Need advice on computer I'm buying

I am getting this setup dirt cheap for $300
It's a Gateway DX4200
this link is the DX4200-09 which is a different processor but you get the idea http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668220.php

Quad core processor AMD Phenom X4 9550 / 2.2 GHz
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon HD 3450
640.0 GB SATA Hard Drive

Although this is nothing amazing I am considering adding some more goodies to it.

2x 32 GB Solid State Disks in a raid setup
a new Video Card yet to be decided to run 2 moniters
4 GB more ram (for a total of 8gb)
and a second moniter for more screen real estate

What is your opinion on this...
What Video Card would you suggest as a budget option....
What do you think about the SSDs and would 32gb be enough for 5 copies of wow?
Would this setup even run 5 copies of wow??

Any advice/suggestions are much appreciated.

I'm the opposite of an expert, but I'm guessing you're lacking RAM for 5 boxing Northrend content. Also, you don't need 5 installs of WoW, and I'd go with one cheap 32GB SSD so you can spend your money elsewhere.

Well I used to use multiple installs before when I dual boxed so I was planning to use multiple for 5 boxing but I guess I could just use 1.

The reason I was going to raid 2 SSDs was for the even faster read times.

Do you suggest 1-2 SSDs for Wow and my OS then? I could just use the 640gb drive for extra storage

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Originally Posted by Hotnutz

Quad core processor AMD Phenom X4 9550 / 2.2 GHz
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon HD 3450
640.0 GB SATA Hard Drive

2x 32 GB Solid State Disks in a raid setup
a new Video Card yet to be decided to run 2 moniters
4 GB more ram (for a total of 8gb)
and a second moniter for more screen real estate

What is your opinion on this...
What Video Card would you suggest as a budget option....
If you want a decent budget option (Sub $120 US)....evga 9800GT. Solid and dependable, and a big step up from the 3450.

What do you think about the SSDs and would 32gb be enough for 5 copies of wow?
I agree that 2x32 GB SSDs are overkill. I run only 2 full copies of WoW. one for solo, one for MB (so when I 5 box, all from one directory. The days of 5 copies are over...there is little to no benefit (see other threads).

Would this setup even run 5 copies of wow??
As long as you get the 8GB total RAM, you will have zero issues. (Assuming you run lower graphics settings on Alts)

Any advice/suggestions are much appreciated.
Buy only 1 SSD, take that extra money and upgrade to a gtx 260 (or HD 5770 if you're an ATI person) for around $200.

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See RED above

I don't know how fast the 2x 32 GB Solid State Disks in a raid setup are going to be.

I have the 2 x WD raptor with 10,000 rpm raided and love the speed they have. You will have to watch out for the memory. The reason i say this is that the motherboard can use up to 8g of memory and it comes with 4g. The motherboard probably only has 4 slots for memory and the 4g of memory are 4x1g. This means that you have to buy all new memory 4x2g memory. You will also need to buy a video card. Built in video cards suck for gaming. Also you need to fix the bios so it doesn't use the on board video. Even though you have nothing plugged into it, it still uses memory unless shut off.

If you are going vista you can use symbolic link this will save a ton of space on your hard drive. I just link the data folders.

If you are going to change the HD, memory, add video card; you are only pretty much paying for a computer case, CD rom, mouse, keyboard, windows, and motherboard. In the link it doesn't say anything about a moniter.

Great Advice VonHenry. Thank you very much. Do you think I should get a SSD large enough to also run my OS and other programs? I would think this would be the way to go that way my OS wont hold me back and my other programs as well. Otherwise I would get a smaller SSD just to hold WoW.

@Drizzit I already have one 22" widescreen LCD for it.

I was told that you basically want half your hard drive free that is running the os. So if you have a 100g hard drive that your OS is on you should not use more then 50g. If you have a second drive you can max it out. Also if you get a second drive i would suggest that you put page file on that drive.

The half free is something i heard when i first started using computers, about 10 years ago, where 5g was a lot. So things have probably changed, but the sizes of hard drives these days i don't come close, i just store all my music, video, and stuff on a portable hd.

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Originally Posted by Drizzit

I don't know how fast the 2x 32 GB Solid State Disks in a raid setup are going to be.

I have the 2 x WD raptor with 10,000 rpm raided and love the speed they have. You will have to watch out for the memory. The reason i say this is that the motherboard can use up to 8g of memory and it comes with 4g. The motherboard probably only has 4 slots for memory and the 4g of memory are 4x1g. This means that you have to buy all new memory 4x2g memory. You will also need to buy a video card. Built in video cards suck for gaming. Also you need to fix the bios so it doesn't use the on board video. Even though you have nothing plugged into it, it still uses memory unless shut off.

If you are going vista you can use symbolic link this will save a ton of space on your hard drive. I just link the data folders.

If you are going to change the HD, memory, add video card; you are only pretty much paying for a computer case, CD rom, mouse, keyboard, windows, and motherboard. In the link it doesn't say anything about a moniter.

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I was using 2x WD 300GB Velociraptor 10k rpm drives in RAID0, and *one* cheap SSD I'm currently using is faster. I was using a 64GB OCZ Core SSD, which was faster than the Velociraptors, and now I'm using an Intel 80GB drive. There is FAR less of a difference between the cheap $100 SSD and the moderate $300 SSD compared to the SLOW RAID0 10k rpm drives. RAID0 SSDs will be much faster than any SATA 10k drive can offer. It's all about RANDOM READS! That's what SSDs destroy disc-based hard drives in performance.

Sorry, but anyone who thinks stardard disc-based hard drives are faster than SSDs for our multiboxing purposes just don't have any experience with SSDs and WoW. When I bought the two 300GB Velociraptors as my main OS/App RAID0 array 9 months ago, I didn't know I'd regret that decision so soon. I'm now going to put both the OS and WoW on RAID0 Intel SSDs and keep the Velociraptors in a separate RAID0 array to hold the OS virtual swap space & use as a scratch disk for photoshop as well as video/audio encoding.

This is just me, but if you are going 2 HD and are not raiding them, then i would put the OS on its own HD and then put all my programs on the second HD (like wow, everquest, etc...). The reason is that you are working with 2 read heads. The OS can do its thing and not have to touch the wow hard drive and vise verse.

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Originally Posted by -silencer-

I was using 2x WD 300GB Velociraptor 10k rpm drives in RAID0, and *one* cheap SSD I'm currently using is faster. I was using a 64GB OCZ Core SSD, which was faster than the Velociraptors, and now I'm using an Intel 80GB drive. There is FAR less of a difference between the cheap $100 SSD and the moderate $300 SSD compared to the SLOW RAID0 10k rpm drives. RAID0 SSDs will be much faster than any SATA 10k drive can offer. It's all about RANDOM READS! That's what SSDs destroy disc-based hard drives in performance.

Sorry, but anyone who thinks stardard disc-based hard drives are faster than SSDs for our multiboxing purposes just don't have any experience with SSDs and WoW. When I bought the two 300GB Velociraptors as my main OS/App RAID0 array 9 months ago, I didn't know I'd regret that decision so soon. I'm now going to put both the OS and WoW on RAID0 Intel SSDs and keep the Velociraptors in a separate RAID0 array to hold the OS virtual swap space & use as a scratch disk for photoshop as well as video/audio encoding.

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wow, thanks for letting me know. Like i said i have no clue. I got my boxing machine about 2-3 years ago when the raptors where the best thing. Do you have a link or something that i can look up SSD? If that is the case and SSD are better i might do what you are doing and buy 1 and put wow on it and have the raptors as the OS.

If you're only getting an SSD for WoW, even the Intel seems to be overkill.