Multiple Hardrives? Multiple WoW Folders? Symlink? What's best for performance?

While I'm waiting on my new rig to arrive I thought I'd try to get some opinions on what's best for performance for Multiboxing (I pland on running 5toons) on one PC (Specs at bottom of post) before I load WoW and other related software to my rig. I've done some searching and have seen varried opinions on what's best for the following:

1. Is it better to have WoW and all it's related software on a different HD than your operating system? I am assuming it is. (Yes or NO?)

2. Is it better to use one WoW folder or Multiple? If multiple WoW folders are used does symlinking increase performance?

3. Is it better to split up the WoWs across multiple cores of the CPU through manual settings, or does it basically do the same thing when you assign them through Keyclone or ISBoxer if it has that option?

Thanks in advance for the help and advice. :)

PC Details:
-i7 CPU
-ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 mobo
-12gig RAM
-GTX 280 1MB video card
-2x 500MB HD
-1000W PS
-Liquid Cooled
-Vista Home Premium 64-bit
-Currently using Keyclone, but thinking about using IS and ISBoxer

Right now I ran out of money so I've got my WoW on the same HDD as my OS and it doesnt seem to affect it at all. I have heard symlinking greatly increases performance but ive had no issues at all on my i7 so I havent done it yet. Yes I do spread my WoWs out amongst the cores in my i7 and everything runs very smoothly. Also my single HDD isnt very special its a WD 500gig 32mb cache Black edition. The i7 is so sick it laughs at 5 wows.

Edit- Also I run max res on main, lowest on alts, i have aero turned on, i have 3 sidebar programs open(vista- weather monitor, cpu monitor, and WoW realm status) and usually run vent and media player all while 5 boxing and my i7's total cpu usage never hits 50% LOL.

Your rig looks about the same as mine will.. once I get the guts to press buy on the website :). I was wondering what type of cooling you are using, and how much of it? I have heard some people using many different cooling systems in one rig to keep it cool!

1. no clue.
2. It mythed that it does increase proformance, but last ive checked there are very mixed results.. I am betting its based of the rig that you have.. What I am thinking with bad computers, the many diffent folders clog of the memory or w/e in the computer so it decreases, but with good computers that can handle like all that space of 4 wow folders, then it would increase. I would try it out and see how it goes.
3. Im pretty sure spliting them manually will help. Again try it and see how it works on your rig specifically.

1) Yes. Windows can't keep it's mitts off of things running on the same drive that it runs on.

2) I had a significant performance increase when I went to multiple, symlinked, folders. Aside from the performance, on patch day I update one WoW folder and copy/paste to update the rest and I have one set of addons to update.

3) I used to use Windows affinity for this but I am a lot more please with the flexibility of doing it with Keyclone. I don't know how it changes performance.

My system is one step down from yours in all respects and I never lag in cities (outside of server lag). I have raided with 8 WoW's in Kara and ZA on my one machine.

edit: one thing to note. my separate drive for WoW is actually 2 drives connected via RAID0.

Now a days air coolers for 75-100$ are just as good as 500$ liquid cooling systems, im using one of the lower grade cpu coolers, the coolermaster v8. My cpu temp never cracks 35c even after 5 hours of multi boxing, but also my rooms ambient temp is only about 68-70 i like it cold.

Hey Enndoh can you give me your specific specs on you cooling system? and your video card(s), I am going through a full upgrade, and im not sure where to turn with those!

thanks, you have been posting liike crazy dude latley!

Sure, right now im using an evga gtx 285 superclocked edition, this card is a beast lol, and my cpu cooler is a cooler master v8 Air cooler, its huge but does a great job. I got both from newegg. Also the coolermaster v8 looks awsome in my case thru the side window lol.

sweet thanks! ima prolly go with the video card that is a step under urs.. the like 275 or w/e. The cooling system looks like a boss, I hope it fits :) Thanks dude

The gtx 275 is really nice, I only went with the 285 cause i had some extra money that week lol, but im glad I did.

I noticed a slight performance boost when I symlinked my wow folders.
However, I had patching issues twice and eventually needed a reinstall in both cases.

Case 1
Root WoW (nothing ran off of this).
Linked copies 1-6 (1-5 boxing options down, 6 raiding full graphics).

I patched the root wow, had some kind of an error. One of my clones would crash the game.
The other clones would get to a point where they wanted to patch but the game version was already good.
A GM eventually told me it was because I had previously run the beta on the system, despite uninstalling it at the end of beta.

Case 2
Same Set Up as Case 1.

Difference here, I broke the Symlinks prior to patching the main Root wow.
Had some stupid error while applying the patch.
Thereafter, got a red error message box at username/password screen, and could not progress.
Not positive if this was a SymLink issue or not.

Running 5 instances of warcraft, from a single install, on one hard drive... works fine.
I can run five clients around Dalaran; while not entirely smooth, I don't lose follow going from A to B at peak times.
I can battleground or raid with 40 toons near me fine.
Wintergrasp, like Dalaran was not entirely smooth but it is playable.

My system was pretty killer when I got it, but its "ok" now.
Q6600, 8 gb Patriot (Low Latency) ram @ 800mhz, HD 4870 X2, Raptor 10k rpm HD.
Nothing over clocked.

The difference between symlink and not is twofold for me:
a) Symlinked would be slow for a few seconds in Dal/Shatt, then it would be very slightly faster. Non SymLink stayed at the not faster speed.
b) Symlinked has required a reinstall every patch. Not Symlinked has never required a reinstall from patching.

For the very slight gain, imo - it is not worth the patching issues.




*Edit*
Regarding the multiple cores...

Warcraft has a few features for dual core processors.
With two cores running a warcraft the game is faster then one core running the game.

Keyclone had a recent thread for i7 affinity, something like:

Wow 1... Cores 2 & 3
Wow 2... Cores 3 & 4
Wow 3... Cores 4 & 5
Wow 4... Cores 5 & 6
Wow 5... Cores 6 & 7

That was not it exactly, because it used all of the cores, but there was overlap and 2 cores per warcraft client.

1. Generally speaking from an experience POV I have found that any game experience has been improved upon by separating it onto its own drive from the OS. this includes all my single player FPS games as well. There's probably a technical aspect I just don't know what it is. read/writes maybe.

2. Symlinking gives slight performance increases but nothing that will drastically change the way you play. Alot of it is configuration ease. I've never run into the issues that Ualaa has run into thank goodness. That sounds like it could be very frustrating.

3. This should be the exact same. Whether you set it manually or do it thru keyclone it should be doing the same thing.