Curse

Bathory_Swain · Aug 27, 2007, 06:07 PM // 18:07

Hey I'm kinda new to the forum, I know, but I would like a few recomendations as to what would make Guild wars run for the least amount of money.

I have a budget of about $600-800.
I already own:
-A Nivida ge force graphics (PCI) card that has 256MB RAM
-A internal hard drive with 320 free GB
-A decent sound card, I'll post it's specs when I get them, got it at wal mart but wouldn't run on my last computer (needs windows XP or higher).
-A VIA raid card with suport for HD's larger than 127MB (probobly don't need anymore now)
-Guild Wars prophecies and Factions

Okay... This computer is also going to be my college computer, and I have a CD that gives a 60-90 day trial to microsoft office 2007... I will need vistas and a good processor to run it too, most likely.

If anyone here happens upon this topic and has any suggestions, please tell me what you think would be the best deal for what little money I have to spare. Thanks in advance, and here's hoping to get back into the GW action ASAP.

Zodiak · Aug 27, 2007, 06:25 PM // 18:25

For a computer on a budget do not get Windows Vista if your looking for performance. Windows Vista is strictly for Medium to High-End computers.

It just requires too many resources in general compares to the stability and performance of Windows XP SP2.

I will give you a Golden Rule, get THE BEST Motherboard and Power Supply your money can buy (less emphasism on the Power Supply).

Your Motherboard is the foundation of your computer and deserves the MOST attention of all when starting out. You try building the most amazing house if the ground its built on is bad.

The reason for giving so much attention to the motherboard is thate verything else on it can be easily replaced and will outperform and allow you to do things that a cheapo motherboard would only dream of.

A cheap motherboard will give you problems and errors around every corner, slow down your entire computer as a whole and limit the hardware you can install on it.

The Power Supply on the other hand, is because a Quality Power Supply will give you reliability. If a cheap motherboard doesnt regulate the power in an instant, it can take out multiple pieces of hardware along with itself.

Again, as technology advances, so does hardware. DDR2 and PCI-Express are now the norm when it comes to computing. Even if you do not plan to or cant afford two video cards for the moment, alot of the high end and not so high end motherboards offer it and its a good thing to consider it because later it can be of great help.

Onboard Sound and Networking can be a cheap workaround additional hardware and work relatively well in most cases, though not always. You should note that either onboard Sound or Networking will consume 10% of your computing resources unlike a soundcard or network card.

When considering a CPU, look not only as the speed in Mhz and Ghz but the Front side buss and the Cache, the error alot of people do is simply look for faster speed and overlook the second two factors.

When it comes to cooling, stock cooling sometimes does the job but I always like a more powerful alternative.

Bathory_Swain · Aug 27, 2007, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Well thanks a whole lot! I printed all that. I was looking at an Asus (or something like that I think) motherboard as a matter of fact and it alone was about $266. I know some basics of putting together a computer, but was thinking on using dell's website to custom-build a computer, though one of my friends said it wasn't a good idea, and doesn't trust intel for some reason.

I don't recall if dell alows you to choose a custom motherboard... and I know most of their options all favor intel... Where should I go to get it custom made? Or should I just buy the peices and assembel at home (not sure if that'll work out perfect). Thanks again, this has helped a LOT.

-and oh yeah, Cache and front side buss... I know cache, not sure about FSB... I've heard of it, not sure what it is. Onboard sound... does that mean as in, on the motherboard, built in? No PCI card? Dang haha I bought that card for no reason lol

lordpwn · Aug 28, 2007, 01:47 AM // 01:47

You don't need the most expensive motherboard there is, but try to avoid the sub-$120 stuff, it's often made from low quality components that may break or become unstable from heavy use like gaming pretty fast. The higher-end motherboards from Asus and Abit are pretty good.

If you don't understand what things like CPU-side cache and the front side bus are you're better off looking at benchmark results to compare different CPUs. Actually, you're better off looking at them in any case since there are many more relevant factors than those two.

Here, have a link to some CPU benchmarks:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=880&model2=882&char t=419

Since you're on a moderate budget some of the cheaper Core 2 Duo CPUs from Intel might be good choices. I'd stay away from AMD for now, their Athlon 64 CPU design is starting to show its age even though it's somewhat competitive due to heavy price drops.

Also, (good) PCI sound cards aren't entirely useless - onboard audio often has annoying electrical noise from the other parts on the motherboard in its output, while this is pretty rare on dedicated sound cards.