Geek squad unite!

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Lilranja
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Geek squad unite!

Post by Lilranja »

Finally broke down and put together a system I (hopefully) can multibox on without any issues. Looking for any suggestions or comments from the geeks. I wanted to stay around $500, already own the video card (which will now be the worst piece in the system) so final price was about $600. I splurged on the processor and added a M.2 drive which added $150 to my initial build.

Phaolin, where did you say you got your copy of windows from?

Lastly, this is the first PC I've built totally by myself. I've replaced PC parts and toyed with settings, but nervous about a total build. For the most part I know its like putting together expensive legos. Any suggestions, tips, tricks?



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($165.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M GAMING PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($99.78 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GT 1030 2GB 2GH LP OC Video Card ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.49 @ Newegg Business)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.89 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus - PCE-AC55BT B1 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($34.51 @ OutletPC)
Total: $709.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-07 18:44 EDT-0400
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Phaolin
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Location: Chattanooga, TN

Post by Phaolin »

cheap windows keys ...

www.scdkey.com
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Faeodorus
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Post by Faeodorus »

I dont see any reason why that rig shouldn't shred eq multiboxing. I've heard you can even overclock the 2600 on the stock cooler with some success.
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Lilranja
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Post by Lilranja »

Forgot to list my cooler. I run a Cryorig M9a. Plan on doing a little overclocking on it. Nothing crazy.
Rapitiss
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Post by Rapitiss »

How many characters do you want to run ? Full group ?

In general you want 1 CPU core per EQ client, 2 GB of ram for OS + 1 GB of ram per client.

I would expect you to be able to run a full group of EQ characters w/o too much issue. Your CPU is only six core so you might want to think about moving up to an 8 core CPU so you have a little head room.

Sadly the GeForce 1030's are a ripoff IMHO. NVidia rolled out a crippled card to soak up $$ from the crypto crazy and since anything is better then on board they could get away with it.



Assume you've verifyed the MB + CPU combo are good ? as per the pcpartpicker warning: "Some AMD B350 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Pinnacle Ridge CPUs. Upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU that is supported by older BIOS revisions."
Lilranja
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Post by Lilranja »

My expectations is for this to run 4 flawlessly without having to turn off every option and setting to low. I don't plan to ever run shadows or dynamic lighting, I think it looks cheesy. As of now I run 2 well, 3 is doable, and 4 makes my cpu a sad panda. This is with no armor, char models, or effects on. If this new setup works well I may someday move up from the 4 max I run now.

With your suggestions for power per session it sounds like this should be more than enough for what I want. I stepped up from a 4 core to 6 on the CPU with those thoughts in mind.

On that note, out of curiosity. I've read suggestions both ways to spread EQ sessions out over all cores and to assign each session to it's own core. Personally on my current machine I think it plays better with all sessions spread over all cores. How to others set up their cores for boxing?

The 1030 was a cheap option that was 10x better than what I had in my current machine. At the time I never thought I'd be playing more than 1 account.

The MB+CPU is good. That warning is pretty dated from what I've read. All currently shipped MB's should be updated to run Raven Ridge.
Rapitiss
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Post by Rapitiss »

Lilranja wrote:On that note, out of curiosity. I've read suggestions both ways to spread EQ sessions out over all cores and to assign each session to it's own core. Personally on my current machine I think it plays better with all sessions spread over all cores. How to others set up their cores for boxing?
You want each instance of EQ to be on its own core. There are different methods to make sure this happens depending on what tools you are using.

Probably easier to chat in game.
Lilranja
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Post by Lilranja »

I set it up using the eqclient.ini. I'll get with ya for other suggestions.
Faeodorus
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Post by Faeodorus »

I've tried setting each instance of EQ to its own core (both threads on a cpu with SMT/HT), and I've tried setting each instance of EQ to all cores. I ran the test from just 1 account all the way up to 6 accounts. I have tried it at both 1080p @60 fps and 1440p @60fps. I've noticed no difference in performance going one way or the other. Although to be honest, all of my tests were done on Intel CPUs. AMD CPUs may respond differently.
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Rapitiss
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Post by Rapitiss »

EQ is single threaded so the only time it will matter is if you have more EQ clients than cores. And even then only under extremely interesting conditions.



One method EQ has for starting is called round robin, you always load a new EQ client on the "next" core. When you get to last core you start over.

Lets say I'm running on a dual core CPU.

1. Load EQ#1 -> core 1
2. Load EQ#2 -> core 2
3. Close E2#2
4. Load EQ#2 -> core 1 ( both EQ clients on same core )

Of course if have eqclient.ini set to -1 ( default ) it lets the OS handle which thread its on, so this is a very contrived example.
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Phaolin
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Location: Chattanooga, TN

Post by Phaolin »

ISBoxer has a built-in cpu strategy wizard that can select all cpu's with every window, use round robin balancing, select no cpu's (let game choose), etc. Handy if you want a program to do it for you.
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Lilranja
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Post by Lilranja »

Thank you Phaolin for the link. Couldnt of been smoother. And thank you all for the input.

I was worried about vid card holding system back, but it absolutely destroys EQ. With no OC, no armors turned off, no 3rd party frame limiters, it runs a full group in guild lobby with no AFK players hidden with barely noticeable frame rate drop. Even MGB some buffs with effects on and barely noticed a change. Very very happy with my choice. Time to unhook everything and make it pretty.
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