Hi everyone,

Just a quick update on Team Felguard... they have new hardware! My HP Pavillion arrived 2 days ago and I've been spending a whole lot of time optimizing my system for optimal performance. Here are the basic specs:

Intel Quad-core @ 2.66 GHz (Q6600... I know, I could have waited for the new quad-core, but I couldn't)
4 GB DDR2 800Ghz RAM
750 GB SATA drive
500 GB SATA drive
Nvidia 8500GT with 512MB RAM

It's not the most top of the line system, but close and way better than my previous multi-boxing setup (AMD 64 X2 4200+, 4GB RAM, Nvidia 7800GT, etc.). I just got my Keyclone license transferred to the new comp so it'll be a m-boxing night tonight. Here's what I was seeing on the gals:

Main is on primary SATA; alts on secondary SATA
Main: around 17-20 FPS... all the way down to 10 FPS in Shat... sounds low but incredibly was still playable for the most part... graphics setting @ medium
Alt1: around 15 FPS... all graphics option turned way low
Al2: same as Alt1

And here are the new numbers:
Main is on primary SATA; alts on secondary SATA
Main: around 50-60 FPS... graphics options set to medium-high
Alt1: around 30 FPS... all graphics option are medium
Al2: same as Alt1

Some observations:
- Windows Vista blows... really big chunks. I keep my documents on an external USB drive for easy relocation and Vista sucks at simple file operations (copy/delete/move).
- Vista's WLAN auto-polling every 60 seconds is completely ridiculous. It causes lag and random disconnects every couple of minutes.
- UAC (User Account Control) sounds really good but gets in the way of everyday work
- Aero looks great. I have to hand it to MS... the UI in Vista looks a lot better than XP. I like it.

But in the end, the WLAN issue and general sluggishness with normal operations caused me to wipe the drive re-install XP Pro SP2. People say you shouldn't play online games, especially WoW, on a WLAN, but I have no issues on XP Pro. Ping to the server is around 25 ms or less. My rig is also streamlined for gaming... there are no unnecessary apps on the system. The ones that I do require for work (MS Office, Adobe PhotoShop, Video software, etc.) are installed as portable apps using Thinstall. This means no registry mishaps, DLL all over the place, and stuff just loading in the background. Thinstalled apps are essentially virtualized and whatever they need to run are loaded at runtime and then it's gone when I close the programs. The system is really responsive.


Anyways, that's where I am with that. :-)