Guild Wars 2

It looks like I may have to go spend some weeks with my mother as she has broken her ankle very badly. She’s offered to pay for a new computer I can buy out there once I arrive so I can play GW2 (and ESO) while there.

I don’t need a decked out rig for this, but I do need something that I can one-day-shop for. I want to limit her expenses as the reason for me to go is to save her paying for hired full time in-home care.

So I’m looking for a simple Windows PC with decent graphics and sound cards and at least 150 gig hard drive space (maybe more, I want to get at the PTS on ESO to test their new housing) that can handle the two games along with FireFox, Chrome, or I suppose Edge. I don’t know what specialty shops are in her city but of course there is Best Buy.

Any suggestions? I don’t need exact spec breakdowns, just “this brand PC with this card and drive configuration” would do.

Thanks!

I have an old Acer Aspire AMD A8-4500M APU with Radeon HD 7640G Graphics Processor. That’s 4 CPUs with 6 Gig of RAM and 500 Gig HD.

It runs GW2 perfectly fine (at medium graphics settings, mostly), so I’m sure anything better than this would be great.

Probably an i5 even with Intel HD 4000 or better would work. My Guildie uses HD 4000 with no problems and gets better FPS than I do (though I think his laptop is an i7.

I would just look for one with a dedicated graphics card. I got mine at Best Buy for about $400 some time ago. Probably a lot cheaper nowadays.

Good luck.

Donari.5237:

Any suggestions? I don’t need exact spec breakdowns, just “this brand PC with this card and drive configuration” would do.

Thanks!

I know this isn’t what you’re asking for but…
If you ever decide you’d like too learn, I would love to teach you how you can identify which PC components are compatible with each other and how you can compare them when you want to go shopping. A well informed shopper is a smart shopper =)

Let me know if you want by adding me on skype.
My skype name is: DreamyAbaddon

If you’re interested just make sure you remind me and we can talk about it on voice chat It’s no trouble, I genuinely enjoy helping people with computer stuff likke this. I find it fun and relaxing and yet Exciting!!!

Go for the cheapest AMD A8 (6 to 8GB of RAM) without a separate graphics card.

Then buy the cheapest RX 460.

That’s the cheapest setup that will give you a very conformable gameplay with both games.

The four cpu cores of the A8 are the same as those of the A10 and the RX 460 will handle both games very well for the cost. You can give the PC a go with just the APU – very playable imo but reduced graphics quality – to save money or for you to buy the RX-460 later with your own money for a very neat PC.

Cheapest is to buy a 2 to 3 old PC via eBay for about half the cost – however plan to replace whatever HDD comes with it within a year as they are often old and noisy. Smart buy – as you already have a PC – is to buy a ex-business intel i5 (4 gen) and make do with the intel graphics for now, and use the PC later as a general purpose PC. In my experience HP make very good business PCs but of course there are other brands. The business PC are of much higher quality than retail ones albeit with pretty harsh limitations on expansion capabilities.

If you what a laptop I would go with HP again – A8 or i3, nothing lower. However expect half the performance for your money although you do get convenience and no need for a monitor. Don’t buy a second hand laptop.

Sound cards are no longer need for PCs – usually there is motherboard sound chip combined with CPU/GPU audio enhancements – mostly for processing speed – that are fine for most peoples’ ears.

DreamyAbaddon — Thanks, but my husband is very good at that already. He’s a sys-admin/programmer who loves to tinker with the hardware and can give me really good advice on system building for custom orders for long term home use. This particular query came out of needing something instantly buyable in an unfamiliar city for not too much money that I could use for a two week period and then leave behind (for use in future visits by me or my sibs), that would run GW2 and ESO without killer low fps even though perhaps I’d have to lower my graphics settings. As my husband doesn’t play MMOs at this time, he somewhat scoffs at fancy graphics and sound and wouldn’t know off the cuff how well games run on low-end computers.

Cedo, I’ll check into the Acer and heftier machines now available at the same price. It helps that I’d be looking at a desktop rather than something portable, so that lowers the cost.

Thanks everyone who’s responded, if I do have to travel at least I have some idea on how to ameliorate one of the discomforts. I need my game time, yes I do.

Yes, you should be able to get a Desktop for $300 or less that would serve your purposes for those short periods of time.

IGN and CNet have great deals all the time as well, and most have free shipping.

Good luck.

I redid my whole post, as it was getting convoluted.

It really depends on the upper limit of what you consider inexpensive. There’s a great deal of difference between 300ish and 600ish but even given that I admit it was pretty frustrating to go look around and realize what kind of crap companies are selling prebuilts even with rather crappy graphics cards. I mean Dell is selling used comps with Core Duos for 200’ish??? Then again, integrated graphics cards these days are still enough to play Gw2, and while I don’t play ESO, I noted video recordings using things such as a HD4000 on Youtube.

Of course, given that I’ve been playing Gw2 up to the beginning of December on a 8 year old Core 2 Duo with 2 gb of Ram in WvW zergs, I suppose I have a pretty wide definition of playable.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ideacentre-Desktop-Windows-90DA004GUS/dp/B0195XZ2P0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1483232546&sr=1-1&refinements=p_n_condition-type%3A2224371011%2Cp_36%3A30000-99999999%2Cp_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A7817224011%7C13580790011%2Cp_n_operating_system_browse-bin%3A12035945011%2Cp_n_graphics_type_browse-bin%3A14292273011%7C14292274011&th=1

Anyhow, this one is nice and cheap. It has 8gb of Ram and an I3-6100 For about $100 more you can make it an I5. I wouldn’t suggest it though.

Honestly, it was easier to find a laptop!
https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Ideapad-700-15ISK-i5-6300HQ-2-3GHz/dp/B01I7WYHJ2/ref=sr_1_14?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1483234586&sr=1-14&refinements=p_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A7817223011%7C7817224011%2Cp_n_graphics_type_browse-bin%3A14292273011%2Cp_36%3A-60000

This actually comes with a graphics card— 950m, which isn’t much but it’s still a thing.

Also, maybe it’s my personal bias due to bad experiences, but stay away from Acer.

I just hope your mom gets well soon. Buy a laptop so you can give it to your mom later on.

/laughs
Mom was actually suggesting a laptop so I could keep it — she’s a life long computer tech/programming/security wiz and she already has exactly the equipment she wants. But I felt a laptop would cost more than a desktop to get the same performance and I don’t travel enough to need one.

Now a related question: Which GW2 folders do I need to copy onto my external drive to take with me so I can load the game and my settings directly onto the new machine without spending hours on download? What she doesn’t have, due to location, is FiOS.

I know where to find the files (in Users, and in my custom Games file), but I don’t know which ones are needed and which ones should not be copied.

I believe it is just the .dat file and the local.dat file (for preferences).

The executable file (.exe) is very small and can be downloaded at your location. (I’m not sure if you can copy that one, or not.)

Good luck.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Moving-GW2-to-another-computer-possible/

Personally, I’ve always just copied the entire program to the external and plop the same folder down on another computer. The only settings that need to be changed are the display/sound ones which naturally have to be different on different computers.

And as for the desktop vs laptop thing, this certainly wouldn’t be a argument of it was self-built but it’s actually proven harder than I would think The laptop I linked above seems to be the best “cheapie” system while a lot of computers at that price still aren’t having any discrete cards. Also note that a monitor wouldn’t be needed with a laptop though obviously if you have a monitor lying around that isn’t an issue.

Dell laptops got the highest rating from Consumer Reports if I recall correctly. Should be able to find a reasonably priced one in any store and then get a cheapo mouse to play games with.

You guys rock! By “inexpensive” I mean up to $800, I think — I’ll be saving my mom around $4K in home care costs and she’ll be much happier with me than with strangers, so she’s willing to funnel some of that money towards my travel and living costs. She has one spare monitor. Heck, she has a spare computer, but it’s an Apple and I don’t want to figure out how to get GW2 on it given all I’ve heard on the problems with the Mac client.

On the .dat thing, I take it I would have to do a download install of the client after all? I couldn’t copy a folder from my home computer and transfer that to the new machine and thus have the game intact without having to spend a day just loading?

I’m currently loading the PTS for ESO (since Tuesday the housing update hits the PTS) and even with FiOS I’ve been going 4 hours and I have 22% done >< I am not looking forward to that kind of wait time to get back in game once I’m at Mom’s.

You can copy your .dat file and just transfer it over to the new computer. The .exe file is very small, like 256Kb? I would not think that would take long to download. (Just like you have a backup copy of your .dat file on your computer, in case something happens to the main one, so you don’t have to re-download it.)

The only issue is having a device large enough to hold a 25-27GB file to transfer. I think you need NTFS (?) as opposed to FAT 32. (Or is it the other way ’round?)

Good luck.

I have a 1TB WD My Passport Ultra. I have no idea if it is NTFS or whatever those things are. It has a fairly thick, short USB 3.0 cable (compatible with 2.0).

Try copying the .dat file over. If it works, great. If not, you can google how to change the file allocation. =)

The file allocation issues are usually only on devices like flash drives, etc. Not on Hard Drives.

Or ask your mom, if that’s handy; I’m sure she would know.

Good luck.

Well for me, I never had to bother install when I copy and pasted the folder to my new computer. Though it will still update if the copy is not the newest version.

With $800, it seems like some custom built websites would do a better job but those take like 2-3 weeks to arrive. Meanwhile, as I continue to sift through the hilariously insane choices on Amazon/Newegg with like i7 processors and GT730s (wut)….

This looks good:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/472624/IdeaCentre_710-25_Desktop_Computer

I5 Processor (though it is the meh 6400) and while the RX 460 isn’t the best thing in the world, it will certainly do the job.

Though not too sure about the shipping.

And then at the very edge of things: https://www.amazon.com/Asus-G11CD-B11-Desktop-Intel-Core/dp/B01DTCQDEW/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1483345691&sr=1-8&refinements=p_36%3A70000-80000%2Cp_n_graphics_type_browse-bin%3A14292273011%2Cp_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A3012497011%7C3012495011%2Cp_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A2289793011

With the 970, this is significantly better than anything else around and can handle mostly everything. I would look up info on the seller and the warranty/return policy though… seems a bit questionable.

I’m not going to be having anything shipped, since the exact date of travel remains up in the air pending results of Wednesday’s surgery. I’ll fly out there, recover from the travel, then head out to Best Buy or whatever else Tucson has — MicroCenter would be awesome, I love the one near me, but I don’t know if it’s got a presence there. Whatever is in stock will dictate my options. This inquiry has been more to get guidelines on what’s good to look for in the lower price range (normally I spend quite a bit more on a system and then use it for 3 or 4 years). And you all have come through in spades on that, my deep thanks.

For the folder copy, would that be the GW2 folder I have in Games plus the Guild Wars 2 folder in Users>Documents?

Hopefully Microcenter has something then.

The folder in Games. I’ve never bothered with the one in documents and have transferred Gw2 over to other computers without any issues. Well, there is one caveat. If you’re copying a 32-bit version of Gw2 onto a 64-bit OS computer (which any new computer will have by now), then Gw2 will download the 64 bit version; doesn’t seem to be too big of a download though.

I have GW2 on multiple computers and the only thing that seems to be stored locally is the PC graphical setup. You would certainly be able to run GW2 from a external USB rive – albeit updates take longer. I always put the GW2 folder in the root directory – i.e. right at the top.

One thing to bare in mind is that switching locations and thereby routers will often trigger Anet’s two-step-verification – clearly the game links the internet address to the login id. So makes sure you take your authenticator with you before changing locations. Not sure what happens if you move around without two-step-verification but I would play safe or expect delays of some sort.

Thanks for that advice. My two-step is my cell phone, which will be with me. I wouldn’t be running GW2 from the Passport, just transferring it. I do have 64 bit. Sadly MicroCenter does not have a store in Mom’s city and a quick search of computer stores there suggests Best Buy is going to be the only option for off-the-shelf same day purchase.

The good news is that Mom had her surgery and feels much better. My travel is now delayed while she figures out if she must have me out there after all.

Should be doable with a cheap PC. Heck I play the game just fine on a computer that much of the stuff dates from 2009 with a graphics card from 2012

Intel Q8400 CPU
8Gigs of Ram
nVidia 660Ti video card
1680×1060 resolution on my monitor. Mostly medium settings

Passed by Best Buy today; noted a bunch of Kaby Lake laptops (they’ll probably have a i3-7100u or 7200u processor) and some of them weren’t too bad. Desktops were pretty crappy given it’s Best Buy and not unexpected but should be able to fetch something I think.