Overkill? for 5-Box on 1 Comp

[wgwjwo]

I'm new to multi-boxing, and not a huge computer wiz either. Just wondering if buying this pre-configured system is overkill or insufficient (RAM in mind). Any suggestions on whats overkill and what needs an upgrade would be appreciated, thx.

Processor: AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition 2.5GHz quad-core

Motherboard Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi AMD 790FX

Memory Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066MHz 2GB (2x1GB)

Hard Drive 2 x Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s (1TB)

Graphics EVGA GeForce 9800GX2 1024MB GDDR3

Audio AuzenTech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS

Optical Drive LG G-H20L-S10 20x SATA DVD-Writer w/ LightScribe

Power Supply Corsair HX Series 620W Modular

Fan Scythe Infinity

[bugilt]

AMDs haven't been tested much from what i have seen. 2gb of ram is below minimum, 4gb is recommended. You should sign up for 4 trial accounts and give it a go.

[wgwjwo]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz 45nm, is another option for a similar premade. As for the RAM, I read that XP does not fully utilize more than 2-3 Gb of RAM, does this mean I will also have to acquire a new operating system or is this a given since I have a Quad core processor? (I only have the lightest grasp of these topics).

I would give it a go, but I want to do some research before tackling the biggest hump, buying the expensive computer

[Catamer]

I think you can do it with 3G of ram and the hardware you are using. if you use something like keyclone you can limit the maximum fps each uses if you are over working it. I find that the video card was a major factor, followed by ram. your video card sounds awsome but you will probably need about 512M/wow maybe 600M/wow which is somewhere between 2.5G and 3G. Vista eats up ram all by itself but eventualy it will be paged out. I say try the temp account thing and see how it goes. x64 will open up the ram over 3.2G. I use vista x64 myself and it works fine ( well, as fine as vista x32 does ). do you have two monitors? maybe the main could be on one monitor and the other 4 on the second monitor

[Tight]

the mobo has issues.. at least my mobo is giving me loads of trubble. ;(

[zanthor]

I have a very similar system...

2gb ram is not enough, you need 4gb to run 5 copies, period. The processors fine, graphics card is overkill but should give you a very nice performance...

I'm running a Phenom 9600 with the TLB hack removed (2.3ghz) with 4gb ram on an FX chipset mainboard. Video is an 8800GT.

All said and done, I'm not thrilled with my performance, but I'm pretty well convinced it's teh 8800GT thats the problem, if I step up to a better graphics card, that bottleneck should go away. I do sit at 30fps (locked down) on the main and 15fps (background) on the alts when I'm out running about, about 80-90% cpu in the worst situations... i do NOT run a light weight UI either...

[Bovidae]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz 45nm, is another option for a similar premade. As for the RAM, I read that XP does not fully utilize more than 2-3 Gb of RAM, does this mean I will also have to acquire a new operating system or is this a given since I have a Quad core processor? (I only have the lightest grasp of these topics).

I would give it a go, but I want to do some research before tackling the biggest hump, buying the expensive computer

Ram: XP (32bit OS's) will handle up to 4gb of TOTAL memory, this includes the memory on your video cards too. So if you install 4gb of ram and a 512mb video card, your system will only have 3.5gb of ram available. This is still better than 2.0 and I would recommend to any WoW boxer to have 4gb, period.

Processor: You don't sounds biased to either AMD or Intel, get a Q6600. Its cheaper than either of the two processors you mentioned, has more cache, overclocks better, etc etc

[Maz]

Here's a post about Windows memory.

[ÆONFLUX]

You do not want to get only 2gigs with that rig period.

Get 4 even if you dont use a 64bit operating system. As Bovidae said you will get alot more than 2gigs, but less than 4 which is better than shooting yourself in the foot by capping at 2 gigs.


Also per Bovidae Q6600 atm is a better overclocker than the 45nm processors. I read about it some and was kinda surprised. If you are concerned about electricity bills (your video card tells me you arent) you might think about getting a 45nm. Otherwise, I would stick with 65nm Q6600. I have heard of them getting to 3.7ghz w/ an *EXCELLENT AFTERMARKET COOLER* which is insane.

Zanthor - have you tried to OC your video card? I have my 8800GTS 320meg running at around base 8800GTX range. I am getting pretty fair-good performance. The temps are staying sub 70C so I am content.