Guild Wars 2

Hi, I dont play a lot of games. Just GW2 and LoL. And I’m not really a PC wizz. So would need a hand from you expert guys to decide what to buy soon. I’m moving to my own place and I’ll need a brand new PC just for me.

So, I got something like 1000 euros or something like that (keep in mind, I’m from Croatia and prices of electronics are higher).

What would I like :

- need a full rig setup from you guys, from the motherboard to the cooler
- I would like to have 60 FPS in most activities except the WvW
- I dont like when the PC is loud, is it possible to be quiet?
- I would like it to be a long term investment, but dont need it for other games

I’ll post other questions if I have them.

Appreciate the help

If you are not into overclocking, I will recommend getting a very basic H87 motherboard and a Xeon E3-1230v3. Sounds dumb, but it’s actually the best non-overclocking bang for your buck. These should not set you back more than about 300 Euros give a take a few.

After that, invest around 100 EUR in a case and power. 500-600 Watts will be enough, but quality is important here, don’t go cheap on the power as it will be one of the longest running parts in your computer.

Next bit, the graphics card. I would recommend investing into a GTX760, which are just out in the market. I favor ASUS DC2 models for their quiet operation. Cost is around 300 EUR.

Next up, get a ~120GB SSD drive, cost around 100 EUR. On top of that, a big enough HDD to hold all your files. 1TB is usually plenty, cost around 60-70 EUR.

This should leave you enough money for a Windows 7 or 8 license, around 120 EUR, 8GB of RAM and an optical drive.

This setup will serve you for a long, long time. The only thing you might want to swap in a year or two is the graphics card.

EDIT: Didn’t notice that you probably also need a monitor and mouse+keyboard + maybe headphones? In that case, you can shave off some on the CPU (go for a lower range i5) and the GPU (GTX660) to afford a 24" full HD display and others.

Tom Gore.4035:

If you are not into overclocking, I will recommend getting a very basic H87 motherboard and a Xeon E3-1230v3. Sounds dumb, but it’s actually the best non-overclocking bang for your buck. These should not set you back more than about 300 Euros give a take a few.

After that, invest around 100 EUR in a case and power. 500-600 Watts will be enough, but quality is important here, don’t go cheap on the power as it will be one of the longest running parts in your computer.

Next bit, the graphics card. I would recommend investing into a GTX760, which are just out in the market. I favor ASUS DC2 models for their quiet operation. Cost is around 300 EUR.

Next up, get a ~120GB SSD drive, cost around 100 EUR. On top of that, a big enough HDD to hold all your files. 1TB is usually plenty, cost around 60-70 EUR.

This should leave you enough money for a Windows 7 or 8 license, around 120 EUR, 8GB of RAM and an optical drive.

This setup will serve you for a long, long time. The only thing you might want to swap in a year or two is the graphics card.

EDIT: Didn’t notice that you probably also need a monitor and mouse+keyboard + maybe headphones? In that case, you can shave off some on the CPU (go for a lower range i5) and the GPU (GTX660) to afford a 24" full HD display and others.

I’ve got Razer Naga mouse and Razer Arctosa keyboard. Also, got one monitor that I’ll use. Basically, I need help with the case setup and stuff that goes in.

What about Procesor INTEL Core i7 4770K BOX, s. 1150, 3.5GHz, 8MB cache, GPU, Quad Core – or something like that? Is that worth it. We’re talking about mostly GW here.

That CPU and motherboard would be something like 400 euros or a bit more.

if you are going to go 4770k – make sure to check out the msi mpower motherboard series – the other choice is the asus rog vi series – each have special little perks made for gamers

I’ve got my eye on the 4770k msi mpower max combo myself!

Thing about 4770K is it’s really expensive. I’ve just check the review for Xeon E3 here

http://www.servethehome.com/Server-detail/intel-xeon-e3-1230-v3-review-haswell-xeon-benchmarks/

Total score : 9

Sounds good. How would GW2 run on that?

The Xeon is effectively the same CPU as 4770k with no overclocking. It will run GW2 very smoothly with the GTX760. You should be able to get a stable 60FPS with everything (maybe except shadows) maxed in most areas. WvW zergs will clog you down no matter what, so don’t sweat it, but tune the WvW culling settings down as you like.

Also, when you don’t need the overclocking features you can go with the much cheaper H87 motherboards.

there’s actually a bug in the h87 that allows overclocking – http://www.tomshardware.com/news/h87-express-overclocking-bug,23273.html

Doesn’t help with the Xeon, though as it’s locked. You can overclock the bus speed, but I’d advise against that.

Thank you for the replies. Hope you dont mind anwsering some more.

How loud would that setup be?

Impossible to say without knowing the exact components. If you have any more to spare, switching the CPU stock cooler to a more efficient one helps a lot.

Other than that, try to aim for bigger, slower fans instead of smaller, faster (RPM wise). The noise is usually less and more bearable.

With careful selection of coolers, power and case, you can bring the noise of the setup at idle to levels where you can barely tell the computer is on.

That said, when you’re running the game at full details the fans will inevitably kick in at some point and the noise will go up.

Finally, I don’t know how the gaming PC business is in Croatia, but it might be worth checking if there are any builder shops that specialize on gaming PCs. Those guys usually can advise on getting the best components with the money you got.

I’ve checked the price of that Xeon. It’s really expensive. Compared to i7 4770K..

4770K 346 Euro
Xeon 573 Euro

That’s a big difference. Guess I could go for 4770K.

Is there some i5 that would run GW on max settings (maybe shadows on medium and such) smoothly? I currently have some i5 on my PC with a decent GPU and it works good on most high/max settings (not everything maxed ofc)..

You must be looking at a wrong Xeon (make sure it’s E3-1230v3) or you are being ripped off. The Xeon should be about 60-100€ cheaper than the i7.

If you can’t get the Xeon at a reasonable price your next best bet is the i5 4670k.

So, I was talking to a friend. Could you check this setup.

ASROCK H87 PRO4
Intel i7 4770
GIGABYTE GEFORCE GTX 760OC
SSD 120.0 GB MUSHKIN CHRONOS MKNSSDCR120GB
HDD – 1000.0 GB WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR BLUE
COOLERMASTER CM 692 STANDARD
MUSHKIN SILVERLINE STILETTO, 992002, DDR3 1600 Mhz
OCZ PSU SILENCER MK III SERIESA 500WHZ 8GB

Something like that. We will try to maybe take a kitteneaper GPU and a bit off the power to save some money.

Looks like a solid setup. However, if you want to save money, I’d go for the i5 instead of saving on the power supply (assuming you can’t find the Xeon at a reasonable price anywhere in Croatia – tell the dealers they’re ripping you off). The hyperthreading and 2M more cache won’t make much of a difference in GW2. You will save ~100€ with practically no loss on FPS.

another thing is the ivy bridge, and sandy bridge cpu’s – set ups are still powerful systems – the next gen cpus are not that big an improvement, and in fact the older cpus are more overclock friendly and the newer cpus are tweaked more for laptops…..I’m only going for it because I do video also – i’m really using gaming as benchmarks – so imo don’t get caught up with the latest and greatest hype when you can take advantage of clearance sales on older models. The video card is usually what makes your build expensive – too bad you can’t take advantage of the back to school sales we are having in the us.

I’d go for an older cpu myself, if I wasn’t so concerned with being future proof – rumor has it that the 1150 is the last desktop socket from intell – so I’m guessing I’ll be good for any future upgrades on the 1150 – if I had the money …I’d go 2011 because they may last longer in upgrades than the 1150 = I’m hoping to last 6-10 years in my next build with future compatible upgrades.

Get the i5, gw2 doesn’t need all 8 threads.

If i were u i would get ether a
LGA 1155 3570k (i5 with reasonable OC’ing)
or
LGA 1150 4670k (newer i5 but hotter running)

With only 1000 euro at ur disposal your bassicaly looking at i5’s.
You want to spend a good portion of ur budget on the GPU, a generaly good rule of thumb is to spend double that what u spend on a CPU. So if u spend 200 euro on ur CPU , spend 400 on ur GPU ..be it SLI or single card. But for tight full system budgets its just a guidline more than a actual ‘rule’.

My adivce ..go for somthing simular to this.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1kDdB
1000 euro = ~£800 iirc. Ofcourse i know pricing doesnt always work that way so…see what u can get simular to this and u will be good for a couple years.

Remember SSD’s are not a requirment and should only ever be included in a build when u have plenty of money spare, they aint cheap and give negligable performance increases in game. For you , stick with a regular HDD for now.
Also, u could easily go up on that GPU to somthing better if u ‘aquire’ Windows 7 64bit by other means :P

the msi z87 boards have a very cool feature called ramdisk – With a RAMdisk you can create a virtual drive from your system memory enabling speeds 20x faster than a modern SSD. – so you can gain a ton of speed and save a ton of money with it for spending a little more on a good motherboard.

Heck DOS use to have a ramdisk program. The fact MSI includes a custom branded commercial version of this. Problem is you need the RAM and since the dat file for GW2 is over 16GB in size, you are going to need that much memory on top of the memory your OS, utilities and game uses for it to be of any use.

RAMDisk official site.

The budget is why I recommended him the Xeon. It has the same power as the i7, but with the price of the i5. Or should be, but it seems the Croatian dealers are ripping people off.

However, don’t listen to anyone saying you don’t need an SSD. They are people who haven’t tried to have an SSD for a system drive yet, or are just jelly because they can’t afford one.

you have to see how msi handles it! I can’t wait to get my hands on it !! makes me wonder what a RAM disk on SSD would be like – I was watching this video for an overview – pretty cool – at least for me it was!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx-daXhCRsQ he starts talking about it at around 12 mins. – the reason I really liked the board originally was because it has widi and bluetooth in the package – and it has special features for bumping up matching msi video cards …but the more i research the perks the more i like it!!

Thank you for all your replies. I was talkint to some people, and I think I’ll go with the i5. But which one? 4770? One with OC possibility? Should I be using that OC?

Also, for the GPU I was thinking 760? Should I go with that or with something cheaper.

Maybe worth mentioning..

Currently I have some i5 at home, with 560TI, 8GB RAM, nothing special. But I can run GW2 on high/max settings for lets say 60% of the settings. Some are tuned down like shadows and such and the game looks great with real solid FPS 50+. In open world, dungeons and such (apart from the WvW but we all know that) it runs really smooth.

Unless you also get a Z87 board, you won’t get much out of the OC properties of a 4670k, so you might as well take the kitteneaper 4670.

I’m curious, did you really not find the Xeon E3-1230v3 anywhere in Croatia for a reasonable price (should be very close to i5 4670k) or is there another reason you are passing that choice?

I’m not that much into OC’ing.

For the Xeon part, I’ve checked and have found some Xeon E3, not the v3 version, and it’s really expensive. 500+ euros. I’ve sent an inquiry about that particular model you mentioned and they dont have it and cant get it. Keep in mind, this is Croatia. Expensive tech and not everything available.

Ok in that case, either go for a H87 board and i5 4670 or a Z87 board and it 4670k. Latter option is a bit more expensive, but allows overclocking. With a good cooler you can crank ~20% more speed from your CPU.

Well, then, i5 will probably be the final call. 4670 I think.

Bout the GPU – is there any alternative to Nvidia 760?

Price vs. performance, at least not before the new 8000 series AMD cards are out.

You could possibly get away with a GTX660 if you want to save money, but with GPU there is never too much power.

Can we have a total price at the end too ? I want to compare my amd setup with an intel one.

I assume your problem is price or you don’t like nVidia.

Order of stock clock performance at 1920×1080, 4xAA if available, slowest to fastest according to TechPowerUP. Relative performance to stock clock GTX 760. Only models between $200-$300 at NewEgg.

GTX 660 – 81
HD 7870 – 82
HD 7950 – 92
GTX 660 Ti – 95
GTX 760 – 100

Hope that helps a bit.

Tom Gore.4035:

However, don’t listen to anyone saying you don’t need an SSD. They are people who haven’t tried to have an SSD for a system drive yet, or are just jelly because they can’t afford one.

I have an SSD, its great, but it doesnt increase game performance in any measurable way. Note i said measurable. You can perceve it, if u have sensative senses. You can just about notice a little less stuttering in some casses.
But thats about it, the only thing it does is speed up loading times, so its more for convienience than performance. Hence why its not a priority when ur on a budget.
Price/performance wise its about as sensable to get an SSD over a HDD as getting a GTX Titan over a GTX 780.. you only get it if u have spare cash buring a whole in your pocket.

I won’t go back to a platter drive again for anything except storage. Even a cheap SSD with your OS and GW2 only on it will be worth the small price that you pay. Make sure you also have another drive for storage tho since those SSD’s tend to run out of room quickly

I just built a new ‘Gaming’ pc, runs gw2 pretty nice at max settings. 60+ fps while in open world, it lags a little in lions arch and haven’t gotten to test it during WvW. (will know after tonight’s reset) However, turning a few settings off that aren’t really needed (AA, and post processing) kicks it up quite a bit.

Also, the 7950 is a better buy than the 760. It overclocks a ridiculous amount and will beat the 760 in almost every benchmark. Plus, you get 3GB of vram, as apposed to 2GB.

My specs are:
MSI Z87 G45
i5 4670k Oc’d to 4.5 Ghz
Gigabyte 7950
Sandisk 120gb extreme ssd
I bought a Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo cpu cooler also.

You can pick this 7950 up from NCIX for $270 + $30 rebate.

However, if you can wait until ~September for the 9000 series from AMD. They look pretty promising.

I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about the amd cards …the only drawback i’ve heard is the physX from Nvidia, AMD handles it through software and assigning it to the cpu – plus Nvidia is simply more supported on many softwares – i’m sure that may change soon though if AMD keeps it up.

PS – MSI FTW! hehe

SolarNova.1052:

But thats about it, the only thing it does is speed up loading times, so its more for convienience than performance.

Thank heavens that GW2 doesn’t have any loading screens, right?

Tom Gore.4035:

Price vs. performance, at least not before the new 8000 series AMD cards are out.

Won’t happen till next year. AMD has no plans to release “true” 8000 series cards this year. The ones floating around in OEM units are rebadged 7000 chips.