Curse

cheng · Jul 24, 2011, 09:17 PM // 21:17

Hi guys, I was thinking about making myself a desktop computer to be able to run guild wars 2 to the fullest w/o having to worry about it overheating etc. and as well as for everyday use. As I'm kind of new to building my own computer, I was wondering if people could help recommend me on what to buy computer part wise. I want to be able to fully enjoy guild wars 2 when it comes out.

Snorph · Jul 24, 2011, 10:41 PM // 22:41

A descent AMD or a anything of a intel i5 or i7 will do you just fine. If your looking to custom build your PC then I would get one of those CPU's, with a ATI or Nvidia graphics card. 12 - 16 gigs of ram. AMD's are cheaper over all for CPU's. It's really a personal thing. If you want a cheap intel then an i5 would do the job. i7 of course is one of the best chips on the intel side. AMD which is what I have, hasn't let me down.

Todays PC's can pretty much run anything, except for the real cheap PC's. If your looking into buying one from some where, check www.newegg.com, check their gamming PC's, any of those will suit just fine. Cheap prices, and very good PC's. If you go custom, we'll need to know how much your willing to spend and we can go on from there.

The Guildless · Jul 25, 2011, 02:16 AM // 02:16

It's hard to answer this question since there is little info on the game's requirements right now. Judging by the graphics we've seen so far, it surely won't require a huge gaming power beast (which thus makes it accessible to more players).

Since you're not familiar with building computers and stuff, the first thing I suggest is getting familiar with it! I'd start off with a well known website, like Tom's Hardware, and look at the "Build your own" section to see what you can get in your price range. Then, Google a little, ask some questions, read more stuff, look at specification sheets, tips on assembling a PC, ask more questions, etc. In the end you have to be confident you made the right choice. Also, when using internet as a resource, do not believe anything right when you read it (and that counts for what I'm going to suggest below): if someone on a forum says X is better than Y or that you should do Z, then hop on Google and look more into it.

Alright so, for the computer itself, I'd start out deciding if I want an AMD or Intel processor. Games nowadays still do not make much use out of multiple cores, so some people prefer going for a faster dual core than a quad core for example. To decide on that, I'd consider what other stuff you'll be doing with your computer. If you're planning on doing some heavy compiling, video editing and similar tasks, then having more cores available will help you. If you plan on gaming, browsing and watching videos, then it probably won't matter that much in the end.

Once you kind of know what processor you want, choose a motherboard with the right socket for it. That's the part I dislike the most since the motherboard is very important but hard to sift through all the features and trying to figure out if you're going overkill or not can be difficult.

Familiarize yourself with the motherboard's specifications and go hunt for some RAM. Check the max speed that your board can handle and choose accordingly. You might have to read quite a few reviews here to figure out which brands/series to avoid. As for the amount of RAM, 12-16 GB is waaaaaaaaaay overkill in my opinion. Unless you are going for some heavy video/audio/photoshop work, having more than 4-6GB won't help you much. I've been running with 8GB for a year now and I still consider it overkill. On the other hand, RAM is kind of cheap and going 6-8GB with dual/triple channel isn't that expensive.

Once that's done, think about your graphics cards. ATI or Nvidia? They both have their ups and downs and every series had their moment of glory. This is probably the most touchy subject when it comes to user reviews, so be careful. Check what features the cards offer (e.g. integrated PhysX in Nvidia cards) and benchmarks to see what's the competitor's equivalent card and compare prices.

By now you should know how much power your PC is going to need so start looking into power supply units. Then again, it's a little touchy: it's easy to go overboard with the wattage but picking a cheap PSU won't set you on the right road. Don't just look for power, look for efficiency as well.

Now what's left is getting your hard drive(s) and a case. I don't have time to go into that right know but it should be pretty straightforward!

Hope that helps! And remember, don't trust anyone!

Draca · Jul 25, 2011, 11:15 AM // 11:15

Not much to add to The Guildless post other then pcper.com is also a good site with leaderboard in different prize classes.

Quaker · Jul 25, 2011, 02:06 PM // 14:06

Keep in mind that GW2, like GW1, will have varying "levels" of graphic detail that can be set. From what I've seen, GW2 shouldn't require too much extra beyond GW1 to get similar performance. The character models seem more detailed, but the basic landscape looks pretty close to the current state of GW1. They say that GW2 will run well on a mid-range gaming machine, but that includes the installed base of machines. If you build a "new" mid-range gaming machine, GW2 should run very well.

However, from what I've seen, if you want to enable all the spell effects, the underwater bubbles and splashes, the animated foliage, etc. - especially at higher rezs like 1920x1080 - you're going to need some GPU (and to a lesser extent, CPU) muscle.

So my first bit of advice is to come up with an approximate budget (and time frame) before we can give a better answer. (Time frame, because too many people get on here and ask what they should buy and then tell us they plan to get it next Christmas or whatever. By then, it would all change.)

As a general rule, to be sure of at least "good" performance, you'll want a reasonably fast CPU - such as a Phenom II X4 955 or i3-2100 - and at least an HD5770/6770 video card.
If you want to aim more toward "maxing" GW2, you would want an i5-2400/2500K based machine with a high end graphics card, or two mid-range cards in SLI/CFX.

So, how much are you willing to spend? And how much of that do you want to spend on cosmetic items and/or features, and how much on raw performance?

here's some helpful info:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...card,2964.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-cpu,2971.html

Draca · Jul 25, 2011, 07:13 PM // 19:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker

GW2 shouldn't require too much extra beyond GW1 to get similar performance. The character models seem more detailed, but the basic landscape looks pretty close to the current state of GW1.

Sorry i have to disagree on this one since even on full GW runs great on a Pentium 4 and a gtx7600 with 2GB ram. GW2 will most likely (i say likely since it's speculation) run with low(Required specs) settings on such a system. I do not agree with Quaker and say it looks like gw2 have higher resolution textures and more geometry. "Mid-rage gaming pc" is a very loose term the best we can do is look at the specifications for last years games like modern warfare 2 and Aion.
I also disagree with Quaker that it refers to current install base and more to the systems out in stores at the time. This is opinions and i can be way off.

Showtime · Oct 26, 2011, 12:02 PM // 12:02

Building a computer is easy. Trouble shooting it if there is a problem will be hard for a noob. Hell it's a pita for me some times.

Tech sites like anandtech and tomshardware are better places to find info on new tech.

Deal sites like fatwallet and slickdeals (my fav) have threads with how to build and where to get deals on stuff as you are building your computer.

Since we don't know the requirements of the GW2 yet, you may want to wait to build it. Computer hardware drops 1/3 to 1/2+ in a year usually. So you can get more for your buck if you wait to build it. BUT there are crazy deals online all the time. Every month there are crazy sales on something. Like 30% off or better on current stuff.

One of the better deals they have are on dells, etc. Sometimes you can get a pretty loaded system with monitor for under 5-600 bucks. Some deals come with video cards and some you have to add it. Which leads to...

Building a system. I think I wrote a small guide here already. Search for it if you want. Basically you want to figure out the resolution of the monitor you plan to game on and start there. Figure 1080+ which is 1920x1080 resolution or your basic widescreen monitor/hd tv. 1920x1200 is better if you have a choice.

Main parts

CPU: AMD/INTEL Intel is generally better, but AMD has some amazing sales and you get a lot for your buck. 2 cores or 4 cores. Generally for gaming it's better to have 2 faster cores than 4 slower cores. BUT with 4 cores you can multitask better. That means you can watch a movie, im, game, have things open and going at the same time. IF you only game and play music or minor things, dual core is fine, but all computers are going towards quads or more cores. So if I were you I'd start with intel i5 performance or better. That's a pretty fast quad core.

RAM: Ram DDR(X) helps the computer process things smoothly. If you vid edit you want more. I would start with 4 gigs and probably settle around 8 or more if the price is right. Make sure you get windows 7 64 bit edition if you can.

OS/Operating system: Windows 7 64 bit. Dont use vista.

VIDEO CARD: This is the hard part because they seemingly make new ones each month. My advice is to never buy the latest or greatest cuz you pay way too much. Buy tier 2 or 3. Research at the above sites to find out what a good bang for the buck card is. Hint: Around $100 on sale is the sweet spot. Just check the deal sites for a hot deal and dont pay full price for video cards.

Research it all 1st dont just ask people here to tell you what to get. Opinions are like... and everyone has one. Try to be objective and only buy enough for what you need.

Painbringer · Nov 02, 2011, 06:26 PM // 18:26

Unfortunately no one knows as of yet. I am not saying GW2 is Vapor or anything, but the game is dropping off the radar. It’s not even mentioned in the PC gamer anticipation section (it used to be). Which makes me believe another 12 months. At this rate we will be into DX13 and playing on tablets. Or i-phone 6’s. They need to release an estimated beta date.

ATI 7000 cards will be out before the game is released so they may have alot to offer