How's this pc setup?

[lans83]

I've spent the past couple days searching, and piecing together a new rig i really want to buy for setting up a 3xSLI rig. I'm wanting to get this setup for multiboxing WoW and to ensure I'll be able to play upcoming games without any problems, like crysis. below is the list of parts, please give me any feedback on the parts as wheither i should replace something with anything better or whatever. my main computer went out on me, is 4 years old and i'm ready for a major upgrade to last me quite a while. I'm wanting to run 4 accounts of WoW on 1 rig and 1x 24 inch monitor to save money.

specs:






Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073 (how many would you suggest i buy? 1-4?)
EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339 (planning on getting 3)
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 (4gigs enough or should i up it to 8?)
EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188024
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
with Thermaltake CL-P0401 110mm Full-Range Fan CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106102
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488
Ultra Black Aluminus ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1215768&Sku=ULT31824
with COOLER MASTER R4-L2S-122B-GP 120mm 4 BLUE LED LED Case Fan - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103022 (case doesn't come with the fans)
Ultra X3 ULT40070 1600-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, PCI-E Ready, Energy Efficient, Modular
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2937371&Sku=ULT40070
at the time of this post, i've figured it up to be right at $2352.34 with 4 x HDDS, 3 x Video cards, 1 x set of those fans, and 1 x set of that ram. what do you think of this set up for mulitboxing WoW and should i run vista in 32 or 64 bit with this setup? fast inputs would be great, as i'm in a hurry to place my order. thank you for any help.

[Kissell13]

yes a very solid setup. it will 5 box just fine. I have a similar specced machine and get 60fps all settings high on main and 15capped fps on the alts

[Drizzit]

lol you sound like me when i got the money to multi box. I spent a total of a little less then 2k on everything (including monitor). I would say go with the 10000 rpm western hard drives (get 2 of them and strip/raid them). There is a wiki out there on how to make wow work on 1 hd (even though there are 2 hd there strip/raid them make it thinks there is 1 there) by using junction (xp) or system link (vista)... i will post wiki later. For the memory windows 32 bit does even see the full 4g of memory (think it is like 3 or 3.5g it sees). Only windows 64 will see the full 4 or 8g of memory. I talk to a big techie at work and he told me that 4 x 1g of good memory is better then 2 x 2g of good memory. I do not think that wow works on windows 64 (it works but i think you have to do something to make it use 32 bit to run wow... could someone clear this). I wouldn't get the 3 video cards and use sli. Right now wow does not support sli so using sli, i heard, actually slows down the video cards. Better to just buy 1 and get a good one. For the CPU i went a faster dual core then a quad core, but that is me alot of people here have quad. I would say try to get a core with the new 45nm instead of the 65nm. It runs cooler and it is usually cheaper. Also i might go with a full tower case instead of a mid tower. you will get a little better air flow with a full. I don't think you need that much power in your power supply. I asked the techie about the same thing and he just said that 550 watts should be fine just make sure it is sli ready and Modular is nice to have too (the one i got was about $100). Those are my 2 cents. If you want to know what i got just let me know, i bought it about 2 months ago so all my stuff should still be out there... try zipzoomfly.com they where cheaper for alot of stuff.


EDIT: here is the link ('http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link') to the wiki and it is call symbolic link not system link.

[Coltimar]

I agree with our ranger friend, go 10k on the drives. It is the one thing that has made the most difference in my system after my upgrade.

[Kissell13]

I do not think that wow works on windows 64

im 5 boxing on a single pc with Vista 64 and its working with 0 problems.

[ThatIrishGuy]

i think what he ment on the windows 64 was native 64, it is not, i runs using WOW(Windows On Windows) allowing 32bit programs to run on a 64bit OS.

[Bovidae]

Definitely get the 10k HDDs. 2 of them in raid0 work fine for gaming because of the high HIGH performance, but you don't get the security of redundant storage. I don't feel this is an issue on my gaming rig, so thats how I'm set up.

We have seen some slight problems with mulitple video cards and multiboxing WoW, as described in these forums, and elsewhere. WoW is a 32 bit application, and even if run in a 64 bit OS, Warcraft can still only utilize a maximum of 4GB total RAM. If you allocate 1.5GB of that just to your video cards, you will only have 2.5GB left for the system to use for the OS, WoW, etc. This causes the machine to use the pagefile.sys (virtual memory) and it will really work your hard drives.

I have personally seen a machine with 2 x 8800GTX 1GB video cards have a performance boost when the second vid card was removed simply due to the better RAM usage.

But really, you're not speccing this machine for WoW. It looks more like a Crysis machine, to me.

[Majo]

If you allocate 1.5GB of that just to your video cards, you will only have 2.5GB left for the system to use for the OS, WoW, etc. This causes the machine to use the pagefile.sys (virtual memory) and it will really work your hard drives.

I have personally seen a machine with 2 x 8800GTX 1GB video cards have a performance boost when the second vid card was removed simply due to the better RAM usage.
I think you're implying that your video cards use your system RAM. They actually have on-board memory and don't affect your system RAM. The only time your computer's video would dip into your system memory is if it's on-board video that uses shared memory.

Correct me if I'm wrong - just thought I'd clear that up.

You'd be right about the accounts of reverting back to a single video card improving performance, though. In games like Wow that don't support SLI, many people have reported performance gains when reverting back to single cards. It's due to how the game works, though, not because the video cards use up your system memory. If you were to be playing a game that supports SLI, you would see a performance boost running 2 cards in SLI.

As for the 10k rpm hard drives, they're always a good idea for improving loading times either way. They won't, however, improve your fps as that load is on the cpu/memory/video card. Just something to keep in mind.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I have a few suggestions. I would opt for the following component changes from what's on your list:

Thermalright 120 Ultra + Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D 120mm Fan; fan is quieter than the one in your list or the one in the Thermaltake heatsink and clips right onto the Ultra120. This heatsink, while tougher to fit into narrow cases, is a 6-heat-pipe cooler versus the 4 in the one you reference. This has been tested by several websites and is only outperformed by liquid-cooling systems. For your case fans, go here ( http://www.silentpcreview.com/article695-page1.html ) and get one of the quieter ones in that list, IMO.
For your PSU, go here ( http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html ) and grab one of the better ones in that list. I just picked up a Seasonic 650 for my parents' new PC and the thing is a solid piece of quality. Very impressed with how quiet it is and the clean construction. Wasn't exorbitantly expensive, either. For your case, go here ( http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html ) and grab the one that best fits your needs. The one I picked up recently was the Antec Solo mid-tower. As that article mentions, it is one of the ones that does NOT suffer from harmonic vibration or cavity resonance, probably because it has sound-deadening panel inserts on the sides. ;) I love this case, even if it is a heavy SOB.The machine I just built has the above parts, including two of those Scythe 120mm S-Flex fans front and rear in the case, a Q9550 2.83GHz Core2Quad, 8800GT, RAID 1 (x2) Raptor 10k drives and 4GB of PC8500 RAM in it and not only does it scream in gaming but it's so quiet that you cannot hear it while your house A/C is running. I'm highly impressed (and thoroughly depressed at the shit I bought about 9 months ago before I knew about that site :( ).

[lans83]

did another build after the suggestions...hows this? the motherboard and vista are the same


2x Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136011

Rosewill RX950-D-B ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91 950W Power Supply 100 - 240 V TUV, FCC, UL, CE, ROHS - Retail (room for sli / physx / sound card later, and maybe an extra storage drive)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182097

2x OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227139

EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188024

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115043

Thermaltake CL-P0401 110mm Full-Range Fan CPU Cooler - Retail (i like this fan, sorry Ugh. I've read some pretty good reviews on this one)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106102

MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail (with free Witcher pc game. also thinkin of buying 2 for sli)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329

ABS Aplus ABS-CS-EL Diablo Black 0.8mm SECC ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811215006
with free
ABS Plastic and Fabric Gaming Chair - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16800995019

as of this post, total price from newegg after shipping = $1,610.28


If i do get 2 video cards, if i run them as two seperate cards, for muliple monitors, will this help with mulitboxing? say, run 2 accounts on on monitor/card, and 2 on another to lighten the load? another thing, i've still got my audigy 2 gamer sound card in my computer that crashed...would that work in this rig? or should i just go ahead and get the x-fi?

[Drizzit]

I think that it would be best to get a power supply that has Modular Cabling Support. Save some room. Also might want to get 4g of memory too.

This is what i have and have no problem 5 boxing:
Motherboard ('http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=E145-2034')
Power Supply ('http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=360941&prodlist=celebros')
CD Rom ('http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008493&prodlist=celebros')
Memory ('http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005472&prodlist=celebros')
Graphics ('http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007595&prodlist=celebros')

I think that my motherboard is the same as yours. That is one reason i don't like newegg it doesn't tell you that much about the stuff. The one i have you can use better memory. The memory that i put here is really good, it comes in a box, the memory has heat sinks and it also comes with a fan for the memory.

[Bovidae]

@Majo: I am implying that video RAM effects the use of system memory. Video memory has to be allocated, just like system memory, and is subject to the same 4gb cap imposed by 32bit applications. What's even worse, video ram is allocated first; if you have a 512mb card, then a 32bit program will only be able to use 3.5gb. 2x512mb vid cards, only 3gb usable.

In Re: Q9300, I don't understand why it only has 6mb L2cache. The cheaper Q6600 has 8mb and all the better processors come with a 12mb cache. This immediately turned me off to this specific chip, it is the only quad core like this...

[Ughmahedhurtz]

In Re: Q9300, I don't understand why it only has 6mb L2cache. The cheaper Q6600 has 8mb and all the better processors come with a 12mb cache. This immediately turned me off to this specific chip, it is the only quad core like this...I was going to say it was there as a price point "placeholder" for low-end workstations but looking at the pricing and test results, I'm not so sure.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_14.html

Looking on Newegg, the q6600 is about $60US less than the q9300. Judging from the test results, if you overclock, you'll end up with very similar results. So just depends on how much that 7% performance gain is worth to you.

[Ðeceased]

It's not even funny how cheap newegg is :S that processor costs at least £175 over here.. and I have searched the internet to death :S

[odon]

Regarding current memory price, I think you should go with 4x2 GB on Vista 64bits. (Vista 64 bits is for the 4GB problem, and the issue you may have with graphic memory as described above. And if you go Vista 64 bits, no reason to limit to 4 GB total RAM). Personnaly, with 5 wow, i got some swap problems in Shattrah when i have some background applications running.

[lans83]

if i go with the 8800 gt cards instead of the 9800s which of these two cards would be best to get? MSI vs Palit? Both have the same specs, same price, but the Palit is 10MHz slower on the core clock, but has 1gb on the memory size vs the MSI's 512MB. normally, you'd figure go with the 1gig over the 512MB, but is this really worth it? and is Palit a reliable enough brand to pick over MSI on this 1 card? plus, if i invest in 2 cards, would i be able to run them both as independant of each other with my main on one card and my slaves on the second card and run a single or two monitors off both cards with the following specs? yes i changed some parts out again. hopefully for the last time, but main concern now is the card investment. another thing, should i opt for the 10k raptors or would it be good enough to get 2x 7200 rpm drives and install WoW to seperate folders on each? i'm not worried about having to update it multiple times after each patch. would it benifit me to get 3x 80gigs for slaves and 1x 500gig, both 7200s, for main/storage/OS. for later use if i decide to go hardware boxing, i'll use the 80gigs for those rigs. or would there be a difference in performance vs the 2x 7200 500gigs? here are the links for them:

Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800AAJS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136195

Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136011

MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329

PALiT NE/880TSXT302 GeForce 8800GT SONIC 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261012

also thinking of getting this monitor. will surve as my gaming monitor for my 360 and ps3 cause of the hdmi ports. think it'd be a sound investment if i got 2 for my computer setup as well?

Acer P243WAid Black-Silver 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support 400 cd/m2 3000:1 ACM - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009125

[Old Dirty Bathtub]

I'd recommend going with 2x2GB RAM rather than 4x1GB. Getting the 2GB sticks gives you room to upgrade later without throwing out your existing RAM.

[ataylor20]

if i go with the 8800 gt cards instead of the 9800s which of these two cards would be best to get? MSI vs Palit? Both have the same specs, same price, but the Palit is 10MHz slower on the core clock, but has 1gb on the memory size vs the MSI's 512MB. normally, you'd figure go with the 1gig over the 512MB, but is this really worth it? and is Palit a reliable enough brand to pick over MSI on this 1 card? plus, if i invest in 2 cards, would i be able to run them both as independant of each other with my main on one card and my slaves on the second card and run a single or two monitors off both cards with the following specs? yes i changed some parts out again. hopefully for the last time, but main concern now is the card investment. another thing, should i opt for the 10k raptors or would it be good enough to get 2x 7200 rpm drives and install WoW to seperate folders on each? i'm not worried about having to update it multiple times after each patch. would it benifit me to get 3x 80gigs for slaves and 1x 500gig, both 7200s, for main/storage/OS. for later use if i decide to go hardware boxing, i'll use the 80gigs for those rigs. or would there be a difference in performance vs the 2x 7200 500gigs? here are the links for them:Ive never heard of the Palit brand myself Id like to hear someones opinion on it. I am also about to make a PC purchase and you nailed my HD question. I am having serious issues affording ~400 in 2 10k HD's and thinking of 2x 7200's myself. If anyone could explain the benefits Id appreciate it.

(First post, yea for me)

-Andrew

[Bovidae]

Simply, the faster harddrives will make the loading screen go away quicker. I have not seen an improvement in actual gameplay, but I hated watching those dang loading screens.

[Wilbur]

Whilst your in hugely populated areas it'll also make you load character textures faster(i.e they will appear sooner).