New Platform!

When I started Multi-boxing, I did not want to spent any money on hardware. I did not know how long I would have fun with it. Now a few things have changed. Firstly, the prices for hardware have gone down. Secondly, a bunch of elaborate Multi-boxing software solutions were created after I started boxing. Last and most importantly however - I know that I have fun with boxing and expect to continue doing so in the foreseeable future.

My original platform for boxing were five Sony VAIO computers. My home PC, notebook, previous notebook and two more notebooks that I set up for this project. While three of the notebooks were borderline WoW-capable, they did the job. Together with two pieces of software, a proprietary software multiplexer written by Micah of the dual-boxing.com forums and Multiplicity by Stardock this allowed me to box.

At least for PvE, this was fine. In the past months however, my boxing focus has shifted to my shaman team and PvP. While in PvE, a dead tank usually means a wipe which does not really matter since you are by yourself, the situation in PvP is totally different. A battleground or arena game does not allow you to do a graveyard run while everyone waits for your pleasure, to the contrary - time is ticking.

For a while now I have been tinkering with my new PC and wasted a lot of time due to a problem between ATI/AMD's 4800 graphics chipset and Intel's P45 mainboard chipset. The problem is not resolved yet, but I can now at least run one graphics card without having system stability problems.

The new hardware platform for my multiboxing and WoW in general is made up as follows: Intel Quadcore Q6700, MSI P45 Ultimate, 8GB, 2x ATI Radeon 4850. My old primary, now auxiliary, PC is much weaker: Intel P-D820, 2GB, nVidia GeForce 6600. As you can see, it has been a while since I upgraded! =]

To make the two PCs integrate as a single desktop, I still use Multiplicity. To allow me to broadcast keystrokes to all WoW windows, resize and position them and also to swap them on the fly I use Keyclone.

The major improvement for me is now one of convenience as well as combat effectiveness. It is possible to configure Keyclone to start all WoW sessions and uses WoW's config.wtf to adjust screen resolution and pre-fill the account names. That is very handy, making the whole thing much smoother to start up.

The real key difference however is that I was previously unable to make any char that I wanted leader of the pack in my setup while keeping the ability to move that char individually and broadcast commands to the other characters at the same time. That is something that I can do now. Keyclone's picture in picture function swaps the primary WoW window with one of the secondary windows on the press of a hotkey. Using the same hotkey in game to change the /focus for all characters allows me to change the leader of the pack on the fly, even while running without loosing more than a step or two.

I can't wait for the weekend this week. The good thing is: I don't really have to, since Belgium has a public holiday this Friday. =]