Hardware and Class Choices

[kermitforney]

I have two questions to ask the Dual Box community.

1.) I am currently running WOW and am having memory issues (not enough).
I am running 64bit Vista and my mem resources hover aroun 96 percent Dual boxing two accounts. I am planning on running 5 this weekend.

Current Rig:
Intel Core 2 Duo
2gig DDR2 1066
Nvidia 8800GTS 320

Would a bump to 4gig's of ram be that beneficial while 5 boxing? Also, if I were to buy another 8800GTS would I be able to run four monitors independantly or is there another way to run four from my current single gfx card?


2.) I am planning on 5 boxing, but I am not too sure of what class to go with (spell casting).

What are some of the benefits and drawbacks to going with Mage/Warlock/Shaman.

Thanks guys!

I am not a noob to dual boxing but a noob to this forum!! p

[beyond-tec]

I have two questions to ask the Dual Box community.

1.) I am currently running WOW and am having memory issues (not enough).
I am running 64bit Vista and my mem resources hover aroun 96 percent Dual boxing two accounts. I am planning on running 5 this weekend.

Current Rig:
Intel Core 2 Duo
2gig DDR2 1066
Nvidia 8800GTS 320

Would a bump to 4gig's of ram be that beneficial while 5 boxing? Also, if I were to buy another 8800GTS would I be able to run four monitors independantly or is there another way to run four from my current single gfx card?

Multiboxing on one PC = CPU Speed + CPU Cores + RAM

I'd prefer a big TFT and a smaller TFT and WoW Maximizer so you can start 4 WoW sessions in small windows (inactive sessions on the big monitor) and the active session with more size on the second (smaller) monitor.

2.) I am planning on 5 boxing, but I am not too sure of what class to go with (spell casting).

What are some of the benefits and drawbacks to going with Mage/Warlock/Shaman.

Thanks guys!

I am not a noob to dual boxing but a noob to this forum!! p

PvP or PVE ?

PVE you need healer, tank and DPS / CC (I would prefer Paladin, Priest, 3 Mages)

PvP you should run a 1 priest + 4 warlocks or a 5 shaman group.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Mage benefits:
--> lots of burst DPS
--> lots of AoE DPS
--> heavy crit (against non-resilient targets)
--> Good CC in PvE (against certain targets)
--> Trinket+PoM+Pyro
--> Good itemization from quests almost immediately in outlands
--> few abilities to worry about putting on hotbars
--> Blink for getting out of stun/root/etc.
Mage problems:
--> Mana use in longer fights or where lots of AoE is required
--> Squishy
--> No pets
--> Squishy
--> Did I mention they were squishy?

Shaman (elemental) benefits:
--> Decent single-target DPS
--> Limited AoE DPS (chain lightning and fire nova totem only)
--> Group heals
--> totems, Totems, TOTEMS!
--> Chain mail, so they can take a few hits while you recover
--> Fast single heals
--> totems, Totems, TOTEMS!
--> FROSTSHOOOOOOOOOOCK
--> Tremor/Grounding totems
Shaman (elemental) issues:
--> Limited AoE
--> totems limit your mobility
--> Mana use is high
--> DPS isn't as high as with pure damage classes
--> Itemization at lower levels sucks balls
--> zero worthwhile CC

Warlock benefits:
--> Pets = pocket tanks
--> Can DPS while moving and while facing away from the target
--> Can heal pets yourself
--> Can heal self with siphon life/drain life
--> lots of CC (fear, horror, AoE fear, seduce, silence)
--> Mana drain x4/x5 = empty casters
--> unlimited mana with a group healer (i.e.: priest)
--> Decent AoE with hellfire/rain of fire
--> Can stack a lot of abilities onto a few macros
Warlock issues:
--> Pets can't tank uber elites very well
--> no innate fear/CC escapes
--> Squishy
--> damage takes time to apply itself (18-24 seconds)
--> CC doesn't last as long as sheep
--> Best PvE spec different from best PVP spec (*caveat emptor*)

That's my short list. There's more but that should be enough to chew on for now.

[Stealthy]

Mage benefits:
Shaman (elemental) benefits:

--> totems, Totems, TOTEMS!
--> FROSTSHOOOOOOOOOOCK

Hahahah, Ah I remember that video...it was awesome!

[kermitforney]

Multiboxing on one PC = CPU Speed + CPU Cores + RAM

I'd prefer a big TFT and a smaller TFT and WoW Maximizer so you can start 4 WoW sessions in small windows (inactive sessions on the big monitor) and the active session with more size on the second (smaller) monitor.


PvP or PVE ?

PVE you need healer, tank and DPS / CC (I would prefer Paladin, Priest, 3 Mages)

PvP you should run a 1 priest + 4 warlocks or a 5 shaman group.

Right now I have two 19' LCD's that work just fine and I am going to add a 24' or 22' widscreen when I decide to go SLI. I also ordered the ext 4gig of DDR1066 and will post back with my results on improved performance.

I jumped the gun today and got the extra copies of WOW so I will begin five boxin as soon as I get keyclone up and running.

Thanks for the reply, tec! )

[Bollwerk]

The memory performance figures inside Vista are misleading, because Vista has some fancy new caching features. Basically, any free memory not used by software running is used to cache data that it thinks you will need in the near future, so from what I understand it will always looks like it is using all your RAM, no matter how much you have. What is a better thing to look at is how much RAM each process (like wow.exe) is using. When I run each of my WoW windows, they take up around 300MB or so each. But I run with a lot of effects turned off/down. But I also can run 3 instances of WoW easily on a Core 2 duo laptop with 2GB of ram. I suspect I could run more if I needed to.

[kermitforney]

The memory performance figures inside Vista are misleading, because Vista has some fancy new caching features. Basically, any free memory not used by software running is used to cache data that it thinks you will need in the near future, so from what I understand it will always looks like it is using all your RAM, no matter how much you have. What is a better thing to look at is how much RAM each process (like wow.exe) is using. When I run each of my WoW windows, they take up around 300MB or so each. But I run with a lot of effects turned off/down. But I also can run 3 instances of WoW easily on a Core 2 duo laptop with 2GB of ram. I suspect I could run more if I needed to.

I think your referring to Vista Prefetch, but I don't think it allocates ALL of the remaining memory for cache purposes. I am having some other issues too so I am gonna run some tests to check where my bottleneck(s) are. I also have a C2Duo lappy that I can run multiple instances of WOW no problem.

Thanks for the reply though! Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

[CPTMuller]

I was under the impression you could turn off or otherwise disable Prefetch, if not thats pretty lame. I had Vista for a month, and I can't speak for everyone, but my expieriences with it were attrocious. I am a gamer and it broke 3/4 of my games! The ones that worked were crippled!
That being said I was running a core duo laptop specs:
Core Duo @ 1.83 ghz
2 Gigs of ram @ 533mhz
Geforce 7900GS Go (only slightly overclocked once to test it)
120 Gig HDD @ 5400RPM (~50 gigs free when gaming)
1920 by 1200 flatpanel ( Was gaming at 1280 by 1024 or 1600 by 1200 depending on where I was (only using one monitor mind you))

My framerates were halved and loading was sluggish

[MindCrime]

Would a bump to 4gig's of ram be that beneficial while 5 boxing?

Not sure what OS you're using but windows XP won't benefit from anymore than 3g of ram. Its just the way the OS works. Vista has a much higher maximum, not sure of it off the top of my head. Going over 3g with XP is just a waste of memory. Issue now is that you want to keep your DDR ram in pairs right or else it blows. So, if 768mb dims existed that would be optimal, but you've basically got 256mb, 512, 1g, and 2g options. My rig does fine with 2g (1GBx2). I've also maximised my FSB thus bringing my ram speed up. I actually had to slow the ram down due to crashes. Anyways 2gigs of ram is plenty imo, just keep other apps to a minimum. You can also play with your virtual memory as well.

[kermitforney]

Would a bump to 4gig's of ram be that beneficial while 5 boxing?

Not sure what OS you're using but windows XP won't benefit from anymore than 3g of ram. Its just the way the OS works. Vista has a much higher maximum, not sure of it off the top of my head. Going over 3g with XP is just a waste of memory. Issue now is that you want to keep your DDR ram in pairs right or else it blows. So, if 768mb dims existed that would be optimal, but you've basically got 256mb, 512, 1g, and 2g options. My rig does fine with 2g (1GBx2). I've also maximised my FSB thus bringing my ram speed up. I actually had to slow the ram down due to crashes. Anyways 2gigs of ram is plenty imo, just keep other apps to a minimum. You can also play with your virtual memory as well.

The limitation on maximum memory (RAM) is due to the bit size 32bit vs. 64bit and memory addressing. I have Vista 64bit so I stuck in some old DDR2 667 that I had and bumped the FSB down a bit from 1066 and it runs fine without having to adjust memory timings. Switching between windows is a breeze now that I have a bit more memory, however slower it maybe.