Multi-account multi-computer gaming station

[Zaynon]

I am a bad guy...

After getting married, I got my wife into online games.... at the time EQ....

Now it's WoW....

Now telling me to build a computer is like... oh twist my arm....

But my wife doesn't ask me to build a computer, she asked me to build a whole system where she can play more than one toon at the same time!

Now I know there are systems out that that one person can play 8 toons all at once....

Right now she just wants a system that she can play 2 toons at once.... heck, I that's a good start... but I'd like to eventually have at least 4 systems up.

Now 2 computers, two monitors... simple enough.

But can anyone supply me on some detailed pictures and setups to give me layout ideas on how to set up multi-account, multi-gaming stations?

I'd really appreciate it... I'm a bit at a loss how to control the placement of all those necessary keyboards and mice. LOL

Zaynon

[rottentomato]

why not just upgrade to a dual or tri monitor setup, get a computer built extremely well, and run off that in windowed mode?

[Kalos]

Technical issues belong in the Technical Forum, thread moved.

[Unknowable]

I agree w/ Rotten, for two main reasons:
1 - a mid to high end pc with a dual or quad core processor and dual monitor setup will be able to play WoW very well. There are settings native to windows (xp and vista) that allow you to run different apps on different cores, so you'd be able to spread out the load on a multi-core system. Whatever you do, DO NOT get a system with a Crossfire or SLI setup (dual video cards). It's okay for the motherboard to have this capability, as long as you're not using it. WoW does not like dual video card setups. I would advise picking a mid to high end video card - the GeForce 8600GT Kalos recommends here (http://wow.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=391708) works great on my rig, and I'm running a 3 year old AMD single-core processor. I can run on almost maxed settings, so I'd assume that a rig w/ a quad-core processor and 3gb of RAM would be able to run maxed out for one session of WoW, probably at 75% of max for a dual session
2 - even with dual monitors, one monster rig running two sessions of WoW will draw less power than two semi-monster rigs. For a machine worth the effort, you're talking an 850w or 1000w power supply per machine. That's between 1500 to 2000 watts running two WoW sessions at the same time (my math isn't bad, the systems won't run at full bore all the time, hence the lower number). A single rig could handle a setup w/ 1000w

Just as a suggestion, here's the basis of a rig (parts are missing, such as the case, hard drives, etc), that will give you the general performance parts you'd be looking for for a good dual-monitor rig

$130 - EVGA 512-P2-N757-TR GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130290

$100 - GIGABYTE GA-G33M-S2L LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128085

$276 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

$60 - Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134125

$44 - Kingston HyperX 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134124

hope this helps :-)

[Kalos]

The above build is excellent material; the most important thing to remember is to make sure you use a strong and reputable PSU, no cheap thing, else it'll blow under the strain. The Q6600 isn't light on power consumption when the demands on it gets high, such as two WoW executables running side by side, but it's definantly the processor I'd have for this job. Only reason that it's not on the Recommended Hardware thread is due to it being overkill for just a normal rig built for a single instance of WoW.

Just an elaboration on dual video cards. Do not use SLI or Crossfire, it only slows things down, and you can only use one monitor in an SLI/Crossfire setup. However, if used seperately of one another, as stand alone graphics card working independantly on different monitors and activities, dual video cards does work out. It's tricky to set up however, took me a good while to get it sorted on the first few computers I've had to make, but definantly avoid SLI and Crossfire when it comes to WoW.

A few quick tips: Try to avoid radically specialised gamer interface keyboards and mice when you're doing this, the customised drivers tend to muck up an already complicated setup which sadly is underdeveloped in Windows support. You'll definantly need your human interface tools on USB though, try to avoid using PS/2 as the interface for one set. And don't go through any USB hubs, plug directly into the motherboard's own slots with the interface devices, a mistake I made once and spent days trying to troubleshoot before I just untangled the network of cables and started at the basics. Lessons learnt indeed.

[Zaynon]

Thank you everyone for all your assistance...

esp thank you Kalos and unknown, I had no idea about the SLI/Crossfire
Do not use SLI or Crossfire, it only slows things down, and you can only use one monitor in an SLI/Crossfire setup.

... that's exactly what I would have done!

Well I think I've set my mind to a 4 monitor setup ... and now I know I can't SLI/Crossfire them .... But I'm still good with say 2 unlinked video cards that support 2 monitors each... right?

This is my first time doing anything quite this drastic.... so I appreciate every ounce of help =)

[Zaynon]

I just wanted to put out a second posting....

Just to say THANK YOU to everyone ... this is going to be a BIG endeviour for me... as I've never built anything on quite this scale before (to put it in perspective, I'm looking at $10,000 just for the box... not including the $4,000 20.3" 4 monitor setup) So this is a HUGE endevour to test my computer building skills ... and probably try them a little too...

So every bit of help I can get from you all, please know that it is GREATLY appreciated.

Zaynon

[Lokiaro]

Well I think I've set my mind to a 4 monitor setup ... and now I know I can't SLI/Crossfire them .... But I'm still good with say 2 unlinked video cards that support 2 monitors each... right?


and after reviewing this, I guess I could have been more clear with my question, I meant to say ...

Can I have a 4 monitor setup..... that if the card has 2 monitor suport.... and I get 2 cards and crossfire them .... then I get two more cards and cross fire them .... would I still get only 2 working monitors... or would that give me 4 since each card has 2 monitor outs on it?

Perhapes because I posted twice, my question was missed.... I am hoping someone can help answer this question for me... I would hate to find to find out the hard way. LOL

Lokiaro

[Unknowable]

do not crossfire/sli your cards for purposes of WoW (same thing, two brands), WoW doesn't like crossfire/sli. instead, get two cards, each with dual DVI ports, preferably the same make/model of card. this will allow a 4 monitor setup. the first thing that you were talking about though, crossfiring 2 sets of cards (2 on one crossfire bridge, 2 on another)...correct me if I'm wrong here Kalos, but I don't believe that there is a mobo that supports 2 sets of crossfire connections. i know of one mobo that does 2 sets of sli, but that's just overkill for any modern game, even crysis on high settings if you're running high-end cards.

[Kalos]

SLI/Crossfire suffers from greatly deminishing returns, even in some instances worse performance. I remember Quad SLI with the 7900 cards, it absolutely reeked of failure, pretty depressing. WoW was designed in the era of the single core, single graphics card PC. SLI and Crossfire make things worse for WoW, not better. You'd be better off flushing that money down the toilet, you'd still be getting rid of it and you would be getting better performance, so the toilet thing would be more benifitial that the twin sets of pair graphics cards.

[elsegundo]

question: instead of getting one really good computer to handle the load, is it possible to use two computers with inputs through a kvm switch? im not sure since i know you can control multiple computers with a kvm switch, im not sure if you can control multiple computers simultaneously.

just a thought, figured i'd throw that in if it helps. =]

[Kalos]

From my experience with KMV switches, they're not designed for control of multiple machines at once. That would require multiplying the output, not simply switching between the two. There may be a few special designs, but I haven't used one that allows for a mode with multiple machines drawing the commands at once. Not that it would make much sense for WoW. Each character won't be in the exact same spot, you'd be forever struggling to control the two of them as adjustments in something as simple as facing direction is automatically applied to the other. It would have to be a pretty good switch with multiple modes.

Personally I'd go with the single box, saves on the power bill too. If you're going one box, one WoW running, you won't need anywhere near as much power, things like 8800s and quad cores become pointless wastes of money sitting there with tons of capacity but nothing coming close to keeping them busy, sort of like putting a university professor into primary school education, sure it sounds good to throw lots of power at the thing, but that's about it, the sound of it, no benifits actually felt.

[Artad]

A silly question but wouldn't it make controlling each character a pain in the backside if you're running two instances of the exe on the same pc? I shotgun two accounts atm, both running on seperate hardware, I leave one toon following the main one but able to put out a heal whenever it needs to (simply reaching across and hitting the macro key etc).

Also it would be (in my opinion of course) cheaper to put two small shuttles under a desk with two keyboards and mice as well as monitors than having a single large capacity\spec machine doing all the work.



One thing I would like to add with regards to SLI, whilst WoW doesn't officially support SLI I have never experienced any issues running an SLI rig, I certainly can't complain about the constant 60fps that I have pretty much all over the place (vsync enabled on a 24in Benq monitor running at 1920x1200). I do agree however that if you don't need SLI it's a waste of money.

[elsegundo]

i think the purpose isnt to add a support character, like having a healer tag a long while you solo. its more for the syncronization of multiple characters. if they were all the same class, it would make things very easy, as the spells would be the same, and so pressing a button will have all characters do the same thing.

[Artad]

i think the purpose isnt to add a support character, like having a healer tag a long while you solo. its more for the syncronization of multiple characters. if they were all the same class, it would make things very easy, as the spells would be the same, and so pressing a button will have all characters do the same thing.

Umm but surely each instance being run will only take input from the keyboard\mouse one instance at a time?

[Tr1cK]

Umm but surely each instance being run will only take input from the keyboard\mouse one instance at a time?

Exactly. The window that has focus takes the inputs.

I dual-box on my PC all the time. 3.0ghz dual core Core 2 Duo, 2gb DDR2, 8800GTS, RAID0, and Windows XP is what I'm running. It has minimal slowdowns even with 2 windows of WoW up. I don't bother to set affinity either, I let Windows handle it.

[elsegundo]

Umm but surely each instance being run will only take input from the keyboard\mouse one instance at a time?

normally yes, but i've taken the liberty of looking things up and i found this program called keyclone.

https://solidice.com/keyclone/index.html

it has a video.


edit: dont know if its legal software, dont know if bliz allows programs like this, or if they only allow multiple keyboards for multiple windows, etc. i googled this.

[Unholy_VI]

yes. Blizzard is ok with it.

look around and you'll find videos of people quad-boxing arenas and instances. Blizzard is fine with it. Their position is since you are actually physically controlling the characters without using scripts it's fine.
Might have something to do with the fact that they are paying 4x the monthly subscription too.

The one I watched was a guy doing this with a team of shamans in the arena. it was pretty sick what he could do. instantly make a field of totems then simultaneously blast the target with 5 chain lightnings... ouch.

and having a second character to follow you around healing is certainly possible. just set it up so that you have some dummy icons for healing on the main character's screen so when you click them it triggers a real button on the healing character's screen that starts a heal for instance.

I imagine it would be a lot of fun to do this and figure out cool macros and such for controlling a party with one mouse and keyboard. Maybe someday I'll give it a shot.

seems a little bit cheesy to me but whatever floats your boat.