Switching from 1 PC to 5 PCs, need some advice on these builds.

[Freddie]

I tend to go overboard for computers, I guess it's just my nature.

Seems to me there are two different ways of going overboard. One way is you pay a big premium for a small amount of additional performance. Lots of people here do that. They spend maybe twice as much for a build that gives them a 30% higher frame rate or something of the sort. These people are definitely getting something for the extra money, athough if they waited a year they could buy the faster machine without spending more money... then many of them could afford to upgrade more frequently and they would end up with higher performance on average over time. But the bottom line is, they're getting something for the extra money.

But there's another way of going overboard where you spend more and get absolutely nothing. Zero performance increase. That just doesn't make sense to me. Some things in that category are faster CPUs for video-bottlenecked games, quad core CPUs for systems used only to run single instances of games, extra RAM when your system isn't generating page faults with its current RAM, power supplies that are much bigger than the amount of power your PC draws at full load, etc.

The first way, you're climbing up the price curve past the sweet spot and getting diminishing returns. The second way, you're burning money.

2GB of RAM running two WoW at once?

I don't understand where the 2 GB number comes from -- didn't you write 8 GB in your current build? -- but you can look at the number of hard page faults generated by your application (called "hard faults/sec" on Resource Monitor) and see whether there will be a benefit from more RAM. If your system generates zero hard page faults while your app is running then more RAM won't do anything.

I was looking at cheaper cases, but I'm like $50 more per case didn't seem like a lot, but now looking at it again it does. I could just build a homemade 'rack' that just houses a motherboard, video card, memory, cpu, and a power supply that feeds all 4 computers.

I use individual rackmount cases from Newegg for about $70. Plain, no frills, industrial, extremely sturdy.

[Ken]

Processor clock speed is more important the number of cores. Get a fast dual core.

Indeed, a fast dual core can easily run 5 instances at a decent framerate and with mid-to-high settings.
On the other hand: a fast dual core costs probably as much as a cheaper quad core(around $200?) ... and having your quad core at a lower load is always nice (in relation to temperature, power usage and fan noise).

[bryce]

@Freddie: People were saying use 2gb of RAM in the secondary machines. And I'm like Sam, why bother, RAM's super cheap nowadays.

[Freddie]

Oh sorry I missed that.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

another thing to factor in is weather you want to go full hardware (KVM switch and multiplexer) or software to broadcast to all the computers. vetra has an 8 port KVM switch and multiplexer for about $360+, probably the cheapest one around.

as for the computers you put together... well.. i would have thought you were going to start 25 boxing. you can easily make a computer more then capable of boxing 1 or 2 instances of WoW for under $500. just some food for thought. also go dual or single core. 2G of RAM is enough to run 1 instance but RAM is so cheap you might as well get 4G if you ever decide to go 10 boxing. you don't have to buy a GPU, there are plenty of MoBo's out there with onboar graphics that can handle 1 or 2 instances of WoW for around $150. you would probably only need a 400w PSU to run the slave machiens, maybe less. if you want a nice, cheap case, get the Antec 300. if you are only going to be using these for wow then you only need an 80G HDD but for only like $10 more you can get a 160G one and that will be just fine. you only need like 17" monitors, you can find those easy for around $80, maybe less.

basicly you are spending WAY too much for what you want. wow is not a very graphicly demanding game. it can run smoothly on just about anything.

Hope this helps some ^_^

~YYF

[pinotnoir]

I changed from running wow x 5 on 1 q6600 system to running 2 pc's and its great. My main pc is an i7 920 and it runs 3 wows. My other two wows are run of fmy q6600 system. So far it works really nice. I think two pc is all you need. Doing 5 pc's is just a waste I think.

[Owltoid]

I changed from running wow x 5 on 1 q6600 system to running 2 pc's and its great. My main pc is an i7 920 and it runs 3 wows. My other two wows are run of fmy q6600 system. So far it works really nice. I think two pc is all you need. Doing 5 pc's is just a waste I think.

Why aren't you running all 5 on the i7?

[Herc130]

I've got like 3 15-30a breakers I think is what my dad put in for my room. Not sure, eletrical stuff isn't my thing. But yea, It already stays really hot in my room and that's with my fan running 24/7. It does nothing for the heat now

Anyways, I'm off to look at a way to get costs down some more lol.

I didn't read too much farther down, but had to LOL here. You build what you listed at top, your dad is gonna kill you when he see's the next electrical bill lol. Not exactly enegry efficient builds considering all it has to do.

[Ishar]

LOL, well, just because he refers to his dad putting the breakers there doesn't necessarily mean his dad pays the power bill. hehe.

still, it does sound pretty funny with the way he phrased it.

Honestly though; if his dad is still paying the bills, and lets him buy 4 quad cores, well,i doubt his dad would bat an eyelash at the power bill. (And if he himself can afford 4 quad cores, he can probably afford to pay the difference on the power bill as well, hehe.)

In all seriouness, for the 'boxed' machines buy a cheap 50 or so dollar amd dual core processor, 2 gigs of cheapish ram, and a cheap mobo. You wont be looking at the chars 90% of the time, and when you do look, you just glance at them. Seriously, their performance does not matter. (Unless your planning to pull a Sam or Prepared.) Honestly, I spent maybe 400 bucks per machine and i think I could 10box without any signifigant upgrades. Granted, the performance on the 8 'slaves' wouldn't be all that hot, but who cares.

[bryce]

I do pay some of our power bill. But the good thing is most of it gets written off as a business expense due to work so yay for that I guess. Y'all made me think a second on the build, time to downgrade or just wait a little while longer until I need em all.