Guild Wars 2

Okay I have sought advice from a few people and have yet to come up with anything that sticks. So I am asking you the GW2 Community for help. I am finally after years of waiting building a new PC WOOT!!! So here is what I have to work with.

Budget 1,000
0 CD Drive (Already have it)
$130 Case Picked out that must be included in the 1k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146106

Based on Current GW2 discussions it seems Intel would be the way to go, however I am open to multiple suggestions for AMD as well.

My request is it is the best I can buy with the money I have been allotted.

Thanks all I look forward to seeing what you come up with for me

PS In the near future I will be sticking in some purple fans, why because I totally want them! So if you have suggestions on awesome colored fans feel free to throw in your opinions on that too

You might want to post this in the tech section of the forum.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

TaDah.3615:

Okay I have sought advice from a few people and have yet to come up with anything that sticks. So I am asking you the GW2 Community for help. I am finally after years of waiting building a new PC WOOT!!! So here is what I have to work with.

Budget 1,000
0 CD Drive (Already have it)
$130 Case Picked out that must be included in the 1k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146106

Based on Current GW2 discussions it seems Intel would be the way to go, however I am open to multiple suggestions for AMD as well.

My request is it is the best I can buy with the money I have been allotted.

Thanks all I look forward to seeing what you come up with for me

PS In the near future I will be sticking in some purple fans, why because I totally want them! So if you have suggestions on awesome colored fans feel free to throw in your opinions on that too

What are you expectations of GW2 when you are considering the build?

For top end performance, you should consider the Socket 1150 i5-4670K teamed with a Z87 based Motherboard. That Kit will run ABOUT 350~ on average. Then Overclock the CPU between 4.2Ghz and 4.6Ghz (Depends on the Silicon Lottery for that range) to get the best single thread performance you can expect from Intel. If you don’t want to do Overclocking then find a Quad Core i5 clocked at 3.2Ghz or faster, either on a 1155 or 1150 socket.

GPU – This depends on your Monitor’s Resolution. If you are running 1080P then consider getting a HD7850, HD7870, or an HD R9-270. They all have about the same performance and fall in about the same price range of 179-249 (newegg has the best deals for GPUs right now). If you are playing on a smaller res, such as 1366×768 or 1600×900, then Consider a HD7790 or R7-260x, as they are about the same in performance and run between 89.99 and 129.99.

Ram, Get Dual channel 2×4GB of the fastest memory you can find for your Motherboard choice. I went with 1866 at CL10, and it was a decent jump from 1600 at CL9, and I overclocked to to 2100~ being stable.

the rest of the system wont matter as much as the above, when considering GW2. Just remember that even the best systems have issues with GW2 with WvW/ZergvsZerg scenarios. But with the above specs you can expect highs in the 130-170FPS and lows in the 15-25FPS. On my system I never drop below 15FPS in 80vs80vs80 zergs anymore.

sirsquishy.8531:

GPU – This depends on your Monitor’s Resolution. If you are running 1080P then consider getting a HD7850, HD7870, or an HD R9-270. They all have about the same performance and fall in about the same price range of 179-249 (newegg has the best deals for GPUs right now).

For a 7850, you shouldn’t go over like $150. Similarly, once you get past $200, really, you should just get GTX 760- an R9 270/7870 for that much is just not worth it at all.

]Ram, Get Dual channel 2×4GB of the fastest memory you can find for your Motherboard choice.

You’re not really going to see a performance increase past 1600 unless you’re running an APU.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Onj5

I’d suggest something like this. If you already have/don’t need Windows, springing for an i7 could be a possibility, but I’d just save your money.

TaDah.3615:

PS In the near future I will be sticking in some purple fans, why because I totally want them! So if you have suggestions on awesome colored fans feel free to throw in your opinions on that too

My advice would be to not waste your money on useless bling. It sounds like you want LEDs, which will just get annoying. Buy decent quality fans over those with lights, with noise/air movement as a higher priority. If you really want LEDs, just make sure that they’re on something decent.

Fermi.2409:

For a 7850, you shouldn’t go over like $150. Similarly, once you get past $200, really, you should just get GTX 760- an R9 270/7870 for that much is just not worth it at all.

You’re not really going to see a performance increase past 1600 unless you’re running an APU.

GTX 760 is only 8-13% faster then the R9-270. And the GTX 760 still goes between 265-319, where the R9-270 is about 200. So the Cost vs Performance isnt really worth it IMHO.

Faster RAM helps with the Lows we see with GW2, similarly with how PCI-E 16x version 3.0 is better then PCI-E 8x or 16x on Ver2.0.

But OP – I agree on the Bling. Its cool at first, but the Light from the Case will get on your nerves after a few weeks. A good Case is a Dark Case. Use LEDs for the power LED and HDD activity Light. Leave them alone for your fans :-)

sirsquishy.8531:

GTX 760 is only 8-13% faster then the R9-270. And the GTX 760 still goes between 265-319, where the R9-270 is about 200. So the Cost vs Performance isnt really worth it IMHO.

You can get a nice 760 for $235 right now. They’ve been as low as $200, just a couple days ago. Even at $235, it’s like $25 more then a 270x, while 270s are just going to depend on what you’d get for a deal. Honestly, the 760 is the way to go atm- the performance increase is pretty evenly in line with the price increase.

As other people have said, the current price increases and availablity problems of the 270 have made the 760 a better choice for now at least until the 270’s come back down to the sub 200 range

fermi posted a nice oc build so ill give you a non oc build that uses the extra money for a solid state hard drive

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus P8H77-M LE Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($80.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($122.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($232.99 @ Staples)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 ($107.41 @ NCIX US)
Total: $858.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-06 14:54 EST-0500)

or you could forgo the ssd and go with a overclocking capable set up with a k series i5 and a z mobo, (or spend that extra money on a 770. but that would help mainly in other games, not gw2.)

Thanks everyone for your input! I did hours of research and The link to Logical Increments helped me amazingly as it was a great guideline on where to start.

I am going Intel on this one. Here is what I have decided to go with

Case: NZXT Phantom 530 Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case Includes 1 × 200mm Front, 1 × 140mm Rear 2 x USB 3.0 Fan Controller ($129.99) Newegg.com

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Pro Gaming with Killer Networking & Sound Blaster Intel Motherboard ($139.99) Newegg.com

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K Processor – Quad Core, 6MB L3 Cache, 3.4GHz, 84W, Fan, 1200 MHz Graphics Core Speed – BX80646I54670K ($224.99) Tiger Direct

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 Video Card – 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0 (x16), 1x Dual-Link DVI-D, 1x Dual-Link DVI-I, 1x Display Port, 1x HDMI, DirectX 11.1, SLI Ready, Dual-Slot, Fan, – N760 TF 2GD5/OC ($259.99) Tiger Direct

Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ($84.99) Newegg.com

Power Supply: Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply – ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan, Sleeved Cables, Matte Finish, 3-Year Warranty ($59.99 or 49.99 after rebate) Tiger Direct

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, Blue – OEM (59.99) Newegg.com

TaDah.3615:

Thanks everyone for your input! I did hours of research and The link to Logical Increments helped me amazingly as it was a great guideline on where to start.

I am going Intel on this one. Here is what I have decided to go with

Case: NZXT Phantom 530 Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case Includes 1 × 200mm Front, 1 × 140mm Rear 2 x USB 3.0 Fan Controller ($129.99) Newegg.com

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Pro Gaming with Killer Networking & Sound Blaster Intel Motherboard ($139.99) Newegg.com

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K Processor – Quad Core, 6MB L3 Cache, 3.4GHz, 84W, Fan, 1200 MHz Graphics Core Speed – BX80646I54670K ($224.99) Tiger Direct

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 Video Card – 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0 (x16), 1x Dual-Link DVI-D, 1x Dual-Link DVI-I, 1x Display Port, 1x HDMI, DirectX 11.1, SLI Ready, Dual-Slot, Fan, – N760 TF 2GD5/OC ($259.99) Tiger Direct

Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ($84.99) Newegg.com

Power Supply: Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply – ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan, Sleeved Cables, Matte Finish, 3-Year Warranty ($59.99 or 49.99 after rebate) Tiger Direct

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, Blue – OEM (59.99) Newegg.com

Your best bet is to plug everything into pcpartpicker.com – It’ll show you where the cheapest place to get everything is. For example, that case is $100 from Microcenter, which would save you $30.

Another thing is that PSU- you’re a bit above what you need in terms of wattage. A CX500 is more then enough, and it’s half as expensive. Your RAM is also about $15 more then it should be- really, all ram is the same. You should only be spending like $70 for a set of DDR3-1600.

Overall, not terrible (although I’m a bit wary of the PSU, never heard of the brand and I tend to stick with Corsair/SeaSonic just because of how important it is), but you could shave a good amount of money off with ease.

Ultra LSP650? you should get a psu from a reputable brand with at least a 80 bronze cert. 38A on the 12v rail is more like a 500w unit. your psu is NOT the place you want to cheap out on.

Also if you are getting a k series chip and z mobo to overclock, you should DEFINITELY get a good cpu cooler which i dont see. Coolermaster Hyper 212 is a pretty popular choice.

Ultra is a well known brand, however, not particularly known in the best of light due to their regularly sub-par product. My normal recommendation is towards Corsair or Seasonic, with Corsair being the “safe pick” of the 2, especially with the CX builder series for low priced units.

Outside of that your list looks good to me.

Here’s a quick sample run:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2OvbA

If you live near a MicroCenter I would recommend picking up the 4670k from in-store, as it will be $180 instead of $230.

Oops I linked the wrong ram earlier. The ram I am going with is the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231667

After piecing everything together in pcpartpicker and making it where I only had to order from 2 places I not only was able to save that time and hassle but I also dropped my price from $966 to $864 I do not plan on doing any major overclocking that’s why no additional cooler is needed.

I will be getting My case and CPU from the MicroCenter..

You say major overclocking, but using the stock heatsink, I would advise no overclocking. It is simply “good enough” so that the CPU can perform it’s duties at stock specifications, and barely so at that. I listed the CM Hyper 212 EVO due to it’s price to performance.

Indeed, the 212Evo is a brilliant price : performance cooler, something I would recommend people use even on a stock CPU, its quieter and will run cooler, and considering you have now saved money, the small price tag on it is worth it.

I also changed the Power Supply to the SeaSonic I don’t overclock so that wont be a problem. I play game and I use photoshop that’s about it.

It is done!! My budget for my PC was 1k I spent in the end on PC Desk and new Keyboard around 1100-1150. I’m pretty happy with what I got for the price I spent and even went a few steps more. Now to get a bigger monitor LOL

Case: NZXT. Phantom 530 Full Tower Black (sleek and classy case love it)

Disk Drive: LG: 24x Super Multi DVD writer GH24

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Pro Gaming with Killer Networking & Sound Blaster Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K Processor – Quad Core, 6MB L3 Cache, 3.4GHz, 84W, Fan, 1200 MHz Graphics Core Speed

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 Video Card – 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 3.0 (x16), 1x Dual-Link DVI-D, 1x Dual-Link DVI-I, 1x Display Port, 1x HDMI, DirectX 11.1, SLI Ready, Dual-Slot, Fan

Ram: G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 × 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory

Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, Blue – OEM

Keyboard: Logitech G105

Gaming Desk: Ergocraft Titan Glass Top Computer Desk