Advice on a new set up

[skooks]

CPU - http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=HDZ955FBBX&c=pw
Motherboard - http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=MB-M4A78TE&c=pw
Video - http://www.buy.com/prod/evga-geforce...210963956.html

I am lost on RAM .. i cannot find RAM to come in 10-12g range without having to sell a kidney OR a child.

Goals - I would like a system that I can run 5 wow's on.

I currently run 5 wow's are to machines but they are slower and I am thinking its killing my mains transition in death, learning curve is beating me up pretty bad .. but I keep on trucking.
Also anyone have any advice on which 64 bit OS I should FINALLY upgrade to? still a 32 bit user...but really confusing with all the reviews out there on it? Anyone have advice on that?

I have trolled these forums like a bible and really took interest to alot of points, some the links were a bit older and not available anymore ... thought I would try and get a fresh perspective. If you think there is something better or more cost effective please straighten me out.

thanks in advance,
~skooks

[Sajuuk]

Try getting a motherboard with more than 4 DIMM slots. Oh wait, you decided to go with AMD. (Saying this based off a quick newegg search/scan on AM3 motherboards, there were none with more than 4 DIMM slots.) (Scan does not include server motherboards)

[skooks]

yeah I have been an AMD fan forever .. I really have no experience with the INTEL chips? I have read tons of reviews for both chips but always have just pulled the AMD over INTEL off the shelf?

[nakago]

To give you a direct comparison:

I am running 5 WoW's on my Mac Pro, the specs are as follows:

8 Core 3Ghz Xeon ( Harpertown Dual Quad Core)
16GB Ram ( 8 x 2GB FB-Dimms )
8800GT 512MB


I run this under Vista 64 Ultimate ( Innerspace doesn't exist on the Mac ;(.. )

AERO turned OFF ( this can consume up to 30% of your GPU's performance )

With this config I STILL have to turn down some settings to get reasonable performance.

I am also using InnerSpace which helps configure my FPS on the foreground and background WoWs.

I get about 80 to 90 FPS in Vanilla WoW on my main foreground WoW, and down to 15 or 20 fps ( have to look at my settings ) on my background WoWs.

With 5 WoWs running I am generally using around 10 to 12 GB of ram, this includes the OS itself, InnerSpace, and maybe an instance of FireFox.

I am planning on getting the EVGA Mac Edition GTX 285 1GB, this will speed me up quite a bit supposedly, we will see

Personally I can't imagine trying to 5 Box on a single machine with lesser specs. I hope this puts things into perspective.

[Sam DeathWalker]

All my systems are amd 3.2Ghz 6400 X2.

Unfortuanly I would be looking at a I7 920 / X58 MB system right now, AMD not having the horses to do the job now days.

[nakago]

All my systems are amd 3.2Ghz 6400 X2.

Unfortuanly I would be looking at a I7 920 / X58 MB system right now, AMD not having the horses to do the job now days.

Agreed, I moved to Intel based systems like 9 years ago, and never looked back. AMD seems to be always be playing catchup, and when they do seem to have something cool coming up, it's delayed and Intel comes in with it's own new stuff and eclipses AMD's offering.

[Enndo]

Go with an i7 you wont regret it, and I keep aero on with no problems lol.

[nakago]

Go with an i7 you wont regret it, and I keep aero on with no problems lol.

Aero is a total waste of GPU resources that would be better put to use by WoW

[Bovidae]

i7 promotion aside, the 4gb dimms you are looking for are too expensive to consider, no matter what color they come in (DDR2, DDR3, 800mhz, 2000mhz)

Realistically, 4 slots means 8gb max no matter what the chipset can handle.

Go i7, you won't be disappointed.