INC -----> New hardware for 6 boxing. (OC progress update)

[moosejaw]

I dug deep and found enough $$ to purchase the bare necessities for an I7 12gb machine. I will have my 4 day weekend coming up this Friday and hopefully all the hardware is here by then.

What I am getting:

Vista home Ram MB Processer

I already have a spare case, power supply, video card and hard drives. The bare minimum stuff is ~ $800. My Quad 6600 machine is going to become my HTPC, which is a step up from the current P4 2.6 ghz HTPC I currently have configured.

I am also working on getting an Ubuntu Linux distro up and running for EQ2. What I have learned so far is ATI video cards blow chunks in opengl mode. I have to swap in one of 8800 cards to continue testing. Once I get the game stable I will work on Innerspace integration. Now that should be fun! :P

[Enndo]

Nice! You won't regret it. I love mine. I went with the EVGA X58 board though, I did alot of research and found too many bad reviews of the p6t deluxe to sink money into it. I do hear it works great for some, but doesn't work at all for most and asus tech support is a nightmare lately.

[BadAnti]

Just curious... How many toons do you think you will be able to run on that one machine?

[moosejaw]

On my current setup (Q6600 @3.0, 8gb ram, 4 older raptors in software raid), I can run all 6 but it is very sluggish and the processor is very close to saturation. It is playable but I would like the extra headroom on the processor. I should be able to do all 6 very comfortably with the I7 and a mild overclock. I should be able to turn up the master's graphics enough to see spell effects and such.

[BadAnti]

Right now I am running: XFX 790i ultra, E8500, 2x 8800GT's, 2GB DDR3, and XP 32bit. I am going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade to a 64 bit Vista or Windows 7. I hate reinstalling windows though... I am one of those guys that will go years on a single install, just to avoid reinstalling all my programs (mostly games). However, I am feeling the memory crunch just running my two toons. I really like my eye candy and I have already had to turn down my vid options to "balanced". My plan though is to drop a quad in this, and upgrade the family PC to the E8500.



Is there any kind of rule or estimate about how much ram you should have per toon?

[Herc130]

I just do a fresh install, patch, get everything running right. Load all programs and games (FSX and EQ1/2) all the add-on's I have for FSX. Activate everything. Make sure everything runs right, then I burn an image of the HDD with Acronis. When I think things may be a problem because of the OS, I reload off the image I have. Then it's just a matter of a few updates and maybe a program or two I started using after the image burn.


Also moving to i7. Just ordered parts two days ago. Was waiting till Microsoft comes out with a new Flightsim, but looks like that won't be happening anytime soon since they have closed down that division and layed off most of the people involved with it (damn the bad economy). So I said screw it and will now make the move to i7. Not for boxing, I am of the 1 computer 1 account type, but FSX is very CPU bound and have been doing a scratch build case for a while (took a break, went on a few deployments, got lazy and haven't gotten back in the spirit to complete it yet) that will house 9 (maybe 12) radiators and a whole bunch of other cooling stuff besides the normal computer parts and hopefully I can overclock the i7 to over 4ghz as a 24/7. Totally pointless for boxing MMO's, but may help me with FSX and eventually Fighter OPs.

Went with the 920 and the eVGA Classified and will probably get this ram if the 7-8-7-20 don't come back in stock and drop down to $400ish when I am done with the case build. I think you will be happy with the p6T. Tons of people use it. Lots of forums have stickies on setting it up for overclocking. Probably one of the most used x58 boards. Bad reviews, probably more so then other x58 boards, but probably because it's got a ton more reviews overall then other x58 boards, because lots of people have it.

[BadAnti]

I just had a friend give me a copy of acronis. He seems to like it. He also hooked me up with some utility for slip streaming(?) my drivers and settings into a Vista install. AND I have an unused copy of Vista 64 sitting on my shelf... I guess all signs point to me doing a fresh Vista install. Then I can order more memory. Just curious Herc, do you fly C-130's for the military?

[Ellay]

Acronis is awesome sauce to the second power.

[Herc130]

I am just a loadmaster on C-130's for the USCG amongst other things. Won't ever deploy our birds to the middle east, I am stuck doing central america, the islands around our AoR and the occasional SAR conventions in Hong Kong, Japan, Russia and such. It's pretty rough, sometimes they stick us in hotels that don't even have a baday in the room. Don't even get me started with slow wifi service.

[Frosty]

On my current setup (Q6600 @3.0, 8gb ram, 4 older raptors in software raid), I can run all 6 but it is very sluggish and the processor is very close to saturation. It is playable but I would like the extra headroom on the processor. I should be able to do all 6 very comfortably with the I7 and a mild overclock. I should be able to turn up the master's graphics enough to see spell effects and such.

I bet you can turn the master's graphics up more than just a little. :P
I've got mine almost maxed on the master, and you'll have more RAM, and I think your video card is better than mine? (I can't remember) .

PS - HURRY UP!!! :P