Cheapest 4 core CPU for 5-boxing?

[valle2000]

A friend plans to buy a new 5-boxing computer but has a somewhat tight budget. Will a 4 core Intel i5 be enough or is an i7 much better? And how are AMD compared to these? I'm a kind of Intel fan myself so I have no real experience of AMD CPUs.

At least 4 cores are needed right, to make sure the CPU won't be the weak link? A dual-core CPU will be to weak for acceptable 5-boxing I'm guessing?

[Lyonheart]

A friend plans to buy a new 5-boxing computer but has a somewhat tight budget. Will a 4 core Intel i5 be enough or is an i7 much better? And how are AMD compared to these? I'm a kind of Intel fan myself so I have no real experience of AMD CPUs.

At least 4 cores are needed right, to make sure the CPU won't be the weak link? A dual-core CPU will be to weak for acceptable 5-boxing I'm guessing?

i5 is plenty for 5 boxing. I never buy AMD so i can not answer on that.

[burningforce]

the best bang for your buck cpu seems to be the i5 2500k as of right now. AMD is supposed to be releasing some new cpus based on the bulldozer architecture Q3 of this year. But they might delay it and it may not beat a 2500k in terms of real-world performance.

I would assume a I7 2600k would help with multiboxing seeing as how it has hyper-threading and a 2500k does not, but you will have to pay an extra $100 for the 2600k for a small performance gain over the 2500k. I would go i5 2500k if you are looking to upgrade on the cheap with performance matching and even overtaking last generation of cpu's most expensive I7 processor the i7-980X.

As for which is better a dual-core or quad-core, it used to be a dual-core was better for Wow back in the day. But when wrath came out, Wow was updated to take advantage of multi-core cpus. WoW is still treated as a single-threaded app from what i read, but WoW can take some of the load and split it between the other cores and this will cause less jerky play and better performance.

[thefunk]

Correct me if i'm wrong but it seems to me an i7 is a little overkill for 5-boxing, especially if you take care of the other bottlenecks:

- SSD
- RAM
- GFX card
- dual-boxing.com bookmark

I suppose some people can't live without 60fps and high settings on all screens but from a cost/benefit point of view, i7 just doesn't make sense.

[Khatovar]

Correct me if i'm wrong but it seems to me an i7 is a little overkill for 5-boxing, especially if you take care of the other bottlenecks:

- dual-boxing.com bookmark

lol∞

[Lyonheart]

Correct me if i'm wrong but it seems to me an i7 is a little overkill for 5-boxing, especially if you take care of the other bottlenecks:

- SSD
- RAM
- GFX card
- dual-boxing.com bookmark

I suppose some people can't live without 60fps and high settings on all screens but from a cost/benefit point of view, i7 just doesn't make sense.

If all you do is play 5 WoWs..yea.. but i7s show big performance increases when they are OCd for apps that can use it.. like Rift and other modern games. But yea.. for JUST WoW.. the i5 K series is more than enough

[Sam DeathWalker]

I 7 box on my X2 Athlon 3.2G computers but thats single screen and all effects off, and it will bog down in major cities, but for exping out in the world its fine.

I still would go with the 2600K though. 3.2G are around $200 so they arn't cheap eaither 2 cores or not. You can get the 2600K sandy bridge for like $317.

http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CI8BEPMCMAQ#

[valle2000]

Correct me if i'm wrong but it seems to me an i7 is a little overkill for 5-boxing, especially if you take care of the other bottlenecks:

- SSD
- RAM
- GFX card
.....

This was very interesting. I have a SSD myself but haven't realized fully it might affect actual gameplay as well. I just thought it shortened loading times.

Thank for all input. And yes, this is for 5-boxing WoW.

[JamieW]

As you can tell from the replies. 5-boxing isn't 5-boxing, isn't 5-boxing. That is to say, 5-boxing in WOW isn't the same as 5-boxing in RIFT, which isn't the same as 5-boxing in EQ, etc.

Based on your signature, I think we're assuming that you're going to 5-box WOW still, not move to 5-boxing RIFT or LOTRO or some other more modern game. From my experience a Core 2 Quad is sufficient for most previous generation games, but I can only 3-box RIFT on that, and it still doesn't run silky smooth.

[thefunk]

As you can tell from the replies. 5-boxing isn't 5-boxing, isn't 5-boxing. That is to say, 5-boxing in WOW isn't the same as 5-boxing in RIFT, which isn't the same as 5-boxing in EQ, etc.

Based on your signature, I think we're assuming that you're going to 5-box WOW still, not move to 5-boxing RIFT or LOTRO or some other more modern game. From my experience a Core 2 Quad is sufficient for most previous generation games, but I can only 3-box RIFT on that, and it still doesn't run silky smooth.

Good shout - but from a budget point of view, i7 isn't cheap, in fact isn't it the most expensive processor on the market right now?