Curse

dont feel no pain · Oct 19, 2008, 10:51 PM // 22:51

Hi all, as a happy PC builder I'd like to make a very simple FAQ for building a budget PC to the standard of running GW at maximum settings smoothly. I am from the UK so I'll post the components rather than the links of where to buy. I'm look at the best price for performance and I will update if anything better pops up.

A decent and upgradeable system.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L
I chose this motherboard because it's very basic, compatible with any LGA775 processor. It is also mATX (micro ATX sized) for a compact system and a decent little overclocker if anyone decides to get into tweaking your chip.

CPU: Intel E5200
Its 45nm, runs at 2.5GHZ, 2mb of cache and runs cool as a cucumber. Its also very well priced and can overclock beyond 3.5ghz quite easily. Its probably the best price/performance processor that Intel has released apart from its more expensive brother the E8400.

Memory: 2x1GB of any brand at the speed of 800mhz or 667mhz
There are far too many choices out there so I'll just say try to get 2x1GB of memory preferably running at 800mhz or 667mhz. Go for the cheapest one with a decent warranty as you most likely will not see a difference.

Harddrive: Samsung F1, Western Digital Caviar Blue or Seagate 7200.11 Range. Yet again there are so many to choose from, just try to keep up to date as they change in speed drastically between generations.

Graphic Cards:
800x600/1024x768/1280x1024/1440x900 = ATI HD4670 or ATI HD3850(512mb) which ever is cheaper.
For higher resolutions you should be happy with a Nvidia 9600GT/9600GSO/8800GS or ATI HD3870,HD4830.

CD/DVD Drive:
Go for a dual layer DVD writer, preferably SATA as the cables are much easier to handle than the IDE versions.

Case + Power Supply:
I suggest any case with a exhaust fan slot at 120mm. Also for a power supply I suggest: ANTEC Earthwatts 380W, Seasonic SII 330W, Enermax PRO82 385W or Corsair CX400W. A good power supply is the key to a stable and safe system, don't go for the super cheaps here. The four I have advised are very well made and have 3 years warranty I believe, they are also very quiet and will run any of the cards I have stated above.

I will now show a example build from America's Newegg to give you an idea.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128078
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116072
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820161677
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136195
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127383
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827118012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147111
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371005

Thats $350 for a decent little machine that will play GW fine.

(excluding OS)

Other bits and bobs

Soundcard:
Does the sound sound better? Yes, will improve your GW play? No. But I have a soundcard and I must admit I would not go back to onboard sound. There are many sound cards out there, cheap and super expensive. I suggest not getting a cheapy card as it will probably not make much of a difference. The starting card should be a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 which is pretty good but lack front port expansion (cannot use front headphone/mic jacks on the front of your pc). After that I suggest either a ASUS XONAR D1 or Creative X-FI Xtreme Gamer as they have fantastic sound. Anything above ruins the point of a budget build.

High end mouse/keyboards
I have a OCZ dominatrix mouse for playing FPS games and I'm happy, but for GW I had no problems with my old microsoft mouse. So for GW I dont realy need to suggest a mouse. As for keyboards you may want to look at keyboard with customizable keys although I do not know what extent GW supports such features.

Speakers:
I suggest looking at logitech speakers if your talking budget, almost all of their models have great bang for buck.

Questions and Answers

Why didn't you go with AMD?
I didn't go with AMD because I didnt want to confuse people with multiple builds, but If you want to go with AMD I suggest either the brisbane X2 5000+ 2.6ghz or Brisbane X2 6000+ 3.1ghz. Also remember to get a compatible motherboard with these two.

How much fps should I expect?
For real smooth game play your going to want to exceed 60 fps and the builds and parts I have post will almost always keep it above that and into the 100's and 200's. But also remember that your eyes will not be able to tell the difference between 60 and 200 so don't think going for even better graphic cards to get 500 will help.

What about other cards like the 7000 range or ATI 2000 range?
Graphic cards prices are crazy, you can get 7800GTX's going for double the price of a 9600GT which is 5 times more powerful than the 7800GTX. The above cards are well priced and the ones to have for this game.

Will this fix my lag?
Lag comes from either server problems or your own internet issues such as a bad internet service provider or people sharing your connection and causing interference. Even with the best computer there can be lag.

Apart from Guild Wars how good is this computer?
This PC will run most MMOs, Half Life 2, TF2, CSS, GRID smooth. COD4 will run smooth at medium-highish settings and Crysis will run at Medium settings on low resolution smooth. This would make a good family PC too.

FINAL WORDS
I wont make an FAQ on how to acauly build the PC as there are 1000's out there. Its not hard if you do a little reading and its very rewarding.

I might add some more later as I'm very tired.

dont feel no pain · Oct 19, 2008, 11:12 PM // 23:12

Savio if your there I have edited the guide quite a lot.

SmartBomb · Nov 13, 2008, 07:37 PM // 19:37

About the fps...

Although having 100-200fps would be nice, that would mean you would have no Vsync and playing without Vsync looks horrible on Guild Wars if you have a budget monitor.