Guild Wars 2

I am not sure if this is the best forum to ask for help, but I’m searching for a good i7 computer for guild-wars2 and other future online games.

I have some basic computer knowledge, what I’m really asking for help is…. which brand (in Canada) has reliable customer service? I bought an ASUS i7 6700 few days ago and it is actually a defected computer with terrible psu or hd problem… (making chain-saw noise with burning smell). Lucky I can return to local bestbuy store. I then research DELL, HP, Lenovo (forget about asus and acer). But it turn out almost every computer company received terrible unacceptable after sales customer services review. (like they delay shipping, they won’t refund, you spend 2 hrs calling them for nothing if anything goes wrong, it all sound very scary!)

I need a desktop, but I don’t drive, and I have poor tech-skill on computer parts, so I’m hoping to get some advice which computer brand sell the “least” defected product that can let me enjoy my game for the next 3-4 years?

I used to own a DELL computer, the cpu/mother broad still work nice after 6 years, but graphic card died… so I was wondering can I trust Dell brand again. Here is the spec I been eye on.

6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor
Windows 10 Home
16GB Memory
1TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 745 4GB DDR3
Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio Pro

Does this sound good enough for low budge? It priced 1100 CND. (on sale price)

I’m actually quite stressed out, as I don’t want to received another defected computer, and I wanna play my GW2 soon. Can anybody kind enough to share some advices? thanks. (Does those warranty plan worth the money?)

It will run Guild Wars 2.
I’m guessing this is a package deal. How much are they asking for the GPU alone? Could it be swapped out for something with more bang for buck? But yes it will run Guild Wars 2, and many other games as well. But if you say, wanna play a game like “Ark Survival Evolved” you’ll be playing on medium to low graphics. Witcher 3 will be somewhat like that as well. But I know Guild Wars 2 will be fine with that GPU, because I have an Nvidia 840M on my laptop, and it has the same core count and should pretty much perform the same.

That spec will run games on low/medium and will not be an optimal experience. Any reseller selling a pc at the moment needs to be competitive on current tech; with that in mind the gpu is on the low end and is the last generation of Nvidia card. You really want something like a 970 for gaming now at a decent frame rate in most titles and with the competitive price of this card, look for something with that in. The processor should be great on your current build you are looking at; so it is just the gpu you need to think about.
You also dont have to go Nvidia. To cut more price and have a potentially more powerful card, you can go with an Amd R9 390. Make sure it is not a reference card. I.e. an Msi r9 390 would be great; as would a Gigabyte/Sapphire etc. Cutting price on a gpu is not worth it if intending to pc game; as you will regret it quickly, and you are best off going for the best bang for buck that you can afford. If you cant afford it now, wait until you can. Going for a low end gpu is not a good idea. Just imo of course.

For gw2, the game actually requires a powerful cpu too. In fact more so than the gpu; but the above advice will allow you to play other titles at an enjoyable framerate too. The higher the core clock speed on a processor the better for gw2. Bear this in mind too. There are many articles on this, just google.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/asus-asus-m32cd-gaming-pc-intel-core-i7-6700-2tb-hdd-16gb-ram-amd-radeon-r9-370-graphics-windows-10-m32cd-ca019t/10394138.aspx?path=8b02e208ebfda8a14dc8d28bb46279a8en02

This was the PC I ordered, and it was defected, so I simply return it. It was R9 370 card, which I did some research, it was only slightly better then my old Nvidia 560i.

I’m more worry about the after sale customer service because I don’t know how to install or fix my PC problem. The one I saw on Dell computer is a package deal, I own PS4… so my computer is mainly for GW2 plus probably Blade and Soul soon.

Nikaido,

Perhaps you could look at the HP Envy Phoenix Range, I believe for the same price as the ASUS one listed above you can have similar spec with a Nvidia Geforce 960.

That should run the game with no problems. I recently just bought the Lower priced version which is listed in my signature, it comes with the R9 370 and it runs the game very smoothly at high settings.

Also just to mention about the “defective brand” Idea. Any PC you buy that is pre-built and shipped to you or collected from a store has a slight risk of having a defective part as logistics for these generally involve the computers being shipped great distances. The fact that it happened to you with a particular brand I would just put down to bad luck. That of course is why we have manufacturers warranties in the first place.

Personally I would stay away from named brands as much as possible. I have been in the industry for decades and the quality of all named brands are suspect and especially when they taken over by one of the big players.

That said if in Canada a lot depends on geographical location. If not in the know those local mum and pop computer shops can be risky.

In Canada I used to know a person who ran a computer shop in my neighborhood and I would generally request a build from him within my budget and he would fire back a suggestion with the components he was to use. I would then do a bit of research on all of the build and OK it or not,.

He recently retired but if you have a neighborhood NCIX shop in your area they are a good bet. The build quality tends to be high and my recent experience with them is the staff knowledgeable as many of them are gamers.

When you by the name brands off the shelf they tend to build with the cheapest components possible as they really just want market share, any market share and are not really interested in whether you a gamer.

Even many of those firms selling under a gaming badge have been trying to compete on price.

Just build your own computer, Canada Computers, Tiger Direct, NCIX, MemoryExpress and Dazmode etc.

Yeah, building your own is really the way to go. Otherwise wait for a sale on something good, there have actually been a few good HP prebuilts for sale recently.

GTX 745 is a cut down GTX 750 (384 vs 512 shaders) and uses slower DDR3 memory instead of much faster GDDR5. Likely added because the PSU in the unit is weak and it’s better than the integrated GPU in the CPU.

Other than that it’s not bad. Of course Dell’s gamer line is Alienware, and they aren’t that much better. Their slimline towers also have less than impressive PSUs to drive graphics but they do sell an external box with it’s own 460 watt PSU that can house one double wide video card but uses a proprietary cable (PCIe x4 V3 interconnect) to connect to the tower. Unenthusiastic yay.

Just remember, pretty much any “home” PC prebuilt will have a low power PSU and if it has a discrete video card it won’t be all that impressive, just better than the integrated one.