Curse

HexiumVII · May 01, 2005, 12:20 PM // 12:20

I'm building a computer on a budget. Around $500 or so. Anyone know how dependant GW is on CPU? I'm thinking of going with a cheap AthlonXP 2500 with nForce2. What video card would be best price/performance ratio for GW?

Ti4600 $60
9800Pro $140
6600GT $180

|HM|FragMan · May 01, 2005, 01:59 PM // 13:59

I use
AMD 2500+ Barton oced to 3200+
Ati Radeon 9600 Pro Atlantis 80-90$
512 PC3200

I run everything mix including AA at 4x and i dont have a hint of lag

EDIT: get this only if you need something reallly cheap for now im going to be upgrade as soon as 512MB video cards come out

primal98 · May 01, 2005, 02:30 PM // 14:30

Alll of them bow down to my almight 128MB Geforce FX 5200! Hahahahaha, but seriously if you are on a budget, leave the card to the end, and then decide how much money you have

My laptop w/ 64mb card(given the rest of it is like uber awesome lotsa ram etc) runs it really nicely, while my crappier PC(AMD Athlon) w/ a 128mb card, runs it just as nice... not as pretty though because its slow

So just leave it till the end, get the other parts first... I think the 9800 would be nice

~prime

Loviatar · May 01, 2005, 02:40 PM // 14:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by HexiumVII

I'm building a computer on a budget. Around $500 or so. Anyone know how dependant GW is on CPU? I'm thinking of going with a cheap AthlonXP 2500 with nForce2. What video card would be best price/performance ratio for GW?

Ti4600 $60
9800Pro $140
6600GT $180

the 6600GT will be an investment good for the games of today at high graphics settings and tomorrows games at good settings

it also has been at the top of the *bang for buck* heap for some time now

the others are old technology now and the 6600GT is the cutting edge of today

be sure to purchase a brand name with at least a 2 year warranty (my 6600GT is made by leadtek with a 3 year warranty)
if a card says *LIFETIME WARRANTY* make sure it is as long as you have the card and not the lifetime of the card such as some companies have(not kidding-if a card is not still commonly sold some companies consider the lifetime is passed)

edit

as far as cpu i notice no difference between a barton 2500+ or a old 2100+

Omega Supreme · May 01, 2005, 03:30 PM // 15:30

If you go for either the 9800 Pro or the 6600GT, make sure that 1.) your power supply can handle pumping power directly to the card through a molex connector, and 2.) the version of the card you buy is a well-made card with a good cooling system. 9800 Pros in particular have a nasty habit of overheating if the heatsink and fan aren't on there just right and in perfect working order.

Principa Discordia · May 01, 2005, 04:40 PM // 16:40

6600GT all the way, to be honest.

Tyil Thunder Arrow · May 01, 2005, 04:55 PM // 16:55

theres alway the 6800 also

HexiumVII · May 04, 2005, 08:41 AM // 08:41

You must be running a low resolution fragman, i have an X600 on mylaptop and with 1440x900 i start dipping in the 25s with 4xFSAA i slow to under 20.

adam.skinner · May 04, 2005, 12:45 PM // 12:45

I would suggest getting a good base to build from. This means you're going to need the proper motherboard and processor combination to grow into something better. I've already developed a good, cheap (relatively, fits your budget) build for this purpose for a couple friends using Newegg.

Motherboard ($88): MSI RS480M2-IL Socket 939 ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
This motherboard includes EVERYTHING you'll need, including a good integrated graphics chipset AND a PCI Express x16 slot for a video card upgrade.

Processor ($146): Athlon 64 3000+ 939 90nm retail

See my full wishlist at Newegg.

I would get just those two components and see how you like the performance of Guild Wars under that. If you need additional power:
(1) Make sure you have at least 512M of DDR SDRAM. I'd personally recommend 1G since you can pick that up for WICKED CHEAP nowadays, and nobody knows how long that will last with the volitliity of the RAM market.
(2) Pick up a better video card. The 6600GT (~$180) is what I have, but you could make due with a lesser (ie cheaper) card.

DigitalX · May 04, 2005, 01:22 PM // 13:22

CPU Wise, not very much, as I can run a lot of stuff in the background w/o it lagging it any... I have a pretty good computer my dad got me from eMachines for christmas (it was around $600) but here's its specs if you want to know, i run every setting (Sound, video, everything...) at max, AA is at 4x etc...

CPU - AMD Athlon XP 3000 +
HDD(s) - 1 160GB SeaGate HDD @ 7200rpm , 1 40GB Western Digital HDD @ 7200rpm
Video - Onboard nVidia GeForce4 MX 64MB video chip, & nVidia GeForce 6600 GT AGP 128MB Video card
Sound - nVidia ...
Motherboard - maker unknown, but has a nVidia nForce2 chipset

ameoba · May 06, 2005, 05:04 AM // 05:04

I'd probably shoot for the 6600GT, it's quite a bit faster than the 9800 in almost all cases. If the deal's still going when you buy the card, outpost.com (Fry's Electronics' online store) has a BFG 6800 OC for $199 - a truly awesome deal.

As for the CPU, AMD's trying to kill off the XP line - pricewatch.com only lists 2 vendors with 2500+s in stock and those are mobiles. Mobile XPs are really great chips if you plan on overclocking but if you plan on running at stock speeds, for about the same price, you can get one of the socket 754 Semprons which will run as fast or faster than the 2500+. The motherboards will cost a few bucks more, but it'll probably be worth it.

You might want to check out http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/...e-200504.ars/2 to see what a popular hardware site is recommending for machines at about $800 (including monitor). Trimming some of the edges, it should be really easy to get this to $500 if you don't need a monitor - only major changes I'd probably make are that from the 6600 they use it's really tempting to jump to either a 9800 or 6600GT and that socket 754 Athlon 64s/Semprons are worth considering.