Going from 4x to 5x on single box... Upgrade advice needed

[Boylston]

I'm currently running 3x to 4x accounts on the following box acceptably:

Intel Core2Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz)
4 GB RAM (all accessible using Windows Vista 64-bit)
nVidia 7800 GT GPU (eVGA)
4 SATA HDs (only spanning installs across 3 HDs, however)

I'd like to run a full 5x on a single machine, and I have been assuming that the 2 biggest upgrade items would be:

Quad core CPU
8800-series GPU

Question is: which of those would provide the best upgrade if I'm doing them one at a time? I'm assuming it would be the Quad core CPU??

I'm running the clones in 800x600 and 15 FPS cap in bkground, FWIW. Almost all options disabled.

[Shigan5]

Actually, you would more likely get a better upgrade out of the video card. 7800gt was a mid range card and it was powerful for its time but that time is gone. And the 6600 is still a good processor, not the best but it runs well, and it should have no problems with 5 wows ( other than some lag). But the video card would struggle. Thats my two cents. But i will say you should definately get a better processor later on to improve frame rates.

[Maxion]

Yeah, upgrade the video card first. I have a 8800GTS or so, and only a dual core processor, and i run 6 wow's from one installation on my one harddrive.

[Shigan5]

Basically. the more your video card can process and the faster the less your CPU has to do and thus the reason to upgrade video first. Eventually tho your Vid card will be processing everything it needs to process and there wont be anymore that it can process. so to get better framerates you would need to upgrade the processor

[kermitforney]

Intel Core2Duo E6600 (2.4 GHz)
4 GB RAM (all accessible using Windows Vista 64-bit)
nVidia 7800 GT GPU (eVGA)
4 SATA HDs (only spanning installs across 3 HDs, however)

I had basically the same setup you had only my processor was an E6700 overclocked to 3.5ghz
and my vid card is an 8800GTS 320mb. I recently upgraded to a QX9770 Extreme Quad, and my bottleneck
now is my vid card. The processor is amazing, but it seems at times the vid card chugs along when im in Ironforge
during peak and other major cities. I have my main @ 1280x1024 and my alts split 4 ways via Keyclone maximizer
on another monitor @ 1280x1024.

So in short I would upgrade the CPU first, but you may have to lower some graphic setting to have all WOW clients
run smoothly. Then when you get the change upgrade you card. With the introduction of the 9-seires (9800GX2/9800GTX/
9600GT) the prices for 8 series cards are going to drop pretty soon. Excellent time to upgrade, also there is a rumor that
9900 series vid cards are going to hit this summer. inch:

[pinotnoir]

I need to upgrade as well. I have the same processor and 4gigs of ram with Vista64. Its just not enough power to run 5 for me. I have been looking at the following...

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model EU80580PJ0606M - OEM
SAPPHIRE Toxic 100225TXSR Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail (This would be my second Toxic card. Right now I have one of these with a ATI x1950xtx but this toxic card is just too nice. I am going to ebay my 1950 and put another toxic in.)
CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX - Retail X 2 for 8gigs of ram.

That toxic video card is water cooled and only takes up one slot. Right now my 1950 has one of those huge bulky fans that take up two slots. The big issue now is with this new hardware should I just bite the bullet and upgrade my motherboard? I was looking at the Asus Maxiumus Formula motherboard which is about $250. I cant decide if I want to get all this stuff. I would be gutting my current pc and spending nearly $1000. I cant decide! All I know is the Core 2 Duo 6600 and 4meg ram with Vista 64 is just not enough to run 5 wows.

[kermitforney]

I need to upgrade as well. I have the same processor and 4gigs of ram with Vista64. Its just not enough power to run 5 for me. I have been looking at the following...

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model EU80580PJ0606M - OEM
SAPPHIRE Toxic 100225TXSR Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail (This would be my second Toxic card. Right now I have one of these with a ATI x1950xtx but this toxic card is just too nice. I am going to ebay my 1950 and put another toxic in.)
CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX - Retail X 2 for 8gigs of ram.

That toxic video card is water cooled and only takes up one slot. Right now my 1950 has one of those huge bulky fans that take up two slots. The big issue now is with this new hardware should I just bite the bullet and upgrade my motherboard? I was looking at the Asus Maxiumus Formula motherboard which is about $250. I cant decide if I want to get all this stuff. I would be gutting my current pc and spending nearly $1000. I cant decide! All I know is the Core 2 Duo 6600 and 4meg ram with Vista 64 is just not enough to run 5 wows.

I suggest you pay the extra dough and drop it on a new mobo . . . . then go SLI. Reason being prices for the 8 series cards are going to fall dramatically with the 9 series lineup finally completed. You can grab an card equivalent to the 3870 from Nvidia's 8 series lineup (be it 8800GT or maybe 8800GTS (G92)) for $200+ easy. Not sure if you have one toxic and plan on running Xfire, if so you may want to stick with the Crossfire mobo and save some cash instead.

[Wilbur]

Why would you want to SLI them?

It only reduces the overall performance of Multiboxing on a single PC.

Make sure you have enough juice coming from your PSU.

[Tizer]

Im running an AMD 4200 Dual Core CPU with 2 gig of rubbish RAM and a 8800 GTS and i can run 5 fine Mind you, the 5th is my main char powering up the alts which all run in a 800x500 window in each corner of the monitor :>

[Wilbur]

Whats your FPS like on all the characters and whats the delay with PiP?