Guild Wars 2

I think I made a slight mistake; the computer I wanted was out of stock, and they weren’t getting any more for 3 weeks. On top of that, it’s another (up to) 14 days delivery.

I was gonna get the, and I know it’s not magnificent, i5 2310. I settled for a similar computer, with the only difference the CPU, which was a i5 3330S.

So, it’s a 2.9 GhZ vs 2.7 GhZ.

Is it going to make a huge difference? They’re both Quad Core, so..

Yeah, I know neither of them are great, and I’m not expecting huge results, either.

Thanks.

That would depend on what you want to do with it.

based on this http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html list the 3330S actually has more per core power than 2310, which is something needed in GW2. for a reference, my current CPU is Q6600 and it seems to get 919 points versus your ~1,6k on either one of those and I can run pretty much everything fine except big fights in WvW (drops down to 5-7 FPS). On the other hand a new CPU that I bought and for which I don’t have a motherboard yet is a 4670K, a top-notch in per core performance but other players using that CPU are reporting to get 15-25 FPS in big zerg fights, so I don’t think you need to feel too bad if you don’t get a decent framerate when a lot of things are happening on your screen. If you have a solid system on the other parts as well, I’d say you’re all set.

EDIT: Checked the total performance on both of those and it seems the 3330S outperforms 2310 in that as well. It is 1 generation newer so the clock speed doesn’t correlate directly into the performance. on top of that your 3330S has a power consumption of 65W intead of 95W on 2310. I think you made a pretty good deal!

Oh, really? Thanks very much for the good news.

I assumed that it was just a budget i5, which I guess it still is, but at least it’s half decent =) I didn’t see too many difference which I’d think would make it better; I’m fairly new to learning about computer specs and stuff, so I was really just focused on the negative of the lower clock speed.

It’s coming tomorrow afternoon. Thanks a lot, you’ve genuinely made my day =)

the 2130 is a 2nd Gen (known as Sandy Bridge) entry-level i5, and the 3330 is a 3rd Gen (Ivy Bridge) entry-level i5. that S version means little less performance while getting a huge boost in performance/power consumption ratio. The generation gap made it impossible to compare just by clock speed vs. clock speed, if they both would’ve been 3xxx or 2xxx then your worries would’ve been real. I would say that any i5 and above would be enough for mostly anything, including smaller WvW battles, except maybe those ultra-low power saving T-versions of CPUs.

Glad I could help! Just out of curiosity though, and since it might have an impact, what does the rest of your system look like?

Alright, so I’ve got 4 Gigs of 1333mhz Ram, which I’ll be getting more of soon, a 1TB Sata drive, I’m not massively sure about the Motherboard, but since I know it supports PCI e16, I’m gonna get a Radeon 7770 Sapphire GhZ OC edition. I guess the Mobo could have a negative impact, but I’m pretty sure the GPU overpowers the CPU.
I think that’s all that matters. The PSU was built just to be able to run the computer, so I’ll need to upgrade that, and I’ll be getting a CX430 for that =)

It’s my Birthday anyway, in 20 or so days (14th January), so I was planning on upgrading the CPU since I thought it was terrible, but I guess I could get a couple of Guild Wars Steel Series peripherals now

If anything does make a difference, please let me know =)

I have to ask now just to make sure, you have checked your mobo is compatible with that CPU and RAM speeds? Since you said you’re getting a new computer it probably is, but best to double check. About the mobo itself, more expensive doesn’t really give fps increase, it translates into more tweaking options, more USB ports, higher quality and thus smaller chance of failure etc. 430W PSU sounds like it’s about on the edge on having enough watts. Luckily that CPU is low power-consuming.

What you could look into is getting a Solid State Drive (SSD), it’s quite expensive per gigabyte but it’s also about 5-10 times faster than an HDD. You could grab a 60GB or 120GB version and install Windows and GW2 on it and you’d be running the game from boot-up in less than half a minute and blasting thru loading screens.

The GPU isn’t too powerful, but then again GW2 isn’t too graphic heavy so I’m not sure. That might be the next thing in the line to upgrade.

Oh yeah, of course. The computer comes all in one, the only things I’m changing are the GPU, and consequently the PSU. I’ve seen and heard many things about SSD’s; all positive. I think I might invest in one of those once I start getting work again, since I’d like to get a 120GB if I could, as there are a lot of things I’d want to put on it.

Thanks for the tips and the concern, you’ve been a great help =)

Well I’m glad I could help feel free to PM me or post another question here if you have anything on your mind!