Guild Wars 2

Hello there fellow GW2 fans, I recently purchased the game and find it awesome in every possible way!
One thing I would like to improve, however(as the topic title suggests) is my hardware in order to get the most out of the game’s spectacular graphics and effects. I am going to list my current PC specs and I would appreciate any and all advice on what to improve at the smallest cost (no overkill please, as I am kind of short on funds at the moment).
So here are my specs:

MB: Asus P5K Pro
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600, 2400 MHz
RAM: 4 GB DDR2-800 (2x 2GB)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1024MB GDDR5 (Palit version)
-Running on Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Id go for the cpu mobo and ram 1st as upgrade since the game is a cpu bound in every aspect… 550ti is not that bad you can leave it in the system with the upgrade Im suggesting but beware of the power usage you might need a new psu after upgrade..

i5 2500K is a good bet for the CPU. Cheap and great performance. Get yourself an appropriate mobo. (I think it’s the 1155 for that one)
GPU looks ok.
I think you will need to get some DDR3 with the new mobo as DDR2 is not compatible.
6-8GB is fine.
That shouldn’t break the bank.

Thanks for your help! I’ll think about going for a better CPU and MB, and I think I can upgrade the RAM cheaply, the bad thing is it looks like I’ll have to be boosting my power too so it will be pretty much a new PC for me and that doesn’t sound cheap at all in my head since I’m from Bulgaria to start with… But the upgrade’s time will come. Cheers guys and have a nice day/evening!

It could all use an upgrade but the cpu has priority.

Higher mid end:
i5 3450, ASRock H77M and 8GB ddr3 1333mhz (unless you can find 1600 cheaper) ram.

If this is too expensive:
Mid end:
i3 2120, ASRock B75M-GL and 8gb ddr3 1333 ram.

An upgrade lower than this isn’t worth it.

“Mid end:
i3 2120, ASRock B75M-GL and 8gb ddr3 1333 ram.”

It sounds like you understood me perfectly about the cheap<—>effective balance I’m aiming for. I COULD get the better CPU (either the one you or the one Casshern suggested) , but I will have to take a look at my paycheck first, plus I don’t want to throw too much cash at the PC at this point. And is there any significant difference between ASUS and ASRock?

And is there any significant difference between ASUS and ASRock?

AsRock components are built from Asus pieces. AsRock has some good motherboards in the market. If your budget is tight and you don’t need extra features that you will probably never use go for AsRock.

Plus there is always cheaper solution called AMD ^_ a Tseris Phenom II or 4-6Cores of FX are quite cheap and performing quite well when overclocked even with their stock heatsinks… They wont perform as good as 2500k but with that price its only natural.

Your CPU can’t feed your GPU fast enough; your GPU isn’t being fully utilised. (I ran a 580 on a Conroe for a bit too.)

i5-2500k will OC to 4.2GHz at bone stock voltages/power savings with an aftermarket cooler; my GW2 keeps this CPU 40-60% load, not even close to being CPU-bound.

8GB DDR3-2133 is under $100 (Mushkin, awesome brand for years)

I swear by Gigabyte motherboards (I swore off Asus in 2005 after the P5W deluxe garbage).

Rolo.9248:

Your CPU can’t feed your GPU fast enough; your GPU isn’t being fully utilised.

Yes, I’ve heard that before, and it’s one of the reasons I’m going for an upgrade in the first place.

Well, now I will know what to look for; and thanks again to everyone for the info!