Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone.

I’m thinking of buying a new computer, since mine is getting a bit outdated and I might have enough money to actually invest into a new one very soon.

I’m just wondering, will I be able to get something good enough to be able to play GW2 with medium graphic settings (even in crowded areas) with a budget around €600?
I’ve been getting constant crashes nowadays, and I’m sick of that.

I would like to know if my budget is something I should be able to get success with.
What I’d like to have is something with 8.00 GB of RAM, a good graphic card and a decent processor. Or would someone actually suggest to not buy a new computer and update this one with a new graphics card and extra RAM (if that’s even possible) instead?

This is what I currently have:
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
RAM: 4.00 GB
Graphic Card: -Something terribly outdated-

No, that system is ancient. Don’t even think about upgrading it. I’m not in the EU so I don’t know the usual suspects of retailers there, or are you interested/capable to build one yourself?

Edit: Can’t even read currency symbols today … EU not UK.

If you can reuse your case, and HDD and windows, if they are still in good condition, for your price you should be able with some shopping around, and if you know how, build your self a half decent one for that price.

Look for the following, (I’m from the UK, so I will not know prices, but there’s parts should not brake the bank.)

CPU: i5 4690 (Also look at the i5 4690k, when I built my PC, the 4690k was £5 cheaper that the normal 4690. The only difference between the 2 is that if you want to/know about over clocking you can with a 4690K.)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-E34 (a very good and small motherboard, seeing as I don’t know the size of your case, this was a very good price at £40, there are others in the price range just as good, but if you end up with a i5 4690K and want to over clock make sure the motherboard you get has an over clock function. Also make sure the motherboard and CPU are compatible. For instance an i5 4690K is an 1150 socket and the motherboard I have listed is also an 1150 socket motherboard.)

RAM: 8GB of ram will be good enough, make sure you buy the right kind for the motherboard if you go with the board I’ve listed, then it will be best to get DDR3 1600Mhz. I ent with 8GB of HyperX Savage, currently around £37.

GPU: Now depending on how much you have left you have 2 choices in GPU, that I personally know about. There are others, and AMD cards, but I don’t know about them.
GTX 750Ti, this is a solid choice, will run the game well on medium to high settings and dose not need any more power than what the motherboard provides. Or the GTX 960. Will run the game with everything on max settings. And do it very well. But will need more power from the PSU.

PSU. I would get this before the GPU, and make sure its from a know manufacturer, like Corsair, XFX, Seasonic. You want to look at a 400W and 500W. Depending on the price, then look at your GPU. If you can afford a 400W and a 750Ti, that’s what you want to go with, if you can afford a 500W and a 960, that’s ideally what you want to go with.

These are just my personal recommendations based on personal experience with the parts and GW2. They may be cheaper alternatives, so shop around. But my advice would be not to buy a cheap PSU. Go with a know brand. If you are going to spend money on a “new” PC you are doing to want a PSU that’s going to last. And if you are going to overclock remember to buy an after market cooler. You will probably need it.

BrotherBelial.3094:

RAM: 8GB of ram will be good enough, make sure you buy the right kind for the motherboard if you go with the board I’ve listed, then it will be best to get DDR3 1600Mhz. I ent with 8GB of HyperX Savage, currently around £37.

With the client now being 64bit and reaching more than 5GB I would use 16GB RAM. The difference is just ~40€. Never save on RAM, especially not when it’s cheap.

As for the graphics card, maybe you can get a used (if you want that) GTX970 or faster AMD equivalent on ebay or somewhere else. The CPU BrotherBelial recommended is pretty solid, would be a shame not to pair with a higher end card.

600€ budget isn’t that bad.

Thanks for the advice.
I’m not good at building a computer myself, but might find someone that is to help me out. Do you have any advice on good sites to look at? I’m dutch so would need a shop that’s available on holland or ships internationally for (not much)/free.

I’m currently checking at this site: https://www.4launch.nl/subcategorie/61/Desktop-PCs

The only issue is that the €600,- range is very limited, and those choices only have 4GB of RAM.

I like getting 16GB of RAM if I have the choice. I didn’t know it was only a bit more expensive than 8GB of RAM. But I don’t know how it all cooperates with other parts in the computer. I mean… Doesn’t 16gb of RAM mean I need to upgrade other parts as well? Like better cooling or a more expensive PSU?

Unfortunately preconfigured gaming PCs are either expensive or crap (and expensive). And “multimedia PCs” often have integrated Intel graphics or something like a Geforce 920, which might be even slower.

If you know someone who can put together the parts for you, you will most likely get something nice out of that budget. It’s not really rocket science. I’m from Germany, I know a couple of online shops that build a PC to your spec but you will have to rebuild all from scratch, including case, etc. And non-DE shipping is prohibitively expensive, not really an option. Will likely get over 600€ this way than just to order upgrade components.

16GB vs 8GB won’t make any difference as far as motherboard or PSU are concerned. All modern boards accept 2x 4GB or 2x 8GB modules without a problem.

I definitely recommend reusing as much of your existing computer as you can. Even if it’s only the external bits like the mouse, keyboard, screen, speakers etc. it will save you a lot of money. (I had to buy a new screen recently, got a fairly basic 24 inch one on sale and it still cost me almost £100.)

As for building your own it’s actually not as difficult as it seems. About 2 years ago my graphics card died and I found out I couldn’t buy that one any more and the motherboard and processor were also obsolete (I don’t upgrade until I have to) so I had to replace them too. Before then the most I’d done was install RAM and a graphics card, which was just a matter of finding the right size slot and plugging it in.

But as long as you read and follow the instructions it’s not that difficult. 99% of it is just a matter of finding a slot or socket that matches the thing you’re trying to put in. I have to admit I made a few mistakes, but I got it right in the end and it all worked.

Alternatively there is a kind of middle ground: there are websites (and possibly shops) that will build you a custom PC, often by offering a few models you can customise, and will let you buy just the actual computer so you can use your existing external components. The one I’ve used before is ChillBlast who do deliver to the Netherlands but there’s probably Dutch or other EU mainland alternatives who would be cheaper.

If you’re unsure of how to build a computer, go and look up Newegg’s how to build a PC guide on YouTube (or one of the million guides out there).

As for GPU, even if you go with new everything else it’ll be worth checking the used market. Here in the US you can get fantastic deals on used cards; my 280x was $120 shipped. Something new/comparable much closer to $200

BrotherBelial and several other in this post have been giving you good suggestion what you should look for when picking parts for a new computer.

Even if you would re-use parts for building a new computer, you should as fast as possible get a new harddisk (and best would be to buy both an SSD for game and OS [recommend at least 256 GB in size] and a new mechanical hard disk for material you want to store/archive which isn’t necessary to access as fast as apps and OS).

The reason for this is that hard disk have rotating platter which over time could degrade and cause either mechanical failure or read error. With a Solid State Disk (SSD) you will have faster access to OS from cold start, Windows will also work faster as it now can access Virtual Memory and other resources faster and Guild Wars 2 client will take less time to update (when files have been downloaded). Guild Wars 2 dat file are around 25-30 GB in size, so that is one reason why I would today recommend 256 GB so you will have enough space for future Windows Updates, other apps you want to use on your computer and maybe another expansion for GW2 which might make dat file grow a bit larger then it is right now.

It is possible to wait with your video card as the last investment as i5 4670, i5 4670K, i5 4690 and i4690K are all pin grid array (PGA) 1150 and have integrated video processor Intel Graphics HD4600 which work to play some games with until you will have enough money to get the video card you want. The main difference between 4670[k] and 4690[k] are that 4690 had some tweaks made (called a “refresh” which make it have better thermals and run a tiny bit more efficient on the same clockspeed), so if you would find 4670[k] on market then it is no big difference to get it instead. Invest in a aftermarket cooler like the Master Cooler 212 EVO which have been popular for a long time. It is large cooler, but will make it possible to have its fan or fans (you can add another fan on the opposite side) to run more silent during game play.

What kind of GPU that would be enough for your needs will also depend on what resolution your display will be running as native resolution. I would also take a look at upgrading your display if it from the same time as your Q6600 and have less then 1920 × 1080 pixel (aka 1080p). Monitors have become a kitteneaper [edit: less in price; no apes here] and now with Christmas around the corner it might even be possible to find a good deal on monitors.

Belial’s advice is pretty solid. I’d like to add that I’ve had good experiences with AMD.

As shadowcatz suggested, for GW2 at least go for CPU over GPU in investment priority, because that’s the major bottleneck.

Also, i’d settle on 8GB for now. If you use the standard client you’ll only use 3GB or so, and the Beta 64bit client does fine with with 8GB. You can add more memory later.