Creating a benchmark for Multiboxing Systems.

[Owltoid]

.......
- 6GB DDR3 (minimum!)
- HD 4870 1GB (although at the current price, the GTX 280 is also looking very nice.. and I like the GTX 285 as well)

Some users on this site are mentioning 6GB isn't enough for the busier areas (Dalaran, Wintergrasp). If you're going to spend the money somewhere, do you think it would be better to get the extra RAM (12GB) and the lesser video card (GTX 260)?

Otherwise you basically mentioned my computer :thumbsup:

[Clanked]

I'm interested in this thread, so here's a few comments.. ----- *EVERY* time your computer is turned off or rebooted, you have to reload your ram drive with the WoW/data directory. That's why I was hoping for a new Gigabyte i-RAM drive supporting ddr2 modules and at least 16GB - battery backup while using system memory for data. Looks like the original i-RAM didn't sell well enough to encourage them to make a newer version - maybe because using a PCI slot sucks, 4GB is small, DDR1 is more expensive than DDR2, and SATA 1.5 is slower than SATA 3.0. The i-RAMBOX was an improvement, but still needed more max capacity, DDR2, and SATA 3.0.

ACard's ANS-9010 Serial ATA RAM disk
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16255

Enjoy.

[Sam DeathWalker]

I say wait 6 months.

Yes you are looking at $1800 for 24G ram, today. Its just going to get lower and lower in price. The A card again is on the Sata buss, which is 3G/Sec compare to 28G/Sec of the I7 system memory.

Well if Wow requires a LOT of tiny packets vs. some a bit larger packets then access time will be more important then transfer rate. Would be nice to actually know the number and size of files it needs to access during gameplay, and if they are stored sequentially.

I think it is safe to assume that zone textures would be stored all together not needed multiple accesses ... Why would orgainize the textures in anything else but a zone by zone sequence?

No doubt SSD will be more cost effective. But most threads I am posting in assuming unlimited funds not "best bang for buck".

You spend $400 on the Drive and then $400 or so on 32G ram, so you are almost at 1/2 the price of the onboard ram already. You have 8 slots so you have to get 16G (pushing it) or 32G ...

I don't consider the "hassel" of writing the wow folder to a ram drive and back again as any consequence.

[-silencer-]

I'm interested in this thread, so here's a few comments.. ----- *EVERY* time your computer is turned off or rebooted, you have to reload your ram drive with the WoW/data directory. That's why I was hoping for a new Gigabyte i-RAM drive supporting ddr2 modules and at least 16GB - battery backup while using system memory for data. Looks like the original i-RAM didn't sell well enough to encourage them to make a newer version - maybe because using a PCI slot sucks, 4GB is small, DDR1 is more expensive than DDR2, and SATA 1.5 is slower than SATA 3.0. The i-RAMBOX was an improvement, but still needed more max capacity, DDR2, and SATA 3.0.

ACard's ANS-9010 Serial ATA RAM disk
http://techreport.com/articles.x/16255

Enjoy.

AWESOME! That's EXACTLY what I've been looking for! (The only comparable model I saw was over $2k, without memory.) This thing is perfect! $380 for the unit, and $220 for 16GB of DDR2! More than enough for the WoW/data directory.

[Sam DeathWalker]

You know you could get a 16G skulltrain: MB $500

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Motherboar...QQcmdZViewItem

16G ddr2 ram is only not much $340 (in 4G sticks)

http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-OF-4-Samsung...QQcmdZViewItem

And just put ONE CPU in the SKulltrain.


Seems better then the SSD ....

[-silencer-]

You know you could get a 16G skulltrain: MB $500

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Motherboar...QQcmdZViewItem

16G ddr2 ram is only not much $340 (in 4G sticks)

http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-OF-4-Samsung...QQcmdZViewItem

And just put ONE CPU in the SKulltrain.


Seems better then the SSD ....

16GB in Skulltrail.. 12GB minimum is required for WoW/data if you're still thinking of making a RAM drive.. that leaves 4GB for the OS & applications? Yeah, I'll take the better option - Acard ANS-9010 RAM-box with 16GB (or 32GB.. or 64GB) of DDR2 in RAID0, and still have 12GB of DDR3 RAM for my system. This Acard device is the next purchase on my list.. *after* I get the case built on my new machine. (case design is done, but I'm out of town both of the next two weekends..)

[Sina]

Skulltrail.... i have one laying around im sure, but how can the price of skull trail and 2 core 2 series processors come even close to being justified to an i7. I am just taking a stab here but im almost certain an x58 + 920 is better then any skulltrail config.

I guess that is the point of all this testing.... to find out

Sina
Multiboxer Mythbuster.

[-silencer-]

Skulltrail.... i have one laying around im sure, but how can the price of skull trail and 2 core 2 series processors come even close to being justified to an i7. I am just taking a stab here but im almost certain an x58 + 920 is better then any skulltrail config.

I guess that is the point of all this testing.... to find out

Sina
Multiboxer Mythbuster.

Eh, Core i7 isn't quite as massive of an improvement over Core 2 that Core 2 was over P4. Two quad Core 2 CPUs are still a force, and that many physical cores will likely overcome the i7 965's architectural advantage for heavily-multitasked applications. i7 is a slick improvement over Core 2, but it's still an expensive platform due to memory and motherboard prices over Core 2. Skulltrail is a unique beast, but like I said earlier, the time to pay premium money for it was a year ago.. not today when it's still the same price and the competition is much closer.

Which machine would I trust to handle 10-boxing with higher fps.. a Skulltrail 16GB system with 2 quad cores, or a 12GB Core i7 965 system? My bet is on the Skulltrail. With fewer instances of WoW, the difference isn't likely to be as great.. and may actually be worse under 5 instances. Pure speculation.. it'd be a fun test anyway.

[Sina]

skulltrail has a few issues though:
1) PCIEx 1.0 .... not sure why that ended up being the final slot
2) DDR2 FBDimm

How can you compare that to 2x pciex2.0 and tripple channel ddr3

just seems .... off, idk.

Didnt have time today to test it but i hope to get around to it

[Sam DeathWalker]

If you plan only 5 wow's 4G should be suffiecent for the OS and the applications, WoW is like 1/2G each iirc.

If you know that you will be in WotLK then just put in the newer data files (what 5G?), if you going to play in BC then the first 7G of data files. Wouldnt be hard to know where you plan to play that day. Some hassel ya but ...