4 Gamers 1 Box

[TubbyCanuck]

Howdy All,

 

I watched the three videos Linus put out on the multi-gamer 1 box and was inspired to do something like this on my own. I remember the glory days of hauling your machine over to a friends place to stay up late with some buddies and play video games till the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately we all grew up, got jobs, wives, and a bunch of other things that make that sort of thing and impossibility these days. So i thought, what if I could build a machine for a reasonable amount of money that could allow me and three friends to all play games together and online with one machine. People show up for 2-3 hours, play some games, and then head home. What initially sparked my interest was an article from tech spot http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/ that talked about a dual cpu machine capable of rendering and playing modern games with the best of them, but doing it for a cheaper price than brand spanking new stuff. So i thought taking the articles advice and using 2x E5-2670s (SR0KX). They are around 100 bucks CAD on ebay and seem like a good deal at the moment. I figured with two of those as a beginning It would be a good place to start. However, I have never build a machine like this and we are way outside of my knowledge base when it comes to parts compatibility with virtualization in mind. So i figured I would turn to you fine folks to give me a hand with this sort of thing.

 

Here are the requirements:

 

I want a machine capable of running 4 instance of windows, so me and some buddies can all play games together, online, and with each other, usb headsets and all. I am looking at doing all the blizzard games at 1080p 60 on High settings and the rest of modern games at 1080p 60 on Medium settings, nothing fancy, just get the job done. I also want this build to include monitors, keyboards, mice, and headsets, nothing super awesome, just functional. I figure a good starting place would be 2x E5-2670s (SR0KX), but who knows, I could be way off base here. Now the real deal is I want to try to do this with a 1500-2000 CAD budget.I know that'd gonna be the hard part. I would love to hear what you guys have to say and what you would recommend. If you can't squeeze the monitors and accessories in with your suggestions, no big deal, but I would love to try and get everything for no more than 2000 CAD.

 

Once we get all the details hammered out, Ill do a build summary, takes some pictures, maybe the odd video. So you all can see your handy work.

 

Thanks Everyone and I appreciate your time,

 

Frank

 

P.S. I live in British Columbia and have a preference using NCIX, but I will use whatever.

[rm -rf]

22 minutes ago, TubbyCanuck said:

Howdy All,

 

I watched the three videos Linus put out on the multi-gamer 1 box and was inspired to do something like this on my own. I remember the glory days of hauling your machine over to a friends place to stay up late with some buddies and play video games till the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately we all grew up, got jobs, wives, and a bunch of other things that make that sort of thing and impossibility these days. So i thought, what if I could build a machine for a reasonable amount of money that could allow me and three friends to all play games together and online with one machine. People show up for 2-3 hours, play some games, and then head home. What initially sparked my interest was an article from tech spot http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/ that talked about a dual cpu machine capable of rendering and playing modern games with the best of them, but doing it for a cheaper price than brand spanking new stuff. So i thought taking the articles advice and using 2x E5-2670s (SR0KX). They are around 100 bucks CAD on ebay and seem like a good deal at the moment. I figured with two of those as a beginning It would be a good place to start. However, I have never build a machine like this and we are way outside of my knowledge base when it comes to parts compatibility with virtualization in mind. So i figured I would turn to you fine folks to give me a hand with this sort of thing.

 

Here are the requirements:

 

I want a machine capable of running 4 instance of windows, so me and some buddies can all play games together, online, and with each other, usb headsets and all. I am looking at doing all the blizzard games at 1080p 60 on High settings and the rest of modern games at 1080p 60 on Medium settings, nothing fancy, just get the job done. I also want this build to include monitors, keyboards, mice, and headsets, nothing super awesome, just functional. I figure a good starting place would be 2x E5-2670s (SR0KX), but who knows, I could be way off base here. Now the real deal is I want to try to do this with a 1500-2000 CAD budget.I know that'd gonna be the hard part. I would love to hear what you guys have to say and what you would recommend. If you can't squeeze the monitors and accessories in with your suggestions, no big deal, but I would love to try and get everything for no more than 2000 CAD.

 

Once we get all the details hammered out, Ill do a build summary, takes some pictures, maybe the odd video. So you all can see your handy work.

 

Thanks Everyone and I appreciate your time,

 

Frank

 

P.S. I live in British Columbia and have a preference using NCIX, but I will use whatever.

Don't

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/tQKXRG

[Energycore]

I would only do this if what you want is the fun of tinkering and troubleshooting. If instead what you want is just a setup for 2 friends, the amount of effort it takes might not be worth your time.

 

The first step is to see if you can find a dual socket motherboard that's cheap enough. I see ones for 350 euros + shipping, which is more than 4 normal motherboards.

[anybodykek]

Hmm... 2,000 CAD? I feel your pain. You do need 4 graphics cards, which I can say are super expensive in Canada. I can say a 4x 960 or R9 380 system ($1000) would be good for your needs, but you need another super expensive Motherboard (server grade), another $300 or so, and then a decent CPU set, another 300 or so. E5 2670 would be nice. Keep in mind you will need some expensive, weird power supply to run all this and a case, to tack on another 300.

[RS2007GOD]

4 minutes ago, rm -rf said:

Don't

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/tQKXRG

This is completly overkill imo dual 980tis would prolly be fine. For 60fps in blizzards lineup 

 

[GDRRiley]

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/cLfyWX there you go. a lot over but the best I could do.

[rm -rf]

1 hour ago, GDRRiley said:

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/cLfyWX there you go. a lot over but the best I could do.

You also need CPU Coolers

[GDRRiley]

2 hours ago, rm -rf said:

You also need CPU Coolers

yeah is what every he wanted. 

[TubbyCanuck]

Howdy All,

 

Great suggestions! I think because of the age of chips and everything I was looking at, I figured I would try and maybe get a bunch of used parts. At least that seems to make sense within the budget. I was looking on ebay and I can get two E5-2670s socket 2011-v1 for aorund 200-250 CAD, used of course. My next thought was to grab a Asrock Rack server mobo, an EP2C602 which you can get between 380-450 CAD brand new. So that puts as around 600-700 CAD. The next big hit would of course be the graphics cards. Again, turned to my old friend ebay and found people selling gtx 960/970s for 150-200 CAD so worse case scenario we are talking 800 CAD. That puts it at 1500 CAD and we need coolers, hard drives, Ram, power supply, and a case. For 500 CAD.....hmmm. I do have a spare Corsair 850 that is a couple years old and I could also rip the 1000 watt corsair outta my main box and swap in the 850 and use the 1000 watt for the build, but I am not sure if that is enough juice. 

 

I haven't had as much time as I would like to look into it, but if you guys come up with anything else that would be great to hear your suggestions.

 

CPUs 2x E5-2670

 http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2-PCS-Intel-Xeon-E5-2670-2-60-Ghz-20M-8-Core-CPU-Processor-SR0KX-C2-115W-LGA2011-/191914784425?hash=item2caf0336a9:g:WTkAAOSwvg9Xe9rQ

 

Motherboard Asrock Rac EP2C602

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ASRock-EP2C602-SSI-EEB-Server-Motherboard-Dual-LGA-2011-Intel-C602-Supports-DDR3-/181920848267?hash=item2a5b53d98b:g:JCoAAOxyDLZSBAus

 

GPU GTX /970

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/PNY-gtx-970-video-card-/272390416551?hash=item3f6bbbe8a7:g:hooAAOSw8w1X59hD

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-970-ACX-2-0-/172355331198?hash=item28212da47e:g:pJ4AAOSwYIxX6ZCf

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/MSI-GTX-970-GAMING-4G-/122153642174?hash=item1c70eca8be:g:v-YAAOSwmfhX6VME

 

GTX 960

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/evga-gtx-960-ssc-gddr5-2gb-acx-2-0-/252552863248?hash=item3acd52de10:g:VdwAAOSwOyJX5HPE

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/EVGA-GeForce-GTX-960-2GB-02G-P4-2966-KR-/331976832852?hash=item4d4b5c7754:g:CvgAAOSwOyJX4W9q

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/EVGA-GTX960-FTW-/331980217173?hash=item4d4b901b55:g:iQgAAOSwmLlX5aGh

 

Thanks again everyone,

 

Frank