notes for software multi-boxing setup
NOTE: if you know of any improvements to the following comments, please post or PM them to me so we can help the others
i realize there are some people having issues getting a single machine running with multiple clients. here are some general tips on slimming down the system to allow for better system performance while multi-boxing
(i will be assuming WoW on Windows as the target software/platform)
o CPU
today's cpus are rocking fast, but you don't absolutely need the fastest to get up and running with multiple clients. 1.5GHz single core can run 2+ clients. of course, a better cpu will improve your games performance. but if you have an old PC laying around with at least 1.5GHz, consider resurrecting it
o system memory
system memory can be key. you need at least 1G to do anything (more like 2G if you are running vista). at the start, the slow load is the system pulling the binary from disk into memory. if you don't have enough memory, it'll start thrashing... swapping memory in and out to get what it needs in memory.
o GPU (graphics processing unit on the graphics card)
after that, wow is limited mostly by grfx memory and the gpu. my crappy old laptop can run 3 clients in windowed mode and it only has 64M of grfx memory on an ATI chipset (of course its only getting about 25fps... better GPU,more grfx memory, and a better cpu will increase the fps). these days, my personal bias leans towards the nvidea chipset for anything graphics related... i have seen their driver updates breathe new life into old systems, and i completely support any organization that does that for existing customers
o unneeded or heavy software
turn off anything and everything you don't need running. right-click the system bar and run task-manager. check your processes tab. when i boot... i have about 28 processes running (antivirus on.. 24 without). also remember your system services are just more processes that are taking up cycles. minimize those as well. be very careful here... turning off the wrong service can leave your system hosed. never disable a service, just change them to manual load
o software loading at runtime
again, this is for the advanced user... be careful here:
start/run/msconfig
that will allow you to see and tinker with what is loaded on startup
o antivirus
norton and mcafee are notorious for being heavy. and while you are gaming, you don't really need them (since you aren't receiving files via email or web downloads). trendmicro is a fairly light weight antivirus if you just have to have it running.
o firewalls: offload network protection to hardware
if you are gaming at home, you should be using a hardware firewall mostly (microsoft's software firewall isn't too bad.. but why waste the cpu cycles). my personal bias leans towards netgear equipment... you can get a good NAT firewall for about $50.
o routers: switch .. never hub
you should always get a switch and not a hub. hubs share bandwidth across connections while switches give equal bandwidth to each network drop. i would also recommend hardwiring your boxes into the switch... why introduce wireless latency if you don't have to
o resolution
beyond the system and hardware tweaks... are the demands your game is putting on your system. reducing the demands can help improve performance. reducing the size of the game window, from 1600x1200 to 800x600 will reduce the load on the system bus and graphics processor by 75%. turning down the graphics settings within the game also reduce how 'deep' the game tries to render a scene before shipping it over the system bus to the graphics card (unless its mostly rendered on the card.. depends on the system and the game)
if your system is still a dog after all this... consider scanning for viruses or completely reformatting/reinstalling to get rid of unwanted software or bad dlls. (this is always my absolute last resort) beyond that, consider that some component of hardware could be an issue. crappy harddrives can cause thrashing and shoddy memory can cause randomness (including reboots/system crashes/black-blue screens)
if you have questions or need help, post it here... i'm been here for about 2+ months and i have found these forums to be full of friendly people willing to help each other solve issues
good luck
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