest...

Will my system run that?

[Chivalrous]

Like mirai told you above it would be best if you created trial accounts to test your system.

[shadewalker]

Not sure if it will be fun at all but i can try on my current system to do it, by transfering a single toon to another account so it would be mage+priest...

Will my system run that?

Probably, but if you are worried about it I would suggest a trial account first.

[heyaz]

Ok now that you understand the investment required, please don't go into how ISBoxer costs $15 and if there's a free version or a crack for it.

[SuperMiguel]

Well it doesnt run very well on 3-4 accounts so i went ahead and ordered the parts for a new system here are the specs:

i7-3930k
Corsair Dominator 64BG
Asus P9X79
HX1050 PSU
580 GTX 4GB
and a single 60GB SSD (Flaw)

Now i was thinking to get another 580 GTX and do SLI with it... Worth it?>

[Chivalrous]

Well, that Chivalrous fella gave two pieces of advice earlier in the thread and one of them was SLI is NOT good for boxing, not at all.

If you need more evidence--I purchased two EVGA nVidia GTX 560ti cards when I built my new system and ran them SLI--It didn't perform well, and when I disabled SLI and used the cards for seperate monitors I received a huge performance boost. If I could do it again I would have bought a 500 dollar card instead of 2 250 dollar cards. SLI isn't supported by WoW and generally only works in full screen mode which you will never be in most likely.

[SuperMiguel]

Well, that Chivalrous fella gave two pieces of advice earlier in the thread and one of them was SLI is NOT good for boxing, not at all.

If you need more evidence--I purchased two EVGA nVidia GTX 560ti cards when I built my new system and ran them SLI--It didn't perform well, and when I disabled SLI and used the cards for seperate monitors I received a huge performance boost. If I could do it again I would have bought a 500 dollar card instead of 2 250 dollar cards. SLI isn't supported by WoW and generally only works in full screen mode which you will never be in most likely.
How about running then like you one card per monitor, any diff than running both monitors out of a single card?

[MiRai]

Well, that Chivalrous fella gave two pieces of advice earlier in the thread and one of them was SLI is NOT good for boxing, not at all.
It would seem that some recent findings show that a user's mileage may vary while using SLI. I plan to make a post on this in the near future. ;)

[SuperMiguel]

opened another thread about composition: http://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/49021-New-to-multi-box?p=377341#post377341

[Chivalrous]

Oh mirai I need to know more Bout that then, looking forward to that thread. I wish I could SLI and get a performance boost.

[Ualaa]

Your basic upgrade choice is: i7 3770K (4 Core, Ivy Bride) vs i7 3930K (6 Core, Sandy Bridge).
The 3770K is basically half the price, and seems to be very equivalent for most one-boxed (solo) games.

The 3930K has the extra two cores, which helps if you have enough tasks that four (plus four logical cores) is not enough.
It also supports 64GB of ram, twice that of the 3770.
And the ram is quad channel, instead of dual channel.

In general, Intel is reporting that each successive generation of CPU is 10-15% faster (at the same clock speed) as the previous.
The 3770K is 3.5GHz, compared to the 3.2GHz of the 3930K.
So the quad channel ram and extra cores, essentially bring it close to on par with the faster chip.

Intel's roadmap shows the 4770K as the upgrade to the 3770K, and lists early June as the release date.
So basically three months from now, give or take, a better option than a 3770K for likely what a 3770K is going for now.



Once you decide on a processor...
Pick a motherboard that supports that socket type.
If you're going to overclock, a higher end board is a good idea... as is better fans/cooling system etc; if you're going to run at stock speeds, you won't need a top end motherboard.

If your processor uses quad-channel ram, get quad channel ram for it.
If not, then get dual-channel ram.
Four 8GB chips, for a 3930K motherboard is a good start; you can add 4x 8GB more, if you need it down the road.

I went with an EVGA GTX 670 4GB card.
That is probably the best bang for your buck.
The 680 is stronger, but the gains aren't commensurate to the cost increase.

Just about any SSD is going to be a huge improvement over a platter drive.
If you're putting your operating system on the SSD, you'll likely want a higher end one.
If it's a gaming folder (drive), you don't need as top of the line of an SSD.
The Samsung 840s have good reviews, as do the Intel 520s; I like the benchmark on the Corsair Neutrons too, but they're relatively new so its hard to gauge their longer term reliability.

[Khatovar]

How about running then like you one card per monitor, any diff than running both monitors out of a single card?

I ran 1 card per monitor for a while. It worked well enough, except you can't run the second card with DX11, which means my main ran on DX11, but my slaves were forced to DX9. Also, the slaves were pretty unhappy swapping to the main screen/card when they were configured for the secondary card. My last system upgrade, I moved to a single card and it's IMO smoother.

[Chivalrous]

I ran 1 card per monitor for a while. It worked well enough, except you can't run the second card with DX11, which means my main ran on DX11, but my slaves were forced to DX9. Also, the slaves were pretty unhappy swapping to the main screen/card when they were configured for the secondary card. My last system upgrade, I moved to a single card and it's IMO smoother.

I run with a card for each monitor but on my main monitor I have all screens stacked and the other is just DX_Nothing and videoFX. It works--but probably isn't much different than it would be on just a a single card. That's why I wish SLI had worked for me.