Building Another Comp - Need some Suggestions

Hi all,

I'm going to be building another computer soon here (within the next week or so) to go along with my other machines (I currently have 5 machines, but I built a super comp about a year ago which I've been using almost exclusively to run 8+ wow clients, since I 10-box).

Right now, on my main computer, I can handle about 8-10 WoW Clients running at once with 2 monitors working together (6600, 8 GBs RAM, Nvidia setup). On 5-6 clients, I get perfect FPS (35-40?) in most areas. When I exceed about 7 WoW clients, the FPS begins to tank and I'm guessing that it has something to do with my running 2 monitors on the setup (RAM doesn't appear to be an issue). What I'm trying to find out here from you guys is: WHAT would it take to handle 10+ WoW clients on one machine with two monitors running at once? Is it possible? What kind of FPS would I get (roughly).

The machine that I'm building is as follows:

- Intel 920 i7 Processor
- 12 GBS DDR3 RAM PC12800 spec
- ?? Video Card (or cards)

What type of video card would you suggest that I purchase to handle two monitors at once with 10+ WoW Clients on this setup? Is SLI an Option? One of my friends runs a SLI setup, but it requires that he can only have 1 monitor active at a time. Is there a way around this?

Sorry for the multitude of questions :-; just trying to get this right. Besides, if what I'm asking isn't possible, then I'll still settle for having 2 machines that can run the 10 clients :) ... its better than operating with 5 pcs.

Thanks

We currently have the exact same setup however I am on one computer as my girlie needed the other 2. I run 5 instances of wow but I am thinking of running 8 -10.

I would expect the video card to be an easy deal. I would not suggest SLI as I hear many good and bad things, there is no one answer on it. However you could just install another video card and not do the sli connection. Run them independently and you should be ok.

Let me know how this works out as I am thinking about the upgrades as well.

Oh 2 things I need to know

What video card are you using? I have the 4800 series.

Also have you tested to see how many wow clients will run smoothly on one cpu affinity. I am guessing that will determine whether or not 1 or 2 computers will do. If the cpu is choking at 2 instances then you have your answer. You need another computer. If it is barely noticable then I think you can just upgrade from there and everything should be ok.

My concern is not the video cards as the solution is easy but how the CPU handles multiple instances of WoW on each affinity.

You are definitely on the right track.

While it is possible to run SLI on two monitors now (very recent development) I would recommend against it. Running 10 instances, I would want 4 screens: 1 fullscreen display, 2 splitscreen displays and a web browser display. A single 4870 X2 would do the trick, or a pair of 9800gtx's -> 260gtx's ->280gtx's would do the trick (in ascending order of cost and performance)

If you are not considering any more than two monitors, I would consider the 4870 or the 260/280 only.

To add on to the above post....

I know I am late the party on this one but I was shopping for a new card for 5 clients on 2 monitors. I went to Toms Hardware and looked over the benchmark tests taking note of the high resolution results, with AA turned on. What really showed on the high resolutions was lack of video ram. Even though they were testing on one monitor this should resemble the video demands we put on the cards.

If you like to have one instance turned up a bit and the others at min (like me) then I think it comes down to about 3 models Nvidia 260 or 280 (if you have the $$) or the Ati 4870. Any of those in 1GB should do the trick. There are a bunch of X2 models now but I am not sure about the stability. The price really goes up when you look at the X2 models though and I am sure driver updates will improve them with time.

I purchased a 1gb 4870 and a larger power supply to cover my butt. My card is on its way so I can not report on performance just yet.

Whichever you choose, please let us know how it works out. You can put a real good load on the video and it would be cool to hear how it handles it.

I run a i7 920 system with 12GB ram. For video cards I use 2 260GTXs in SLI mode, haven't had any issues, and I did see a FPS difference between 1 and 2 cards.

Note that I overclocked both the CPU (moved it to 3.8Ghz, and am not using stock cooling), and overclocked the video cards (turned fans to 100% on both, temps around 55C).

Honestly though I saw the bigger difference with symbolic linked directories and fast hard drives, I run 2 300GB velociraptors (10K RPM) in Raid 0 mode.

Don't forget to back up important data, when that raid fails, you won't be able to recover without a backup.