Tech - Any interest in an EQ Box building guide? (1 Viewer)

[runordie]

get with the time redbot just make this a wiki page where we share our builds. ok now that i think about it making the wiki page could take just as much time.

I will echo the thought regarding an inexpensive laptop for a 6 box team.

i would guess $1k to $1.5k could be enough to run 6 boxes but my main fear of a gaming laptop is overheating. if you are serious about the gaming laptop i would invest in a nice big cooling fan that the laptop sits on to keep stuff from blowing up.

august 2014 i spent $1k on a new rig all in store at microcenter. intel i5-4690k 3.5ghz processor, radeon r9 280x 3gb video card, kingston hyperx 12gb(2x4gb, 2x2gb) memory. my next upgrades would be my first ssd, then processor, gfx card. currently i run 10 clients with chrome open and music playing i almost max out on memory. i just upgraded 8 to 12gb memory so thats why its a bit off

Corsair Carbide Series Spec-02 Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Computer Case
ASRock Z97 PRO4 LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Boxed Processor
MSI Radeon R9 280X Overclocked 3G 3072MB PCIe 3.0 Video Card
Kingston HyperX Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800)
Kingston HyperX Blue 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800)
WD Blue 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA III 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 750W Watt Bronze ATX 12V Power Supply

 

[runordie]

So guys I'm buying more upgrades to my build.

I bought Samsung 850 evo 128gb ssd and another 4gb RAM stick to put me at 16gb total .

I'm running 10 clients but want to make another group lol.
Think my processor and gfx card could handle another 5 clients putting me at 15 total?

 

[wowfool]

I have a beast of a machine that should run 20 boxes but I cant keep my graphics card from crashing when I am over 10 or so. I havent figured out how to get windows 10 to spit out detailed debugging so i'm not sure what is wrong other than definitely not overheating.

 

[Meistro]

WINDOWS 10.......LOL

 

[playj]

As many others have already noticed, there is some sort of bottleneck around 12-14 MQ instances.

Let's take your basic cheapo i5 4 core 4590 box with 16GB of RAM, CPU will be around 50-60% and RAM also 50-60% (not to mention Internet bandwith will be laughable < 100k bps).

Often, there will be some sort of strange lagging going on, the whole system will become rather unresponsive (despite Resource Meter showing CPU resources still available on each core).

This is on Win 7 Pro x64 with pretty much everything turned off (behind NAT, anti-virus off, etc.)

It is possible that some of the tips collected over the years on minimizing resource usage are actually hurting newer machines.

PS I've gotten 20 MQ instances on the above mentioned i5-4690 but it is not consistent.

 

[wowfool]

WINDOWS 10.......LOL

Hey now, some of us have to work on our play machines too!

 

[Meistro]

Hey now, some of us have to work on our play machines too!

My most sincere sympathy

 

[Wink-]

I run a build similar to this. I have no problem with 14 and that is where I cap myself out at. I have a Nvdia 560gt card. Also running windows 10. Besides some DX9 crashes which I believe are inevitable, Windows 10 has been rock solid for me.

As many others have already noticed, there is some sort of bottleneck around 12-14 MQ instances.

Let's take your basic cheapo i5 4 core 4590 box with 16GB of RAM, CPU will be around 50-60% and RAM also 50-60% (not to mention Internet bandwith will be laughable < 100k bps).

Often, there will be some sort of strange lagging going on, the whole system will become rather unresponsive (despite Resource Meter showing CPU resources still available on each core).

This is on Win 7 Pro x64 with pretty much everything turned off (behind NAT, anti-virus off, etc.)

It is possible that some of the tips collected over the years on minimizing resource usage are actually hurting newer machines.

PS I've gotten 20 MQ instances on the above mentioned i5-4690 but it is not consistent.

 

[Incognito]

Great Thread! Glad you started this Red! I am just starting to plan a PC build and was wondering where to tweak. I knew guys (Raz et al) were runnin a fuck-ton of bots and wanted to know more about where they thought the bottlenecks would be/shouldn't be.

I think breaking the guide down to how many toons you'll be running is most appropriate weighed against budget.

Perhaps whether or not we plan to use ISboxer as I believe the specs could/would be different(?).

I think there should be a simple do this, don't do this, and then there should be the technobabble section for the techheads. We should not be excluded to appease those that are less technical just as they should not have to wade thru a bunch of undecipherable jargon. Include both, keep them separate. For instance, if someone suggests X, ima gonna wanna know why (and then scrutinize it, test it, research it, report my findings).

One thing I read over at Inner Space was setting CPU affinity and making sure you choose them in blocks of two. I see you are running way more than 1 toon per 2 virtual core Raz, you play with setting affinity at all?

I will have to go back and reread this thread 3 or 4 times...

 

[MaxD]

Directx 12 is win 10 only isn't it. For people who like to play new titles you'll need win 10 sooner or later

 

[Meistro]

Win 10 is probably better NOW than it was when I tried it (2 weeks after its release). But my BIGGEST issue is the FORCED updates. I have an issue with not being able to update on my schedule. I run pay by the GB data alot, and do my updates when I am at home on my UNLIMITED data. I don't want to run updates when using my limited data unless MICROSOFT wants to pay for it for me.
Now there were SEVERAL other issues but tha was and still is my biggest grip with Win 10.

 

[Wink-]

I agree whole-heartedly with you Meistro. I hate the forced updates. It's actually the reason why my Win 7 machine got updated to Windows 10. I have the automatic restarts turned off and I tell Bill Gates that I am on a metered connection so I only download updates when I want to.

 

[Warl0ck45]

Win10 moved to being able to schedule updates.

Outside of a few... well nuisance stuff really, win10 has been fairly solid for me. My only real complaint is a bugged update that keeps trying to reinstall every night (hence noting the scheduler!) wont let me uninstall or manually install the update, and the auto updater just keep re trying and failing. trolling through some of the other sites for a better way to do it, heh.

As for software set ups... I have not tried out IS but I know winEQ2 can make a big difference on older machines and some laptops as far as performance and amount of instances. I would venture to guess ISB would have similar effects.

 

[Meistro]

Win10 moved to being able to schedule updates.

Outside of a few... well nuisance stuff really, win10 has been fairly solid for me. My only real complaint is a bugged update that keeps trying to reinstall every night (hence noting the scheduler!) wont let me uninstall or manually install the update, and the auto updater just keep re trying and failing. trolling through some of the other sites for a better way to do it, heh.

Exactly my point. I run updates once every 3 weeks...when im on unlimited data for 3-5 days. I DO NOT want it updating daily or even weekly; and when i'm out working (on my "limited" data) my comp runs basically 24/7 so no way to "trick" it to not update.

Something for all o think on. As many internet providers move toward the limited data type services, do you really want another company telling you that you need to download when they say so, no matter what it might cost you in overage fees?

 

[Warl0ck45]

oh I agree with the forced updating being an utter BS idea, though the reasoning behind it is sound. But you can always set up your firewalls to block the damn thing until you want to toggle them back to open.

The part that suprised me is that Win10 downloads as a torrent, you do not actually get much of it from MS, but from other folks with Win10. So... if the forced updating was suppose to be to combat folks lax on their security updating... why go the torrent style and download from 50 potential hackers/infected folks? /boggle

Was enough of a thing I got a warning from my ISP about using torrent software, heh.

 

[Jilazee]

As a baseline.

18 clients running at 50-60FPS on active screen and 25-30FPS on background screen. 1920x1040. Most fancy stuff turned off.

i7-6700 OC'd to 4.5ghz
16GB RAM
GTX770
M.2 VNMe Pro Samsung storage.

I guess the one big difference would be the settings used for each client. Turning down cliping plane and turning off shadows and shaders extra helps a lot.

Razkle, Do you have a guide for slimming down each clients graphics settings or customising the client ini files?