Guild Wars 2

Hello!

I’m looking for some advice on how to gain more performance on my prebuilt HP pc.
[spoiler=hpe-515sc]Motherboard
Cleveland

Manufacturer: Pegatron
Form factor: Micro-ATX – 24.4 cm (9.6 inches) x 24.4 cm (9.6 inches)
Chipset: Intel H67
Memory sockets: 4 x DDR3
Front side bus speeds: 2.5 GT/s
Processor socket: LGA 1155

Expansion Slots:

1 PCI Express x16
3 PCI Express x1
1 Half-Length MiniCard x1
For more details, see Cleveland motherboard specifications .

Processor
Intel Core i5 2300

Operating speed: 2.8 GHz (up to 3.1 GHz turbo)
Number of cores: 4
Socket: LGA1155
Bus speed: DMI (Direct Media Interface) – 2.5GT/s

Processor upgrade information

TDP: 95W
Socket type: LGA 1155

Motherboard supports the following processor upgrades:
Core i3-2xxx series
Core i5-2xxx series
Core i7-26xx series

Memory
8 GB

Amount: 8 GB
Speed: PC3-10600 MB/sec
Type: DDR3-1333

Memory upgrade information

Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM sockets
Supports PC3 10600 (1333 MHz) DDR3 DIMMs
Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
Maximum HP/Compaq approved memory is 16 GB

Video graphics
AMD Radeon HD 6850

Ports
1 – 2x mDP
2 – HDMI
3 – 2x DVI (can support VGA via an adapter)

Interface: PCI Express x16
Maximum resolution:

Analog VGA resolution: 2048×1536×32bpp @ 60Hz (Beige Port via adapter)
DVI resolution: 2560×1600×32bpp @ 60Hz (Beige Port, Dual Link) ;1920×1200×32bpp @ 60Hz (Black Port, Single Link)
HDMI resolution: 1920×1080 (1080p)
mDP resolution: 2560×1600 @ 60Hz
1 GB onboard memory
Supports up to 4 displays
Use 1 mDP with any other two connectors for 3 displays and both mDPs with any
other 2 connectors for 4 displays

Integrated graphics
*Integrated video is not available if a graphics card is installed.

Supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards
DVI-I output port
HDMI output port

Sound/Audio
Integrated IDT 92HD89E Audio

*Integrated audio is not available if a sound card is installed.
Built-in High Definition 8 channel audio
IDT 92HD89E CODEC

Hard drive
1 TB

Size: 1 TB
Interface: SATA
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM[/spoiler]

I don’t have a huge budget, so I’m starting to upgrade this a bit by bit. Where should I start? I really have no experience/knowledge about building computers. I also have never overclocked anything. I only use this for GW2 and watching some movies..

Thanks in advance!

If you only use it for GW2 and movies I probably wouldn’t bother upgrading. Save the money

Well I’d just like to run the game at highest settings eventually… Maybe try some GTA V someday :P Atm I’m running GW2 at low-medium settings and in wvw still goes to ~10 fps :/

My first move for that setup would be to a more modern vid card then. What is your budget for such an upgrade? If around the $200 mark look at a Radeon R9 270X or GTX 760

Assuming you have more to spend and wanting even more of a vid card, feel free to post so, lol

Hmm sounds good, although I should get a new PSU also then? Would I need anything else? Would my cpu/motherboard/ram/? “bottleneck” that R9 270X?

Thanks in advance

Edit: That radeon card seems to be so new it’s not available in Finland yet :/ GTX abit expensive…

Your biggest concern would be power. The HD 6850 tops out at around 125-130 watts while the R9 270X tops out at around 170-180 watt range. You only have a 460 watt PSU and while that’s great from HP, most of the HP’s in the states only have an anemic 300 watt PSU, I think trying to pull another 50 watts from it would be … bad.

That said a stock GTX 660 Ti would be within the existing power envelope of an HD 6850 while providing twice the performance in other games. That said GW2 isn’t currently GPU limited in low FPS situations like cities, WvW or large boss events, it’s CPU. The the overclocking possibilities with an HP bios on an H67 chipset with a non-K Intel CPU is quite limited if possible at all.

But outside of those occurrences you should get well over 30fps consistently at the default “Best Appearance” setting.

This isn’t the 1st thread I’ve forgotten about the power supply, SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W will be a very solid and reliable offering for a good price that will be able to handle pretty much any single vid card setup you could throw at it with plenty of room for overclocking.

Beyond that though, yes your cpu would act as a partial bottleneck, but you should expect that though as it’s a lower-end i5. But, that i5 should be more than fine to last a bit until you get around to upgrading it. (At least with the current gen, Z87 chipset motherboard is what you will want to look at along with an i5-4670k for cpu)

Great points. I would certainly look into a power supply as well. As far as upgrading to a newer CPU, that will net you only marginal increase. Keeping your current MB and getting something like a i5-2500K and overclocking it would be the best way to maximize performance looking down the road (if they are still available). Right now it’s clock speed not architecture that is making the most difference from 2000-4000 series Intel CPU.

However, if you run at 1080p resolution getting better power supply (that fits your Micro ATX case) and an HD 7870-7950 would be your best bet, in the near future. Many of the new Radeon R7-R9 GPUs are simply tweaked 7000 series.

This site is great for professional opinion at any price segment. Keep in mind that the October edition should be out soon and would probably significantly different because of all the price changes with Nvidia and AMD. I would wait for that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

GettCouped.7846:

Great points. I would certainly look into a power supply as well. As far as upgrading to a newer CPU, that will net you only marginal increase. Keeping your current MB and getting something like a i5-2500K and overclocking it would be the best way to maximize performance looking down the road (if they are still available). Right now it’s clock speed not architecture that is making the most difference from 2000-4000 series Intel CPU.

However, if you run at 1080p resolution getting better power supply (that fits your Micro ATX case) and an HD 7870-7950 would be your best bet, in the near future. Many of the new Radeon R7-R9 GPUs are simply tweaked 7000 series.

This site is great for professional opinion at any price segment. Keep in mind that the October edition should be out soon and would probably significantly different because of all the price changes with Nvidia and AMD. I would wait for that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

His motherboard will not allow him to overclock, which is why he needs more than just a cpu upgrade. And if he is buying new, unless it’s a MicroCenter with severe reduced price, a 2500k or 3570k would be only a marginal price difference from the newest 1150 socket offering 4670k.

Be weary of Toms, they have been known to be bias

Well I ordered the following:

XFX AMD Radeon HD 7870 DD Black Edition
XFX 550W Core Edition ATX-PSU, 80+ Bronze

Hope it all goes well!

Looks good to me, PSU is a decent performing unit and that vid card should be one nice improvement for you. (Think Battlefield 3 or 4, Bioshock Infinite, etc.)