Building a 5 Box CPU Question

[Sajuuk]

I'd say it's overkill.

But then...with that setup, you could use Folding@home, encode a couple dvds, and play wow at the same time.

But unless you're building this computer for something extremely resource-hungry(edit: other than multiboxing wow) I'd say tone it down.

If your heart is set on the six monitors, go for a less expensive card. A 260 will still eat wow up for breakfast.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150361

You're going to need a Xeon processor, as that IS a server motherboard, and it's what the motherboard supports. (Don't worry, it's still a Nehalem processor)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117186
HEATSINK/FAN NOT INCLUDED!

Now I'm not quite sure about the ram, someone with more server experience than me would need to step in. (Read my experience as: Zilch!)
Here's the kind of ram I THINK you'd need.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134944

Forget about using all of your three sets - the motherboard you want only has 8 DIMM slots for ram.

Your case does not match the form factor of the motherboard you wish to use.
If you have your heart set on a regular computer case and not a server chassis, this is the only motherboard in the regular case section of newegg that'll hold your motherboard. (Apparently SSI EEB, and EATX are similar, only some mounting holes won't line up correctly (Could be an issue))
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811121089
If you're willing to go to a server chassis, then this could work, among other things.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811192112

I don't even want to think about the PSU that would need, as it's a server motherboard, with two eight-pin and (Maybe)a four pin (In addition to the 24pin) power connectors, and NOT including the motherboard the 12V rails will need to be able to put out a combined amperage of 108A (Rough power requirements for 3x GTX260's. 120A for a 285. This is counting the power you could get from molex->PCI-E connectors)
[Pictures are misleading, photo shown has a 24, 2x8, and 4pin connectors, specs say 24-pin+2x8-pin connectors, gonna go by specs]

So you would need (VERY VERY ROUGH MATH!) Correct it, by all means.

CPU WATTAGE = 80W, PSU VOLTAGE = EPS12V = 12Volts. CPU Amperage: 6.66666666666666667A
Motherboard Usage = 130W. Approx Amerage for motherboard= 10.83333333333A
Approx Amerage for 3 GTX260s = 108A = (36A*3), = 3(18*2) = 108A
6.66+10.83+108= 125.49A power draw, not including memory/fans. But that could be included in the motherboard power draw.
125.49*12=1505.88W

So going by my rough math, for 3 260's you would need at a minimum a 1506W PSU.

This could work, but I don't think I'd trust it with some hard drives/optical drives added. (reasoning, if you need 108A on the 12V rail(s) for the graphics cards, and the power supply below can do 115A at the maximum. (On the 12V rails)
http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/...cool-1200.html

Either way, your psu will cost a nice bundle.

Please keep in mind power requirements will drop should you decide to get a less...demanding card. (Say, a couple ATI 4850s)


My head hurts. Can I have a cookie now?

[multiwowzer]

Here is my setup for wow. i know this is overkill but you gotta remember i used to 6 box eq2 with all settings full blast and it looked awesome.. each one of my pc' are exactly the same even monitors and keyboard mice..here are the specs**. I use to build pc's for a living back in the day and i think all together for each pc to build was$1500 so i have around $9k in my pc's and i upgrade them every year also, easy to do since i have my own home based business answering service with over 100 clients i make around $4800 a week.since i cannot leave my house to really do anything boxing is my fun time!

i use 6x pc'(acutally have 6 but use 5 since wow group is 5 toons)
**3.2 gighurtz quadcore
4 gigs of ram ocz fatality.. (my favorite ram to use.)
2x BFG GeForce GTX 295 Video
500 gig internal sata 2 hd 10,000 rpm
1 terabyte external hardrive sata 2
HT OMEGA Claro Halo XT 24-bit
32 inch flat screen hdtv 1080p

[Tonuss]

That looks like a killer rig. But as mentioned above, make sure to check the motherboard specs, you may have to buy Registered DDR3. And see if they have any recommendations for a power supply so that you don't wind up with a PSU that doesn't work with the board.

[MiRai]

Tyan's site says:

Supported CPU Series: Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series

You've linked the Intel 920. Now, I understand that the 920 and the Xeon 5500 series are both 1366 Nehalem processors but will that work? But yes...unless you will be 10 boxing on that thing [or more] it's quite overkill.

EDIT: And nevermind read Sajuuk's post.

[Lax]

Okay he sent me a PM asking for my thoughts on his post.

Parts compatibility aside, I agree with overkill. Definitely use Windows 7 (that goes for everyone, including those asking how the hell you get more than 7-10 fps in dalaran) with Aero disabled. I don't even have to look at the specs if you tell me you have 8 cores and 3 of (nearly) the fastest consumer video cards available, and will only be running 5 WoW characters. On the other hand, I don't think you will be disappointed if you build a PC like that (at least where the parts are compatible with each other), assuming the money isn't the problem. You will probably be afforded the opportunity to turn your graphics settings up, which is not something a typical 1-PC 5 boxer can do without sacrificing necessary performance.

I don't know what boards, if any, support dual i7, but the added "cores" from Hyper Threading will probably not measurably help you, when comparing dual Xeon vs dual i7. Hyper Threading does improve some specific circumstances, but I believe its benefits are best realized with fewer real cores. (I don't have benchmarks to back that statement up and I don't claim to be an expert on this particular subject, but it seems to me that the more actual cores available, the less useful the Hyper Threading's ability to "process another thread while one is waiting if the pipeline has room" will become by virtue of having real cores available that don't have the "pipeline has room" catch. I could also be exactly wrong on my guess)

You could get away with only using one video card (say, one 295 instead of 3 285s) if you didn't want to use all 6 monitors. I only use one myself, but it comes down to personal preference -- you're building what you'd like it to be, after all. RAM-wise, 18gb is way more than you need. To run 5 WoWs, a mere 8gb is more than enough, and 12gb gives you tons of breathing room for any applications that want to use gigabytes of RAM.

For power supply to power 3 video cards, Sajuuk's estimate is better than I would know to tell you. The PC Power turbo cool power supplies seem pretty reliable (I use a 1000W myself), and the 1200W is certified by nvidia for 3 video cards, so I imagine it would work. You do have to be careful about what PSU you get, it needs to have multiple 12V rails, and I guess some say they do but dont (Wikipedia: For a time, power supplies were marked and sold as having multiple +12V rails, although no current limit circuitry was included. As of 2008, having only an overall +12V current limit is seen as a desirable feature, and "single-rail" power supplies are advertised and sold as such, although it is still common to find power supplies for sale that falsely claim to have multiple +12V rails. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rail ) and you won't be very happy when your PC doesn't work because the PSU can't handle your hardware. Anyway, the suggested PSU should be fine.

As far as SSD and raid, my personal opinion is screw that. I'm pretty sure just using Windows 7 will improve performance enough that you'd probably be going through all that for not much of a reward. If you want performance, keep one installation of WoW -- use symlinks and/or Virtual Files via ISBoxer to achieve the other desired effects (keeping account name, server and character for login, etc). That should help performance by increasing cache use. You can still do your raid if you want, but I wouldn't do multiple folders if you want performance. I probably wouldn't bother with mirroring 6 drives though, maybe 2 or 3 but 6 is stretching it. I use a single 10000rpm SATA drive, and I don't think the hard drive is a big bottleneck for me at this point, considering the performance improvements in that area from switching to Windows 7. It only needs to load data from disk every so often, so generally the CPU, Video and RAM are the main offenders.

There's my thoughts, I'm not an expert when it comes to some of this hardware selection stuff, but I can program the shit out of them and tell you why things are happening wrong in many cases

[Sam DeathWalker]

I really really doubt the cpu you have choosen will work in that motherboard, even though its 1366. These are the ones for that motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ame=LGA%201366

6 monitors from one motherboard? I forsee problems, but I could be wrong.

I would still take the single cpu tyan with 32G of ddr2 over what you have picked.

Tempest i5100T
S5377 G2NR Custom Single Intel 5100 - - 1 32GB ^ RDDR2 - XGI Volari (2) GbE (4) SATA-II M3295-2 Yes
? 1333 2-ch. 667/533 Z9s M3296 (6/6)


Someone with similar system to what you picked:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/26...rkstation-2500

I would call Tyan and the Bios maker to make 100percent sure I7 will work in that board. No one is advertizing a duel i7 systme.

Wouldn't spend that much.

I just built a dual xeon 5520 workstation, and it renders 10% slower than my i7 920 rig(OC'ed to 3.8ghz).

The problem is, I can't overclock the dual rig. If that was possible, I'd be in heaven. For the money I spent on the dual rig ($2300), I could have built 2 more i7 rigs and been in better shape.

My advice would be to build or buy an i7 rig and overclock the living crap out of it. Much more bang for the buck

I will say they have good prices. I just priced out my rig I built using their site-- -dual 5520, 12gb ram -- and it cam out to around the same price I spent. .

i7 can't be dual, only xeons can do that. When the 5500 series (based on i7) Xeons came out, I was licking my chops, because I was dreaming of a dual i7 overclocked rig. Dumb me forgot to check if OC options are available on server boards. They are not.

http://www.xsibase.com/netview_forum...threadid=39599

[Moadikum]

I also agree it is far more than you need, also many of the components are not compatible with one another.
That motherboard is designed for servers, it will not perform as well for desktop applications as a cheaper motherboard, which is designed for desktop applications would.
One issue is the Northbridge Chipset, with the one on that mother board you may have trouble getting crossfire or SLI to work.

Quickly put together this suggested build, it will run 5 WoW's smoothly:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131386
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115202
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226049, 2 sets should be more than enough, remember to use a 64 bit OS
Video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102840, only need one, save your money
Video multiplexer: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815106011, since you wanted so many monitors these will allow you to have just 1 video card give many outputs
Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337, Don't bother with SSD just yet. I own one, yes they are fast but in my opinion just isn't worth the cost at the moment
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133071, of course it is up to your personal preference this is just the one I chose, when choosing be sure to pick and ATX form factor
Optical Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106225
Edit: PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817339028
This setup will be a fraction of the cost, however will definitely be more than enough to run 5 WoW's perfectly.
Estimated cost : $2150

[Tonuss]

6 monitors from one motherboard? I forsee problems, but I could be wrong.

Three video cards with two outputs each would handle six monitors just fine. And you wouldn't have to spend any money heating your home in the winter, either, with six LCDs going!

I think it's weird that Tyan positions this as a server board. With support for up to four PCI-E video cards and no 64-bit PCI slots or built-in SCSI, it looks like more of a workstation board. The specs are drool-worthy, though. 8o

[Sam DeathWalker]

You have to get data from ram to the video cards, with 6 outputs to be rendered you are really straining both the cpu (if the DMA is inside the cpu) and making the ram output a bottleneck. And you have to go to the HHD for textures for SIX renderings ...

[Tonuss]

You may be right, Sam, I don't know enough about how much data is being pushed through. I don't think that WoW pushes a steady stream of video data from RAM to the video cards, though. If the video cards can store most of the texture data onboard (and they should be able to) then after an initial load when entering a new area or encountering new mobs/players, the performance should smooth out. It may depend on video settings. My dual Radeons (512MB) handle WoW reasonably well, with one card managing four instances of the program. But those are 800x600 and with all settings turned down.

I think that it can be done in a way that allows the game to be playable.