Technical Question, Single/Dual/Quad core

[AbyssalMage]

Just an update:

I got the computer last Friday
See you all in game, hopefully, and thanks again.

Dave

Awsome, have fun with the new toy  :-D

[Obsessedwith]

Since I'm sticking with the 6 instances on 2 boxes for the moment, I probably won't worry about the upgrade to 64 bit Vista...I don't need it just yet.  3G currently is more than I need, upgrading to 4 (as soon as I can) will give me plenty of headroom.  I can only imagine what will be possible with a quad core processor, 64 bit Vista and 8, 16, or 32Gig of RAM...probably a whole raid off one computer...unbelievable.




3g is the most you will be able to utilize in 32 bit vista, if you get 4 it is a waste as it won't be recognized.

Good to hear your able to run that much was wondering about it myself but never tried more than 3.

[jdpatt]

3g is the most you will be able to utilize in 32 bit vista, if you get 4 it is a waste as it won't be recognized.

Good to hear your able to run that much was wondering about it myself but never tried more than 3.

Yeah, for whatever it's worth, my personal experience is, as a benchmark of sorts:

A Pentium 4 (2.26G) with 1 Meg of RAM, WinXP SP2, 512M video card, can run 2 Everquest accounts fairly smoothly, although loading/zoning is very slow and frequently crashes, with all video settings on low.

A Pentium 4 (3.0G) with 2 Meg of RAM, WinXP SP2, 256M video card, can run 3 accounts smoothly, 4 with a lot of lagging, all video settings on low.

A Pentium 4 (2.6G, Laptop) with 1 Meg of RAM, WinXP SP2, 64M video card, can run 1 account fairly smoothly, 2 with a lot of lagging, with all video settings on low

A Core 2 Quad (2.4G) with 3 Meg of RAM, Vista Premium (32 bit), 256M video card can run 6 accounts smoothly, with the default video settings on (i.e. the settings Everquest starts you with, before you turn stuff off or on).  Based on how little of the CPU power is used, I would imagine a Core 2 Duo would probably do as well, and while I have no experience with the AMD chips, the AMD counterparts would probably perform similarly.  Multi core CPUs are a Godsend to our little botted armies, haha.

So if you're looking to start multi-boxing, this might help you decide if your computer has enough power.  Your results, of course, may vary.

Dave

[bobokatt1970]

I know this post is a few months old but I have always found that having multiple hardrives with a separate account of EQ on each was the way to go for multi char playing.  Made my eq experience so much more fun.  I used to pay for WINEQ but I no longer need it with this set up.. Mind you with 6 accounts.. heck that would be a stretch.

[jdpatt]

I'll have to look into that, I've upgraded yet again, so I gotta spend a day offline setting everything up...main it's a pain in the but moving to a new box...resizing windows, filtering chat, naming spellsets, etc.  Usually takes me at least a whole day.

So what I wound up with is:

BOX 1:  A Core 2 Quad (Q6600 2.4G) with 3 Meg of RAM, Vista Premium (32 bit), 256M Radeon HD 2600 HT running 2 accounts

BOX 2:  A Core 2 Quad (Q9300 2.5G) with 6 Meg of RAM, Vista Premium (64 bit), 256M Radeon HD 2600 HT running 4 accounts.

I might go 3 accounts on each and see what runs the best.  I also am considering upgrading the video cards, maybe to 512M 8800 GTs, although I must admit what I have is running very smoothly.

Might try separate drives, although I can only do 2 drives on each computer, so it'll be 6 toons sharing 4 hard drives.

Thanks again for the advice.

Dave

[Khauruk]

Just copy your *.ini files over for your chararacters.  Even if you're changing to new monitor sizes, it'll save 90% of the work.