Newbie... can my rig run and more..

[Tovya]

Hey guys,

What I've been doing in the past is 2boxing, using two machines, with a keyboard/mouse for each... I just upgraded my main PC:

Win XP Home SP3
Intel Core 2 Duo
E7300 @ 2.66Ghz
3GB Ram
nVidia GeForce 9500 GT 512MB

and gave my parents my other computer. I can run 2 clients of WoW no problem, but running 3 seems to lock me up. I thought my machine would be strong enough to run 4 at the most, maybe I need to figure out how to let each client use a processor/memory to make it work? Not sure. 3 clients is what I need to run though, and I've been looking at the different multi-boxing software out there. So far I've tried HKN, which I like but has some limitations that I think Keyclone would fix for me. I tried out Mubox as well, and even made 2 other WoW directories to give me 3 total, but I cannot get the isolation to work properly yet; waiting for a response from the creator for help.

So, I've been reading through the forums here, and have gained a lot of information that I didn't have to start with. The general consensus seems to be that HKN is the way to go for a freeware product, but Keyclone is the way (funds are a little tight, ISOBoxer is out of the question for me financially) to go for a paid product. What I have right now are two boomkin druids that I'm running together, made much easier by a keystroke/mouse broadcaster but like I said, HKN has a few limitations (mainly for my ground target AoE's it is difficult and time consuming in a pinch to line them up right). I have a third account, which has my mains on it, but I was thinking of adding it in: if I can figure out how to effectively run 3 clients on this rig.

I run dual 19' monitors (both running at 1280x1024) and would like to effectively start up my own 3 man team (probably all mages since I have NO idea how you guys run different classes at the same time) or shammies. Anyway, if anyone can help with suggestions on if my rig could run 3, and how I could better manage the two slaves to use less memory/cpu so that I wouldn't crash everytime and have to hardboot, I would appreciate it, as well as any suggestions on the software to go with. =) Thanks!

Tovya

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Try setting maxfpsbk to 10 or 15 if you haven't already, and maxfps to 40. Also, turn off all the graphics options and turn down the sliders to minimum on everything but terrain distance, which I would set to about 1/3. See what you get with that. I would also go check your NVidia control panel's 3D settings page and make sure you have the following settings if available:

• Anisotropic filtering = OFF
• Antialiasing = OFF
• Multi-displaly/mixed-GPU acceleration = Multiple display performance mode
• Texture filtering - Quality = PERFORMANCE

Then I would go set all your wow clients to 800x600 in-game resolution. (NOT maximizer! That's a different setting.)

See if those help any and let us know.

Cheers and GL!
Ugh

[Naysayer]

Ughmahedhurtz is one of the most helpful dudes around here, and he's usually spot on when he posts tips for the noobs. Just wanted to point that out. If you disagree you're wrong and probably a lying asshole.

[Naysayer]

Tovya, can you post a more detailed spec's list and what kind of budget you have? I bet you'll get some really good upgrade suggestions if you take the time.

[Tovya]

Tovya, can you post a more detailed spec's list and what kind of budget you have? I bet you'll get some really good upgrade suggestions if you take the time.

Absolutely! Here's my Belarc Advisor print out, hope it's enough detail

Operating Sysytem: 
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

System Model:         
SYX snc302eeh 
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Processor: 
2.67 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
3072 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board:         
Board: MSI G31M3-F Intel G31
Bus Clock: 267 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. V1.2B3 01/15/2009

Memory Modules:
3072 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'DIMM1' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB

Drives:
1500.06 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
706.17 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

COMBO 52X32X52X [CD-ROM drive]
MagicISO Virtual DVD-ROM0000 [CD-ROM drive]
MagicISO Virtual DVD-ROM0001 [CD-ROM drive]

Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0
WD 10EACS External USB Device [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 1

Local Drive Volumes:
c: (NTFS on drive 0)      500.10 GB     309.70 GB free
g: (FAT32 on drive 1)    999.96 GB     396.47 GB free

Controllers:
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
Intel(R) 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller - 27C0
Primary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)

Display:
        NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT [Display adapter]
AOC LM942 [Monitor] (19.1"vis, s/n 93069CA001959, September 2006)
HSD Hanns.G iX191 [Monitor] (19.1"vis, s/n 841CH1NA00634, October 2008)

Multimedia:
        Realtek High Definition Audio
USB Audio Device

Bus Adapters:
MagicISO SCSI Host Controller
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27C9
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CA
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB Universal Host Controller - 27CB
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 27CC
Sony Ericsson seehcri Control Device

As for my budget, it's pretty much non-existent right now full time student + part time job = just enough to scrape by. Whoever said it's never too late to go back to school should have said "Except when the economy crashes" lol. Anyway... gradual expenses I can handle ($75 for two new sticks of DDR2 2GB RAM today, $150 for whatever next month, etc) just nothing major really.

Ughmahedhurtz is one of the most helpful dudes around here, and he's usually spot on when he posts tips for the noobs. Just wanted to point that out. If you disagree you're wrong and probably a lying asshole.

lol I kinda gathered that from reading his posts on the forums. I'll always take helpful advice =)

[Naysayer]

As for my budget, it's pretty much non-existent right now full time student + part time job = just enough to scrape by. Whoever said it's never too late to go back to school should have said "Except when the economy crashes" lol. Anyway... gradual expenses I can handle ($75 for two new sticks of DDR2 2GB RAM today, $150 for whatever next month, etc) just nothing major really.

You say you're already upgrading to 4g of ram, which is what you need to do, but you won't notice much of a performance increase until you upgrade to windows vista 64 or windows 7. Your motherboard maxes at 4g, and you should switch it out for a better one, but that isn't necessary if you're happy with it's performance while running 4g ram and vista/7. It would just allow you to eventually drop in more ram, which would let you run everything at a better level of settings, faster loading of all 4 guys, and smoother framerate. You're running the MSI G31 while the G41 will run 8g ram at only $60.00 on newegg.com, and everything (processor, current ram, ect) will transfer over easily.

Just a little overview of what I'd do if I were you.
-buy vista 64
-increase ram to 6-8 gigs
-buy new motherboard
-overclock the processor to a fairly safe speed with no extra cooling required. (lots of easy to follow guides to do this)

[Ualaa]

If you're doing upgrades, a 64-bit operating system will let you use more then 3.x gigs of ram.
I'd suggest 1gb for the operating system and then 1gb per wow.
XP will run better on low end systems then either vista or win7.

You can get trial accounts (RAF to your own email), to see what your system can actually handle.
Without going out and buying extra accounts.

[Clone]

Try looking at performance monitor to see what you are stalling on, be it processor or memory. If it turns out to be processor you could try overclocking. If its memory which I suspect it might be then you will need to buy some more ram which isnt that expensive.

[Tovya]

Wow, replies first thing in the morning! Thank you guys. I'll start from the top:

@Ugh - If I understand you correctly about the first part, you're setting the max fps (frames per second) of the "master" at 40 and the "slaves" at 10-15, yes? However, I never knew there was a way to do that. =( [after searching google, I see they added the /console maxfpsbk and /console maxfps commands to the game in patch 2.1, thanks for pointing me in the right direction!] I had no clue you could actually set what your fps was. Normally, when running just one client I get around 65 fps out in the world and about 20-30 in Dalaran, but wouldn't 15fps make the slaves lose follow or would it really not effect performance too much out in the world? My settings in my NVIDIA panel were:

• Anisotropic filtering = ON
• Antialiasing (Gamma correction / Mode / Transparency) = ON / OFF / OFF
• Multi-displaly/mixed-GPU acceleration = Multiple display performance mode
• Texture filtering - Quality = QUALITY

However, all are now set to how you specified. I've been running the in-game clients at 1024x768 because of my extreme custom UI (79 addons... had 109 but I cut back a little lol) I needed space, but I think for the dual boxing I'll just cut back to the barebones addons I need and leave the full custom for my default WoW folder. Thank you! I'll post back when I've tested it out!!

@Ualaa - Well, I had thought about going for the 64-bit XP Pro, but again financials got in the way. Because I already had XP Home from previous computer, I just installed that. I'll be getting W7 Professional soon hopefully. Without cracking open my case, I believe I have 3 slots, but because I'm not using a 64-bit OS, I have (from my Belarc Advisor printout):

3072 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM1' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB

Which I could buy another 2G stick to replace my 1G stick and run with 4G total; that would leave me a way to dole out 1GB of RAM per OS/Client. I'll look into how to do that, thank you. Of course you can RAF to yourself...*facepalm* I never even thought about that lol. I've already got 3 accounts, simply because I originally started the old fashioned 2boxing with EQ waaaay back in the day (2boxing litterally meaning 2 'boxes' with a monitor/keyboard/mouse per each box). RAF to yourself makes sense, this way you just load up another client and run with it in newbie ville for 14 days... hopefully these settings will help. Thanks! =)

@Clone - I hadn't even thought about a preformance monitor. I've got so much !&$% on this computer that adding anything to it makes me cringe lol. That is a good suggestion though and will definitely help me figure out where I'm lacking in my rig, thanks!

[Tovya]

Try looking at performance monitor to see what you are stalling on, be it processor or memory. If it turns out to be processor you could try overclocking. If its memory which I suspect it might be then you will need to buy some more ram which isnt that expensive.

Clone, I'm using the default XP Performance Monitor (Control Panel > Admin Tools > Performance Monitor). I've never looked at this before, but I'm assuming that for the memory and processor lines, I want them to be as high as possible? Not sure what to look for to judge what is stalling where. ;-)