Wed Apr 10, 2013 8:15 pm by Ualaa
If you want six cores, that means the i7-3930K.
That's one generation older.
You can go with an i7-3770K, which is the current generation.
That only has four cores, but each core is individually more powerful.
According to Intel, they're about 10-15% more powerful at the same clock, and they run at 3.5 GHz stock (as opposed to 3.2 GHz for the 3930K).
The 3930K allows for quad-channel ram, up to 64GB.
The 3770K allows for dual-channel ram, up to 32GB.
You'd only need/want more than 32GB, if you were running a boat-load of clients or wanted to make a ram drive.
A recent benchmark showed the 3930 and the 3770, as being very comparable for a single client game.
Meaning the increased bandwidth on the 3930's ram roughly offset the increased performance of the 3770's CPU.
The more clients you're planning on running, the more of an advantage you'll get out of six cores (plus six logical cores) compared to only four cores (plus four logical cores), and the increased amount of ram.
The 4770K is scheduled to be released in June of 2013.
Intel expects it to be 10-15% faster, at the same clock speed, compared to the 3770K.
The onboard video card is supposed to be a lot better (+60%, give or take), but anyone that games will likely get a discreet video card anyway.
The 4770K is again 4 cores, dual-channel ram with 32GB max... very similar, but a bit more powerful than the 3770K (going purely by the chart, on Intel's page... not any kind of a benchmark).
I have liked the performance on my EVGA GTX 670 4GB Superclocked card.
It was the top card, in the 'Bang for your Buck' category, on Tom's Hardware at the time of my purchase.
The card could barely handle five clients in Warcraft, on Ultra settings DX11... I wouldn't recommend playing that with settings that high, but Good settings (or better) on the main and Average or lower settings on the slaves, should be smooth pretty much anywhere.
The system is: 3930K, Noctua NH-D14 cooler, 32GB (low profile) DDR3 1600MHz CL8 ram, GTX 670 4GB, 2x OCZ Vertex 3 in Raid0, playing on a pair of 27" widescreen monitors (both at 1920x1080 resolution).
Everquest is a much older game than Warcraft.
I'd imagine a system that five-boxes Warcraft would six-box Everquest, at least as well.
But that is a hypothesis, not actually tested.
Still, it gives you an idea on what your system might be like, rather than a shot in the dark.