Getting more serious. Thoughts?

Heya all! <new face here>

In the past I've tried both dual- and tri-boxing running on a single computer. Now, I want to get more serious about my boxing and run 4-5 characters at once. In the upcoming days I'll be buying a new computer since my own is an extreme laptop gamer with two years of too much gaming on its record, and it's getting slower and slower. My question is...

Should I get one hell of a machine and 4-5 box on the one single rig, or should I get a more than decent one and try getting a few extra for my toons?

Specs of the computer I'd buy if....

Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-950 1366, 3.066GHz, QuickPath 4.8GTs, 4x 256KB, Boxed
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz 12GB CL9 Kit w/6x 2GB XMS3 modules, CL9-9-9-24, for Core i7
Corsair Powersupply 750W Black, ATX Bulk 140mm Fan, 8xSATA, SLI
XFX GeForce GTX 295 576M 1792MB PhysX PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI, HDCP, HDMI, Core 240x2, 55nm, Single PCB version
Seagate Barracuda® 7200.12 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 32MB, 7200RPM
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2, X58, Socket-1366 DDR3, ATX, SLI&CrossFireX, Firewire, 2xGbLAN, 3xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16
ASUS Xonar D2X/XDT, 7.1 channel SPDIF, EAX2.0, DTS, DVS, DDL, PCI-Express 1x

Any advice would be really appreciated!

That is a beast of a computer!. You should not have any issues 4/5 boxing with it.

Will your experience be better with multiple computers? All depends on settings, where you are and what you are doing. Although with a high end machine such as that I can't imagine really any area giving you issues.

I did not see any monitor listed, but 22" or larger would be best if you use a single one with 4/5 box.

Yeah that's pretty much how high end it'll go if you don't want to put another $800 or so for another identical monster graphics card.

I'm already in posession of a 21.5" and a 20" LCD monitor, and with the hypotetical purchase of the monster listed above, with it comes another 21.5" so monitors wont be a problem, I'd think!

Well my computer is a step down from that like i7 920, 12 gigs of
memory, gtx nvidia 285.. Ect... It runs 60 fps with the settings up and all that jazz... It's beast like smooth in wg and, and in huge wg battles it stays 30-45 fps and those huge battles don't happen much and 45 is still good ( also have fraps goin, vent, Internet all that

You could probably run 10 on that. I run 10 no problems but with a x2 vid card and 16gb ram.

Maybe think about an extra disk for raid0, or an extra 2 for raid5, wouldn't up the price much, and would give you a boost in performance when moving zone to zone etc.

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Originally Posted by Barelan

Maybe think about an extra disk for raid0, or an extra 2 for raid5, wouldn't up the price much, and would give you a boost in performance when moving zone to zone etc.

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A barely noticeable difference... shaving a few seconds off each time you zone (but you don't zone that much in WoW.)

The machines a beast, will run 5 just fine even on a high pop server in crowded prime time Dalaran.

Id stick to one computer, much less stuff to deal with... that will run like they said 5+ *NO PROBLEM*

Thanks a lot for the response! Another question popped into my mind, which OS would be best to run? Figured I'd need a 64-bit OS to handle the great amount of RAM. Vista 64?

Starting out new, go Windows 7

yep - Win7 (64-bit). If you're buying retail somewhere now you'll probably get Vista with a coupon for a free upgrade with Win7 is officially realeased (Oct 22). If you're building yourself, then just go to microsoft.com and download the release candidate for free (free until March 2010).

My suggestions would be to make sure you have a case with very good cooling capacity (My five boxing rig runs a little warmer boxing then even running newer high end games), and it wouldn't hurt to think about a bigger power supply. I would be hard pressed to go under 1000w anymore myself.

I am considering almost the same machine, with three minor exceptions... what do you guys think?

• Instead of the i7 950, I would get the 920. Not really sure how much of a difference the .6-.7 GHz will make. EDIT: The price difference between these two chips is $290 on newegg, so for that price, I could get a second SSD (see below), and run them in Raid. IMO, that would be a better performance boost that the extra 0.4 GHz increase from the processor. Is that right, or would the faster processor still be better?
• I was thinking of running with just 6GB of RAM instead of 12. I know that more memory is always helpful... but to 5-box on one machine, would I need 12 GB of RAM?
• Instead of running off of one (or more) HDD, I was going to get a SSD. Probably an 80GB or 120GB SSD. I have heard that these things are AMAZINGLY fast. This disc would be for applications only, and all media would be stored on a seperate 1 TB HDD.

Are these specs "good enough"... or should I reconsider and get the same machine provided above? I don't want to spend $1500+ on a computer, only to find out that it "isn't quite good enough". I will be running this machine on my 60" TV, with a second monitor sitting next to me (on the end-table)...

@ Keff,
From the language in your posts, it sounds like you are buying a pre-build (as opposed to newegg-ing the parts and building your own PC). Can you link to the computer that you are considering? I would be interested to compare the prices of your "pre-build" to building it myself. I TOTALLY understand that some people are not comfortable dealing with the insides of a PC, but I am an electronics technician, so it's second nature to me.

The one benifit of buying a pre-built, is that there is someone to call if/when you are having problems. I may go that route... IF the cost difference were within reason. Even if you can't link the computer with all the finalized specs, just linking the "starting PC" would be great. I know that we can all find it ourselves (via HP.com or Alienware)... but if you already have it specced out... we can all just /click your link

I'd agree that a SSD is probably more of an improvment instead of going from from the 920 to the 950. You can always OC the 920 a bit if you want to.

12GB of RAM is probably more important than either the 950 or the SSD. For most things in northrend, and especially Dalaran and WG you will need as much memory as you can get. If you absolutely need to cut costs, then maybe get 3x 2GB sticks initially, just plan on getting 3x2GB more sticks before you level to northrend. (If you're doing multiple RAF accounts to 60 you may have a few months before you get to northrend.)

Concure on the SSD as well. The "cheap" option here is a 32GB SSD ($120) that's just for WOW and a seperate standard HD ($60-90 for 500GB-1TB) for everything else. You can easily symlink 5x WoW folders there and still be under 17GB. That leaves room for some other apps/games, but not a whole lot. Good 64GB drives can be had for $200 and good 120GB drives are under $300 now. How much stuff you want to put on it is really up to you. But you can get blazing fast performance + room for storage for under $200 if you want to.

I was actually considering several changes in the setup even before I saw you very informative posts. Money isn't really a big issue in this matter so removing/degrading parts for other ones isn't needed. I might just add up with a few extras.

I planned to use the following hard drive for WoW:
32 GB Ritek RiDATA 2.5 inch SATA Gaming SLC Solid State Disk

Keep the i7 950, maybe add up for RAM with 1600 or 1800Mhz nad with one or two extra TB for media and other stuff.

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12GB of RAM is probably more important than either the 950 or the SSD

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I personally wouldn`t take 12GB.
I`m running with 8GB and I`m 5boxing. Even in WG and dalaran my system never uses more then 5.5GB. I tryed with 4GB at first but it was just horrible in every new zone.

Or just take the 12GB for future 10boxing maybe :-)