Quad core is a given
3 gigs of ram?
256 mb vid card?
anything else that comes to mind?
Quad core is a given
3 gigs of ram?
256 mb vid card?
anything else that comes to mind?
For quad boxing, I think 4GB of ram is imperative. I'd wager you'd see better performance out of a dual-core and 4GB of ram than a quad-core and 3GB of ram.
A 4GB, Q6600, 8800-series system is a very capable 4xClient system. But I have 4xboxed for 5 months now with a 4GB, E6600 dual-core, 7600 series card with almost no issues other than crowded Shattrath and AV when there's 40 people nearby.
Running vista I am always sitting at 3.2gb of ram used (out of 3.5gb available to the OS) on my Quad Core 4GB system.
3.0gb ram will 4 box nicely, but adding a 5th will start paging to disc, and you will suffer.
I'd recommend a 512mb video card as well, 3 clients will fit nicely under the 256mb cap but over 3 and you'll start using system ram for your video graphics textures and see a performance hit.
DDR2 is so cheap, it shouldn't even be a concern. This is assuming you aren't using DDR3, because you used the word "Cheapest"
Get 4gb (or man up and buy 8) and call it a day.
I built a quad Q6600, 4GB, 8800GT system a few months back for about $1200 with really good parts (1066MHz RAM, redundant mobo with all the whistles, overkill PSU, etc.). You should be able to easily cobble up a system with 800MHz RAM, 8600GT and a less expensive mobo/PSU for under $1000 today.
Just don't forget that even with 4 gigs, you need a 64 bit OS for it to see that much. The max is typically 3-3.5 for a 32 bit OS.