Tips for building a botting rig

[Tararan]

I am taking my small side "business" to a slightly bigger scale now, and I want to build something dedicated to my bots. I currently am forced to bot on my laptop, which I really don't want to do as it's expensive and I'd like it to last a while. I want it to be able to run 8-12 bots without BSOD. I am used to building gaming rigs to run single instances of games, so I'm new to this "field."

I have a few questions:
-Could I use an AMD 8 core, or do I need an i7? Also, if an i7 is the better choice, what specifically should I look for (clock speed, L2/L3 cache, etc)?
-Will a Radeon 7870 be good enough? If not, what is a better choice? Or could I go with something even lesser?
-Is PCI-E 3.0 important, or will 2.0 suffice?
-Is RAM speed important? Is 16GB of 1600MHz RAM enough, or should I opt for 32GB and/or a higher speed?
-Is a standard 7200RPM mechanical drive sufficient, and if not what about a hybrid drive? In other words, do I really need an SSD?

 

[Stinkbirdcat]

i'd look more on resource management than just bigger hardware

if your "single instance of games" rigs can run it on ultra, then it can already probably run several on low

also, things like Process Lasso and better fan/temp controllers are good. Keeps me near 10-20 degrees from room temp running 2-3 wows on lower settings plus a different game on ultra on the main display, but i'm small time on number of bots going.

 

[Teveel]

Take a look at this thread for inspiration.
http://www.thebuddyforum.com/honorbuddy-forum/104941-looking-new-cpu-xeon-i5.html

 

[chazz93]

-Could I use an AMD 8 core, or do I need an i7? Also, if an i7 is the better choice, what specifically should I look for (clock speed, L2/L3 cache, etc)?
i use the amd bulldozer 8core cpu and run 3 bots, 1 reg account and play crysis 3 at same timeso if i had more keys yes it will be able to hold that many bots.
-Is RAM speed important? Is 16GB of 1600MHz RAM enough, or should I opt for 32GB and/or a higher speed?
16g is plenty
-Is a standard 7200RPM mechanical drive sufficient, and if not what about a hybrid drive? In other words, do I really need an SSD?
the drive doesnt matter , if you dont mind waiting a few seconds longer save cash on the disc drive but if you enjoy a speedy boot and load the SSd is for you for more $$$
for the card, look at the nvidea cards, this work great and have decent cooling

 

[Azzieh]

-Could I use an AMD 8 core, or do I need an i7? Also, if an i7 is the better choice, what specifically should I look for (clock speed, L2/L3 cache, etc)?
i use the amd bulldozer 8core cpu and run 3 bots, 1 reg account and play crysis 3 at same timeso if i had more keys yes it will be able to hold that many bots.

The amd bulldozer is cheaper and is absolutely sufficient power for up to 15 bots and more, but it also has a higher power consumption, anywhere between 50-90W I believe. Do the math, if you have enough money right now, look for the cpu with less power consumption. I know you may think it's just a few euros, but overall it really isn't. The difference of 60W is already 10? more or less every month. The same goes for gpu. Buy the most efficient one, you don't need an high-end gpu, you really don't. For example, my geforce gts 450 in my old computer was enough for 12 bots and was just around 35?C. One Diablo3 Instance on max details already pushed it to 70?C. GPU is where you can be cheap!

-Is RAM speed important? Is 16GB of 1600MHz RAM enough, or should I opt for 32GB and/or a higher speed?
16g is plenty

16GB is enough and the speed is not important, you won't see ANY difference at all. Also no difference if you buy 32GB.

-Is a standard 7200RPM mechanical drive sufficient, and if not what about a hybrid drive? In other words, do I really need an SSD?
the drive doesnt matter , if you dont mind waiting a few seconds longer save cash on the disc drive but if you enjoy a speedy boot and load the SSd is for you for more $$$
for the card, look at the nvidea cards, this work great and have decent cooling

I would go for the SSD, just get a 128GB ssd! It's not so expensive anymore and you will be pleased with the increased speed overall, just feels better.


But that's all unimportant compared to your CPU. Get the best you can, this is the main worker for a botting rig!

 

[Macatho]

I have lots of different computers I use for botting.
what I can tell you is this:

For a 20+ bot rig, in order of importance:

12-16 gb ddr3.
I7 920 or better
SSD disk (dont need more than the smallest ones, its only gonna fit WoW)
100€ graphics card (like 560GT).

An old ass Q6600 with 8gb of ram can run 8 bots nowadays, after that it starts to get choppy.
Also, you want to look over your settings and search on this forum for optimal settings and then edit your config.wtf file. The biggest changer is to drop the maxfps down to 10-15. That will reduce your cpu load tremendously.

A hexa-core AMD with a shit gfx and 8gb of ram can run a very decent amount of bots, somewhere in the ballpark of 12-16.

But as always, it also depends on what you are doing with your bots. If they're all fishing at the same spot you don't need so much power. But if they're zoning a lot and flying over big areas you might need more.