Guild Wars 2

My hard drive on my Dell decided to die last Friday, I know it’s only been…3-4 days, but I’m starting to go into withdrawal. I -was- just going to replace the hard drive, get the OS, and buy office, buuuut then I tried logging in on my current old laptop (a Toshiba) and found to my delight that I can actually get in, despite this thing being ancient. I figured that, since I was told by Anet that this thing would never ever ever run GW2 ever, there might be a cheaper laptop that can run it on high graphics.

So instead of relying on Yahoo Answers for help, I’ve decided to ask my fellow players, what kind of laptop should i get to replace my old one? I’m not getting another Dell (and never will be again) and there’s no way I’m getting a Mac…eww. As long as it has windows (preferably 7) and can run GW2 mid-to-fast on high graphics, I’ll be fine.

As for price, I’d prefer to stay under $700, since I have $500 available to me at the moment. So. Help a player out?

Edit: My dell was a Dell xps L502x. And I’m aware that building a computer is cheaper, I actually want one that’s already assembled. It saves me time, and it’s less likely to break.

Buying a new hard drive, buying the OS for said hard drive, and buying Microsoft office once said OS is installed is just as expensive as getting a high end laptop. It’s also much more complicated.

Cheapest option to get the best performance for that price is to build from parts.

What dell do you have now, so we have an idea what you have (curious to know what “shouldn’t” have been able to play GW2) so we have an idea what to exceed.

if you was about to replace the hard-drive anyway, why don’t you just replace it ? it will be a lot cheaper than buying a new machine, thats providing it is the hard drive of course.

you can always use this hard-drive when you do purchase a new machine as well, so its not like it will just go to waste.

I’m running an Asus K55N (with the AMD A8-4500 APU). This box only ran me a bit over $400. However, my graphics settings tend toward the medium side of the equation, with low WvW specs. I range about 35-40 fps on a good run, down to ~20 in a zerg/lagged down.

Whatever you snag, just make sure to have either a Radeon or Nvidia GPU. Intel HD
sets are pretty meh, tbh. The only problem is that anything Intel and/or Nvidia equipped is going to run you more than an AMD lappy. Anywhere from $100-200 higher, in general.

If you’re going to game with a laptop, be sure to find one that has a DEDICATED video card. A lot of the “on-board” GPUs aren’t well suited for it.

I just recently got an ACER Aspire V3-5716-9868 with an i7 and nVidia GT640 from newegg.com, and it runs GW2 beautifully. That one might be a little outside your budget, but there were other similar models that might be within your price range. The only downside that I found was it comes with Windows h8. After some abusing it, it can be made to function at a tolerable level.

I don’t have any specifics, but after playing/seeing GW2 on several different machines, CPU is much more important than graphics. My mom’s old Q6600 (2.4GHz quad core) with an ATI4000 series card (weaker end, forgot the exact #) runs GW2 better than my current desktop with an overclocked 1055t (3.5GHz six core) and a nvidia 560TI.

That’s not saying you shouldn’t have a dedicated graphics card, but don’t skimp on the CPU or you’ll struggle playing the game on the higher settings.

Edited to add: Since it may be unclear, stick with Intel processors even if they have a slower clock speed than a similar AMD one at the same price. I’m pretty certain that the Intel one will provide much better performance.

ExTribble.7108:

I don’t have any specifics, but after playing/seeing GW2 on several different machines, CPU is much more important than graphics. My mom’s old Q6600 (2.4GHz quad core) with an ATI4000 series card (weaker end, forgot the exact #) runs GW2 better than my current desktop with an overclocked 1055t (3.5GHz six core) and a nvidia 560TI.

That’s not saying you shouldn’t have a dedicated graphics card, but don’t skimp on the CPU or you’ll struggle playing the game on the higher settings.

Quite true. I also suggested a dedicated GPU for one major reason. Our OP may want a box to play GW2, but who knows if that’s the only game (s)he ever plays. Past that, you’re definitely right about this specific game being more of a CPU-trasher than GPU.
From my last box to this one, I’ve noticed some fps gain. And I gained more in CPU than in GPU, respectively.