Set up of the gods?

[Jim-Tal]

I would have solid state memory also hopefully.

Assuming Windows is anything near Linux in caching then SSD is huge overkill. I have all five accounts have their data directory symlinked into one directory and loading takes couple of seconds even on my old drive and in Orgrimmar. With enough RAM you'll never swap and HDD just sits there being pretty much useless for the most of the time

Instead of the SSD's just upgrade something else, perhaps a decent chair to sit in or something like that

The units will double as a rendering / animation studio with a seperate rendering machine serving the 3 boxes. This is a set up I have been meaning to sort out for a while but not had the time. WoW makes it easier to do as it will force me to set up the machines for fun as well as work.

I've never had a problem with overkill... At home I have a Server that's hooked up to a satellite that links back to a control centre that operates a laser that shoots beams into a diamond covered teapot and makes delicious cups of Earl Grey.

[Wilbur]

I've never had a problem with overkill... At home I have a Server that's hooked up to a satellite that links back to a control centre that operates a laser that shoots beams into a diamond covered teapot and makes delicious cups of Earl Grey.

I believed you up until THAT point... Earl Grey is disgusting :-( Twinnings Breakfast Tea FTW!

[Xzin]

PvP Centric 10 Boxing Array:

8 dual core computers with 2 SSD drives in RAID 0 and 4 gigs of memory with a 9 series nVidia card.
2 quad core computers with a RAID-5 array, 8 gigs of memory and 3x 9 series nVidia cards.
6 30" monitors with hardware splitters to split up the video signals.
6 17" monitors for other visualization of information of interest.
Monitor Mounting Array
5.1 Surround System
RAID-6 8 TB Hard Drive Array with 4x Gig-E
5x 4 Port Vetra Multicasters
2x 8 Port Vetra KM (joined together)
2 X-keys Sticks (buffs)
2 X-Keys Pros (Team 1 and Team 2)
1 Foot Pedal (Toggle Team 1/2)
Happy Hacking Keyboard
12x Wireless Mice Receivers
3x Wireless Mice (Team 1 Lead / Team 2 Lead / All 8)
1 X-Keys Desktop (Select KM)
1 X-Keys Desktop (VoIP Dialpad)
1 Super Comfy Chair
Fluid Delivery System (Medical Grade Tubing, Silent Refrigeration)
Aluminum framework to hold and adjust monitor array (which weighs ~ 200 lbs).

That just about describes my setup, without the SSDs or 9 series cards (I went with 8 at the time) and with less memory (2 gigs instead of 4, etc). They of course could be added later but honestly, they aren't needed to play WoW at > 50 FPS on every machine. I also left stuff out, like the wiring, the extension of the DVI cables, the software setup, the electrical upgrades, the cooling upgrades, etc.

I don't believe this is a "system of the Gods" or anything but it sure as hell is more than your average person's desktop. I spent approximately 60k USD on the setup (although it is surely worth less than that today) and put about 6 months of work into designing and building it. If I were to build and design a system like this again, I wouldn't change much about it but just upgrade a few things here and there as technology has improved over the last few years (like adding the SSDs).

I believe this is one of the best setups for 10 boxing WoW PvP that you can build.

[Jim-Tal]

Fluid Delivery System (Medical Grade Tubing, Silent Refrigeration)

Dr Pepper or Mountain Dew?

[Wilbur]

Goats Milk (He's weird...)

[Tdog]

I've heard this from a few people. Although I have a high threshold for frustration as I hate things getting the better of me.

I imagine just getting your characters to work in tandum and not panicking when 2 of them get pounded to the GY is difficult... never mind firing off spells and heals. Yeah, I am expecting a LOT of macro / config work.. but luckily there seems to be a good community of MB'rs out there that are way ahead of me.

As far as macro's go I'd highly suggest opening up a word document and saving all your macros in there. When I first started it was such a pain in the ass doing macros as I had to rewrite every single one on every toon, then I usually missed spelled like one character on one or more of the toons, then trying to figure out wtf I did wrong and so on and so on... It took me about 10 hours to get to lvl 8 just because I was effing around with my macros that much.

-HOWEVER-

Now that I have it in one word document I simply open up my macro document, able to easily rewrite the macros, then simply copy paste all the macros I need on all the toons. That way I never have to worry about misspelling a single macro as they are all exactly the same. For me this has been a HUGE time saver and I highly recommend it.

Also there are times that if you just barely rewrite your macros on your toons and you say get DC'ed prior to logging out after the macro change, My macros all most always don't get saved. So after any major macro switching/changing I would also suggest simply logging out and back in to make sure they get saved. Cuz I got to tell you it is a bitch to work on your macro placement for like 20 mins, FINALLY be happy with the placement, then get DC'ed and lose all that work :cursing:

[Basilikos]

Jim Tal,

I use a monitor setup very close (just an inch or two smaller on most monitors) to the one you are considering. What I have found is that I have to use maximizer IN CONJUNCTION with editing the config file in the WTF directory so that nothing distorts in the 4 slave windows. The problem there is that I have to mess with the UI layout of even the most basic things (like the minimap) since you'll end up using something that's not quite 4:3 in ratio and the minimap will slide right out of view (which stinks). Also, I have found it a pain to maintain several different UI configurations (especially on patch days). I recommend the monitor setup you've proposed ONLY as a temporary means to start MBing. Right now, I'm in the process of getting two more monitors since the trouble for the two side monitors in portrait mode is taking so much of my play time that it's just not worth the money saved (especially since we pay so much to do this in the first place).

Just a thought.

[aetherg]

From everything I've heard, the Optimus keyboards are not that great. They look cool, and it's a great idea, but are just not very good keyboards. The ones that Dell gives out for free have vastly better key response.

[warden1337]

Fluid Delivery System (Medical Grade Tubing, Silent Refrigeration)

Dr Pepper or Mountain Dew?

probably Jolt or iced coffee.
Xzin. I know you have posted a few pics. but you do have any current pics of your overall setup? Would be cool to see.
Warden

[Jim-Tal]

Jim Tal,

I use a monitor setup very close (just an inch or two smaller on most monitors) to the one you are considering. What I have found is that I have to use maximizer IN CONJUNCTION with editing the config file in the WTF directory so that nothing distorts in the 4 slave windows. The problem there is that I have to mess with the UI layout of even the most basic things (like the minimap) since you'll end up using something that's not quite 4:3 in ratio and the minimap will slide right out of view (which stinks). Also, I have found it a pain to maintain several different UI configurations (especially on patch days). I recommend the monitor setup you've proposed ONLY as a temporary means to start MBing. Right now, I'm in the process of getting two more monitors since the trouble for the two side monitors in portrait mode is taking so much of my play time that it's just not worth the money saved (especially since we pay so much to do this in the first place).

Just a thought.

Hmm, you know what... I honestly thought I would get a standard :ratio split on a 30" but you may well be right! It would suck messing about with all the UI's. And now that it occurs to me, I would probably end up getting irritated by the clicking / Alt-tabbing.

Right, sod it I think I need to get 5 uber-boxes, remove the ATX cases, buy a brand new half size SMEG fridge and build them into that lol.

5box > 3box?

I think you're right about the monitor thing, I may just build some sort of rig... OR, buy 5 projectors and then I can resize them at will to display on a giant screen in my house. That would be imbalicious.

Xzin, show us your equipment :whistling:

/agreed

From everything I've heard, the Optimus keyboards are not that great. They look cool, and it's a great idea, but are just not very good keyboards. The ones that Dell gives out for free have vastly better key response.

It's funny you say this, I've never managed to find a single REAL review about the quality of response times etc... could it really be that bad? It's just keystrokes after all?... The displays should (in theory) be a seperate function just for your eyes, the keystrokes you make should not be changed and will perform the assigned action.. Unless they were really crap at writing the software to drive it?