[Ultimate] All-Purpose Rig

[MaltheMM]

well the videocards i chose both have 4 dvi outputs

to go with my 8 BenQ E2200HDs

and it's actually 24GB Ram

[Akeldema]

well the videocards i chose both have 4 dvi outputs

to go with my 8 BenQ E2200HDs

and it's actually 24GB Ram

And...Uh.....Why 24gb?

[MaltheMM]

Thats the max of the MOBO

[weeep]

- 12GB RAM is way overkill for 5 instances of WoW

Actually, it isn't. Even with the lowest possible settings on my slaves and no addons except jambe, total system memory consumption sometimes goes above 8Gb after few hours of playing, especially after Dalaran and Wintergrasp. I really feel that my current 8Gb is not enough, but I do not see any overclockable 4Gb DDR2 modules in the market now
Also extra RAM is never wasted, it is used as file cache noticeably speeding up load times. So I always suggest to go maximum RAM amount that your budget can afford.

[Owltoid]

....500MB per instance should be plenty....

I found that with 3-boxing 2GB of RAM wasn't nearly enough. Maybe 1GB per instance is enough, but I don't think 500MB is.

[-silencer-]

well the videocards i chose both have 4 dvi outputs

to go with my 8 BenQ E2200HDs

and it's actually 24GB Ram

You had better be SURE that someone has verified that specific mobo can run 24GB of RAM, and that the RAM you're using has the proper density chips for it. There are a bunch of mobos that say they support 12GB of RAM, but actual testing shows that they choke on it - the MSI x58 Eclipse for example. I'd be very cautious of any "24GB" mobo right now, until I've seen a review of someone doing it.. then I'd buy the exact ram they're using. I didn't see any 4GB memory modules out there yet.. are you sure this 24GB isn't 12 sticks of 2GB?

Edit.. just looked at the memory.. are you aware that it's ECC registered dimms? Many mobos don't support that memory - it's used more often in server mobos. Make sure you know what you're getting into by building a machine and don't know details.

[Owltoid]

Silencer,

Any problems with the following mobo? (uprgreadable to 24GB, needs special RAM, etc?)

MSI X58 Platinum Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA,Dual GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394a,&7.1Audio
http://benchtec.co.uk/benchtec/index...i-motherboard/

[Noids99]

I am fairly sure those memory chips won't work in an X58 mobo. They are designed for xeon systems. 12GB is really the max available at the moment, given there are not freely available 4GB DDR3 consumer RAM DIMMS.

Saying that, 12GB shouldn't hurt your performance at all. What may improve it is upgrading from 4850X2s to 4870X2s or better still GTX295s.

The hard drives could also be a lil faster. Either 4 x velociraptors or if you're super keen go for your favourite hardcore SSD, pref. something intellish.

My 2c, personally not the system I would build, but if you are looking for ultimate bang for back, they would be clear enough upgrades and considering the money you would save on the RAM and going for an i7 920 instead of 965EE, you wouldn't be out of pocket by much.

Cheers

PS: Quick peek at MSI.com shows that (Samsung K4B2G0846B-HCF8) was the only 4GB DIMM actually tested to run with that MB you mentioned. Good news is it worked fine with 6 DIMMS. Not sure if the crucial DIMMs use samsung or hynix chips though...

[MaltheMM]

first of all i wasn't aware of the RAM thing

and i wont change the video cards to anything but another one with 4 DVI outputs

[MaltheMM]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135229
this is my only alternative to DFI board

these ram stick are not ECC
Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-8500 memory module (x3)