Guild Wars 2

Not sure really where to post this except here. I feel it is relevant as I am mainly building my rig for GW2, but yeah. I need thoughts on it from you computer guru’s who know a lot about building CPU’s. This is my first attempt at building a rig, and any advice would be taken with open arms. I am looking at ways to improve the performance of my build while keeping costs down.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($104.99)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($175.66 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($34.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($93.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.48 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $865.04
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-05 00:58 EDT-0400)

hmmm looks good.

The video card is a little weak compared to the rest of the system but other than that it looks great.

Personally, I would go with a AMD HD 7970 or a Nvidia GTX 770

Elbegast.6970:

The video card is a little weak compared to the rest of the system but other than that it looks great.

That’s what I keep hearing, a guy on Tom’s Hardware suggested upgrading to a 7970

You don’t need the optical drive unless you buy a lot of box games.

It’s nice to have, especially when installing a disk copy of Windows 7 o.o

Oh, and make sure you use a 64 bit operating system. You probably already knew that though.

guild wars 2 requires more cpu power, much less gpu power.

the 7870 will do fine.

anything higher than that is … expensive.

I was looking at the 7970 and it is literally double the price. I am wanting to build soon, and I hear the 9000 series releases soon, so that will probably knock the price down quite a bit.

You don’t need a 7970 for GW2, a 7950 will be more than enough. Also, I would suggest getting a better CPU cooler, since you are looking at an unlocked Intel processor. A Corsair H100i would cool that CPU nicely when you overclock, and will have space in your Phantom 410 case up top.

I am a CPU noob and have 0 idea how to overclock, so I highly doubt I would ever do it, unless someone did it for me lol.

that cpu cooler is good enough if you are not overclocking.

consider getting a Intel Core i5-4670 (not K) if you are not overclocking.

slightly cheaper.

galandor.1059:

I am a CPU noob and have 0 idea how to overclock, so I highly doubt I would ever do it, unless someone did it for me lol.

It would be worth learning. Many of the new processors have a turbo mode that will automatically overclock the processor. Many new motherboards also have a simple automatic overclock option in the system bios.

And the above suggestion to get the HD 7950 instead of the HD 7970 is good too, especially if you overclock the 7950.

Overclocking is really easy these days and there are safety systems built into the processors that will keep them from being damaged if you happen to mess up the clock/voltage settings.

nomargat.5243:

You don’t need a 7970 for GW2, a 7950 will be more than enough. Also, I would suggest getting a better CPU cooler, since you are looking at an unlocked Intel processor. A Corsair H100i would cool that CPU nicely when you overclock, and will have space in your Phantom 410 case up top.

The 7950 I like, the corsair cooler I do not, 100 bucks for a cooler I don’t have the coin for o.o

The Radeon HD 7870 graphics card is definitely more than enough to handle GW2. If there’s anything that you should consider upgrading, it should definitely be that CPU, since Guild Wars 2 is ridiculously much more CPU-intensive.

I’d suggest looking around at the tech support forums and seeing how well they run the game with their setups, because most people that I’ve heard that could run GW2 at 1080p max settings and have 30+ fps during zergs, had very good CPU’s running at 4.0+GHz. So be sure to lurk around those forums for a bit.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech

The H100i is a tad overkill if he’s a first time OCer and not shooting for the Moon. But the Hyper 212 Evo is a little, OK a lot lightweight. I would avoid air coolers that relies on direct heat pipe contact and look for ones with full heat spreader. The Cooler Master TPC-812 is a better choice than the Evo and is cheaper than the H100i. It just doesn’t have the same gamer creds as a liquid cooler does.

Just a note if your uncomfortable with overclocked dont do it. While it is fairly easy with auto clock programs some of the biggest mistakes i’ve seen is someone read up on it and think they know how to do it properly and end up messing up there cpu. If you really want to learn have someone you know has done it teach you how, or watch you when you do it so they can correct any mistakes made. That being said as for gpu your fine. My comp runs a gts 450 and honestly handles the game mostly maxed fine. Only time i’ve ever lagged out is in massive zone events on final bosses when everyone on the server seems to show up. Even then honestly its rare.

galandor.1059:

I am a CPU noob and have 0 idea how to overclock, so I highly doubt I would ever do it, unless someone did it for me lol.

With the board you have chosen, there is a slider in the BIOS you can crank up to ~4.4Ghz and that’s it.