Achieving Hardware Efficiency for Botting Purposes

[iFarmer]

Goal: Achieving Hardware Efficiency for Botting Purposes

Your computer will require better or different hardware in certain areas, depending on what you use your computer for. For example, gamers often prioritize their graphics cards, spending the most on that while they cut back on other parts of their computer. Those who edit and produce videos often prioritize their processor. By making these priorities and decisions, these users are picking their hardware in the most efficient ways and getting what they need at the lowest costs.

Botters have their own unique needs when it comes to hardware. As of yet, we haven't come to any firm conclusion on the most efficient way to optimize our hardware for our needs. This is probably due to two primary reasons. Firstly, botters compose of a very small demographic. Compared to the millions of gamers out there, we're outnumbered and as such, our needs don't receive much attention. Secondly and probably most importantly, very few people have botting in mind when it comes to building a computer. People usually build a computer aimed toward gaming and then pick up on botting at a later time.

So this thread seeks to find the answers for hardware efficiency regarding botting. We'll start with some frequently asked questions that this community's members will comment on and try to answer. As we solve each question, I will update this post to reflect our findings. If you have a question that is not addressed by the FAQ, feel free to post it.

Frequently Asked Questions

- For the processor, should I choose Intel or AMD? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

It's a general consensus among gamers that Intel is the much superior option. This is primarily due to the fact that standard gaming does not utilize the extra cores provided by AMD's processors. The fewer but superior cores of Intel are much preferable to gamers. However, botters, unlike ordinary gamers, can actually utilize all of the extra cores provided by AMD. As such, AMD is not an option that should be easily dismissed. Then again, if you're striving for maximum processing power, then it would be Intel - no contest. Intel's i7 3930k and i7 3960x are much superior to anything AMD has to offer; the only problem is the price of these two processors.

- If I decide with Intel for the processor, do I need hyperthreading? [SOLVED]

If you plan to run a numerous amount of botting clients, definitely. When you run enough processes, the extra threads provided by hyperthreading will be of great use.

- Is faster (higher frequency) memory worth the extra cost?

Generally speaking, having more memory is preferable to having fast memory if you can only pick one. I am not sure about how much having fast memory will help you.

- How important is the graphics card? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

It's important but not nearly as important as the processor. The processor is most often the bottleneck. I would prioritize it right after the processor.

- Is Video RAM important when choosing a graphics card? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

Yes. Extra vRAM is meant for gaming at higher resolutions and enhancing graphic details. Seeing as how you will be running a massive amount of botting clients, probably on more than one monitor, extra vRAM is very helpful.

- For the graphics card, Nvidia or ATI? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

Virtually all Nvidia and ATI cards have a near-equal counterpart from the other brand. Just pick whichever one is offering you a better price at the time.

- Is a solid state drive worth the investment? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

From my own experience, a solid state drive will only improve performance when you have enough clients running. It would only improve it barely, too. It doesn't matter how fast your SSD is when you're only going to get bottlenecked by the server or your Internet connection.

- Are multiple monitors worth the investment? [SOLVED]

With a low amount of bots, you won't gain much from it. But when you have enough botting windows that you cannot fit them all onto one screen, you should really invest into another monitor. It's helpful to maintain your sanity as you trade items or gold among your accounts.

- Seeing as how a botting computer would be operating virtually 24/7, should energy-efficient or green hardware components be prioritized? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

It obviously would not matter if you're not paying for your own electricity. Let's see what others have to say regarding this.

------------ END FAQ ------------

If this thread is successful, I'll do my best to maintain it.

[nerfmeplease]

- Seeing as how a botting computer would be operating virtually 24/7, should energy-efficient or green hardware components be prioritized? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

just built a low consumption pc, and ill be the first to say that most eco-friendly hardware... blows. if you are multi-botting, the most i would even look toward is a high efficiency PSU and green (WD green eco drives) HDD's. use this to calculate your power consumption to judge what your output will be. eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

[iFarmer]

- Seeing as how a botting computer would be operating virtually 24/7, should energy-efficient or green hardware components be prioritized? [UP FOR DISCUSSION]

just built a low consumption pc, and ill be the first to say that most eco-friendly hardware... blows. if you are multi-botting, the most i would even look toward is a high efficiency PSU and green (WD green eco drives) HDD's. use this to calculate your power consumption to judge what your output will be. eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

You could go green without having to severely cut down on performance.

Even among the high end components, some products are noticeably more energy-efficient than others.

[KingMike]

- Is a solid state drive worth the investment?
8 clients running - changing to SSD from normal HDD made literally no difference. There are so many limiting factors now in play (game creation delay, server load) that difference of a 0.25 sec in game load time will just make no diff.

- Is Video RAM important when choosing a graphics card?
currently using 600-700MB VRAM on 8 clients. You wouldn't want to push it beyond what you have available without risking crashes. So more than 10 clients I would be looking for 2GB VRAM card.

[sofiavergara]

seriously a thread to boost rep? all the info here is easily googeable and 90% common sense. sorry for the truth.

[Oxis]

I thought this post would give more technical data or information. You would probably find those pc overclock forums more useful =\

[iFarmer]

seriously a thread to boost rep? all the info here is easily googeable and 90% common sense. sorry for the truth.

Are you so pathetic as to think this is an attempt at reputation?

I thought this post would give more technical data or information. You would probably find those pc overclock forums more useful =\

This shows how little you know and that you didn't even read the post. Which PC overclock forum tells you how to build the perfect botting computer? If you think a botting computer has the same needs as a gaming computer, then you're ignorant. You should try reading what others write before giving your uneducated opinion.

This isn't a guide to spoonfeed leechers. If you had actually read the post, you'd realize its actual intents.

[Diuuude]

You should also keep in mind that making money from botting isn't just about spending thousands in hardware if spending half of this price could allow you to run 80% of these bots.

As of today, a decent $1k machine can run around 10-12 bots with no problems, when you can run 2 times more bots with a 3 times more expensive hardware.

For a strong botting machine with a cost of approx $100 / running bot, I'd advice intel 2011 socket based config. Intel i7-3820 with 16gb of DDR3 memory of any speed. for around $350 you can get both GTX560 and GT640 from nvidia with 2GB VRAM each (it's possible to split charge of D3 clients tweaking the D3prefs file if you have 2 different cards). 2x fast 180GB SSD, a cheap watercooling solution for CPU and you're done. Can run 20 bots for less than $2k.

[who knows]

Critique:

1. You undervalued (literally) the price comparison between AMD and Intel
2. SSD performance is GIANT, especially for a medium-to-high-end machine. Not for gaming, but for operating system tasks. Probably would help with multiple virtual machines as well.
3. Higher clocked ram does provide performance efficiency, but in very limited scope. With multiple concurrent virtual machines, the higher clocked the better due to the division of the volatile memory.
4. Multiple monitors are worth the investment in terms of user-performance and not computer performance. In the case of a singular machine dedicated to botting, no monitors would serve best.

[btrash]

anyone actually using the bulldozer FX series with the "8" cores have info on how many bots you can run?

[taehanpak]

anyone feel free to post their setups or anything

[Sidelancer]

Good post, I'm looking to expand my operation from only a single VMware bot, as I'm only able to run one vmware bot right now while using the computer for other stuff. I've got 12 GB RAM, AMD Phenom 2 x6 1090T processor (OCed to 3.6 GHz) and a GTX 460 Nvidia card. I guess I should upgrade it in this priority - > Processor - > video card - > Ram?

[ilikecoffee]

Thanks for this info on hardware and specs... there use to be a really detailed one on the virtualsteroids forums with a good setup... but that got shut down just before i was able to save a copy of that forum post... this helps out immensely as I am looking to get a new box to run 10-16 bots efficiently without too many crashing or technical issues...