Planned build for cata

[Knytestorme]

Got tax sorted and have locked down the build I want to get in the next few weeks to get prepared for boxing come cata launch so thought I'd post here to get any final feedback on it

Only thing missing from this list is a G13, 5770 (for crossfire) and 24" monitor that I'll use from my current setup as I retire that Q6600 to fileserver status.

MSI ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB OC $199.00
LG BH10LS30 10x Internal Blu-ray Disc Rewriter $199.00
ASUS PCE-N13 802.11 Wireless N PCI-Express Adapter $45.00
Leadtek WinFast DTV2000DS Dual HD Tuner $82.00
Scythe Kama Reader 2 Black $29.00
BenQ G2420HD 24 Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor $229.00
CoolerMaster eXtreme Power Plus 650W $95.00
AsRock 890FX Deluxe3 $209.00
Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard $149.00
Razer Naga MMOG Laser Gaming Mouse $109.00
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB WD1002FAEX x 1 $119.00
Corsair VS2GB1333D3 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 x 4 $236.00
Aerocool Vx-e Pro Limited Edition Case $135.00
Lian Li 140mm Red LED Fan CF-1412R $18.00
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T $239.00
Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 60GB SSD $259.00
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 $86.00

Sub-Total: $2437.00

[Syrass]

Thought we should probably start a real conversation here.

I think our conclusion on the CPU was that it probably didn't matter, but you liked the idea of the 6 physical cores rather than 2 threads across 4 cores.

I am a little concerned about the SSD atm. Best estimation at this stage is that the game will be about 25GB with addons, but should be able to be cut down. I personally prefer a seperate copy for each client, but this is hardly required, so thats a general comment rather than on this specific build.

As a number of cata beta keys went out this week, might be an idea to put this on ice for a little bit, but I can't really fault the Hardware.

Happy to discuss CPU setup sometime, as this may improve your performance from what you have been running.

I cant see how this machine wouldn't kill 5 boxing, with more to spare.

[Owltoid]

Seems really expensive without anything that stands out. I guess part of it is you have stuff in there that I have no need for and wouldn't include in my pricing of a new computer ($200 blue ray writer, etc).

Someone had linked a great laptop that looked like it could easily 5 box (in WotLK, who knows about Cata) and was only $1250. To pay twice as much for a desktop and not see any huge upgrade seems like there's a ton of fluff.

Check out www.buyxg.com. They are inexpensive in my opinion as when I priced the components against Newegg it was basically the same, except buyxg builds it and slaps on a warranty for you.

[Syrass]

I believe this is in AUD so about an extra 20%

[alcattle]

Seems really expensive without anything that stands out. I guess part of it is you have stuff in there that I have no need for and wouldn't include in my pricing of a new computer ($200 blue ray writer, etc).

Someone had linked a great laptop that looked like it could easily 5 box (in WotLK, who knows about Cata) and was only $1250. To pay twice as much for a desktop and not see any huge upgrade seems like there's a ton of fluff.

Check out www.buyxg.com. They are inexpensive in my opinion as when I priced the components against Newegg it was basically the same, except buyxg builds it and slaps on a warranty for you.

I see over $800 in extras,not needed to play WoW but nice to have. I don't think Blizzard is going to bump up the hardware requirements too much, Dalaran was a big jump for them.
I would not build an AMD system, but his rig looks well thought out.

[Knytestorme]

Ya, there is extra stuff but this will also be becoming my main computer for software development and music composition so easier to just do it all at once.

@Syrass: I first started off with separate installs but find that the virtual configs offered by ISBoxer (or symlinks) really negate the need for that apart from possibly having one install for raiding & then one for boxing and single characters with addons you don't really need for raid install....think a 60Gb should be enough for that, plus that's about as expensive as I want to go for an SSD.

The additional benefit of going the AMD route is that it frees up about $300 over an i7-930 + mobo which I can then sink into things like the SSD, but yeah I'm still thinking that while other games wont take as much benefit of the x6 as they will the i7 things like Reason and Sonar and VS2010 hopefully will and having one client per core should be slightly more efficient than 2 per core on an i7 even taking into account the virtual cores.

[Syrass]

Agree about keeping costs down. I guess that the SDD has enough room for 2 copies (maybe 3, but 2 would be 1 for raiding/primary and 1 for "followers") which should be enough.

Worst case you get another SSD down the track, or put a seperate copy on the WD if you need to.

there seems to be little info on 6 core setups, but from what I can tell you should still assign 2 CPUs to each client, giving the main client the most faverable CPU combo.

[Knytestorme]

Yeah, as I said to you in chat earlier, worst case is that it doesn't work that well and I find I want to go to an i7 solution then I'm out maybe another $600 for cpu + mb as everything else can be used still and I check the amd in a box for a linux install but the wouldn't be until the end of the year at least so not a major expense over that time period.

[Owltoid]

You really don't need multiple installs if you're using an SSD. My 32GB slow SSD works extremely well and nothing takes more than 2 seconds to load (even Dalaran x5).

[jstanthr]

From experience i can elaborate on a few of your choices. The mushkin SSD is a good drive, but for that price you can get the OCZ VertexII and it is a better drive IMO. i use 2 of the vertex's in raid0 on my box and have had 0 problems. i tested the muskin solo and in raid on my test bench and had inconsistent read times, the writes were solid though, but at times the read latency would hang. i mostly think that is due to the indilinx controler that the mushkin drives use, the ocz uses sandforce controllers in the new vertex2's and i gotta say, they are solid. and the razer naga mouse, i tried using one for the longest time, the idea behind them is solid and for solo gameplay they rock, but if you plan on broadcasting with it you may run into issues, not sure on that though. i am pretty sure there are some better capture cards with dual tuners than the leadtek one, its a good card, but for what your gonna do, i think you can do better with one of the Hauppage cards, and they are about $70 cheaper. Scythe fans are quiter and a few $ cheaper than the aerocool ones. for cases and fans try looking at www.performance-pcs.com they are a great company and i've had no issues with them. you might also concider using 2 500gb drives in raid instead of the 1 1tb drive, you will go from 220mb/s to around 500mb/s especially if you plan on using the HDD for your apps since your only using a 60gb SSD. These are just my opinions and most of them are from hands on experience, if you have any questions feel free to PM me.