Finalized Comp Suggestion :)

[Mosg2]

So, here's what I'm planning on doing:

Intel Desktop Board DP55WB Motherboard
Intel Core i5 750 Processor
8 gigs OCZ PC3-10666 Platinum RAM
GTX 275 1792mb
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB Hard Drive
NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower Case
Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply

I found a deal on www.tigerdirect.com and can put the whole deal together with Windows 7 for just under 1100 bucks. I have a OCZ 32gb SSD on my current machine that I'll just move over and plug into the new one. I won't be able to get the OS on it but WoW on it should be good enough.

I did some research and there were no complaints with the mother board or ram. Only one slot for a video card but since dual cards for multiboxing isn't necessary it should be fine.

So, critiques? Seems that for 1100 all in that's a steal for this kind of power.

[Ualaa]

You will easily 5-box on that machine.
Seems a good deal for 1100.

[Ogloo]

dang nice machine !

[thinus]

What is the price difference if you plug in an i7 860 instead?

[Mosg2]

I looked at I7 920's and it was another 300 bucks. The reason is all of the I7 mobo's have two PCIE slots and so they're more expensive.

[thinus]

I looked at I7 920's and it was another 300 bucks. The reason is all of the I7 mobo's have two PCIE slots and so they're more expensive.

The i7 860 is comparable performance to the i7 920 but it is a dual channel chip and fits in the motherboard you have selected. You don't change the mobo or RAM, just the CPU.

EDIT: Just to clarify, the P55 you see in your motherboard name is a reference to the Intel P55 Express Chipset and you can fit the i5 700 series CPUs and the i7 800 series CPUs into them. More info here: http://www.intel.com/products/deskto...5-overview.htm

So the i7 860 should fit in most P55 motherboards.

[Mosg2]

What's the diff between dual and single channel when it comes to the chip? The I5's and I7's both have 4 physical and 4 virtual cores right?

[thinus]

What's the diff between dual and single channel when it comes to the chip? The I5's and I7's both have 4 physical and 4 virtual cores right?

The difference is between dual channel and triple channel.

i5-700s, i7-800s = P55 chipset = dual channel
i7-900s = x58 chipset = triple channel

The theory is that if your processor speed gets high enough then it ends up waiting for memory transfers by the memory controller. Dual channel technology introduced a second channel along which the memory controller could transfer memory. So on a dual channel system you have 1 channel going to memory bank 1 and another going to memory bank 2. On a triple channel system you have 3 channels going to the 3 memory banks.

The biggest factor for multi-boxers is probably that dual channel boards usually only have 4 DIMM slots due to the dual channel nature of things and you are limited to 8GB RAM until 4GB modules become readily available and then a maximum of 16GB.

With the triple channel boards you usually have 6 DIMM slots on the board which means 12GB RAM right now with a 24GB potential later on.


And all of that is mostly based on cursory glances at Intel's site and wikipedia so don't take my word for it

[Sam DeathWalker]

although its a good value for the money you should only get a x58 mb at this time due to the fact of the 6 dimm slots.

My opinion is that once the 4G rams are cheaply and plentiful you can go 24G and put the whole wow folder in ram. So you should plan for that now.


On the other hand if you expect this system to only last you 12-18 months then get this now and get whatever is out when the 4G rams hit a cheap price.

[Mosg2]

I'll be getting a new computer near the time Cataclysm comes out with a budget of around 4k, so this is to replace my aging Q6600/8800GT system.

I'll take another look at tigerdirect and see what packages they have that have a triple channel board.