Guild Wars 2

Hey can you please rate the computer i have assembled. It’s a new one that I want to use to play games with such as GW2.

Cooler Master Hyper 412S
Intel Core I7 3820 3.60Ghz
Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3-1600 Quad Kit
SSD Crucial M4 128GB
AMD Radeon HD7870 XT Jokercard 2GB
Liyama prolite E2273HS GB1 full-HDLED screen.

Hoping to get rates between 1/10 and what I could improve or maybe improve in the future that isn’t neccesarily needed right now.

Yes.
See Part 2.2 of this thread

Uhhh, just for GW2, I’d give it an 8.5. If you overclock that CPU, 9.5. The only reason I don’t give it a 10 is because its a sandy bridge CPU, not an ivy bridge CPU.

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

Uhhh, just for GW2, I’d give it an 8.5. If you overclock that CPU, 9.5. The only reason I don’t give it a 10 is because its a sandy bridge CPU, not an ivy bridge CPU.

Ofcourse it’ll be ment for other games too, but I just want to play this game smoothly. Apart from this game I will wanna run Planetside 2 aswell. Just the big MMO is the fact my current computer can’t handle these games although they meet the requirements to play both games something is overheating my cpu to a crash.

What would overclocking my cpu do? Is this something I can do myself manually or do I need a third party to do it? How would I notice the overclocking in gameplay?

Overclocking your CPU is not required, but if you play GW2 for those chaotic WvW battles and want to do it on high settings and get at least 30 frames a second, then its necessary.

Overclocking your CPU basically takes the speed it runs at right now (3.6Ghz) and makes it run faster at the cost of additional power (which in turn makes more heat, which in turn theoretically degrades the CPU over time). IIRC the CPU you have has a locked multiplier, so you probably won’t be able to get much more speed out of your CPU, my guess is a few hundred MHz taking it close to 4.0Ghz.

No third party software is required, all the modifications can be made in your BIOS settings. Normally you spam the ‘Delete’ key (not backspace) to get into the BIOS but depending on the make/model of your motherboard it can vary.

GW2 is very CPU intense, which is abnormal for a game since most other games are very GPU intense. Due to the way GW2 was programmed, very fast single thread performance is required. Intel reigns over AMD in this category for some of its processors, but just having an Intel processor is not enough. To further increase single thread performance, one must increase the frequency of the processor, hence overclocking.

Essentially your FPS is limited by either your CPU or GPU, more often than not its the CPU for GW2.

A few examples:
My sibling’s computer is essentially my old computer, a core 2 duo (before all this i3/i5/i7 stuff) and an ancient 9800GT graphics card. The game ran, at best, 10 fps anywhere. For Christmas I got them a GTX 650Ti, a current gen card, and now they can play on medium settings getting 30+ frames a second. This is a case where the GPU was limiting the game from getting good frames per second.

In another case, my CPU is an i7 930 which at stock speed is 2.8Ghz. I was seeing some definite slow downs in LA and larger WvW battles. I really didn’t want to upgrade yet so to get some renewed life out of my processor that is 2 generations old already, I decided to give it a beefy overclock. I currently run this CPU at 4.1Ghz and it runs the game noticeably smoother than it used to. Albeit, its not as good as a second generation (your CPU), or third generation intel processor. This is a case where the CPU is the limiting factor. However, it will definitely tie me over until Broadwell comes out slated for a 2014 release.

Sorry for the essay, but basically it looks like a nicer than average machine. I would just load up GW2 on it and see how it goes. If it turns out that the performance isn’t up to par with what you want, then you can take a shot at overclocking the CPU. I’ll give a word of caution though, as mentioned before it does shorten the life of the CPU, but you will probably have a new computer by the time it bites the dust. I’ve had my CPU overclocked for some time now and basically have it pushed to the max safe voltage (1.4 volts for my CPU). I plan on keeping this machine for another 2 years, then handing it down to my siblings or my parents, whichever needs it more at the time.

If you want assistance overclocking your CPU, I can assist. I’m not a perfectionist and I’ve only overclocked 2 CPUs so far, my old core 2 duo, and my current i7. However, they make it pretty easy and you’re almost always guaranteed getting a few hundred Mhz without and real effort.

8/10

Its a pitty u went the LGA 2011 and didnt get a 3930k, but i understand the costs.
The 3820 can and should be OC’d but as others have said its not as easy to do as its not a ‘k’ chip. Do what u can and get the OC as high as possible, the multiplier stops at 43x meaning u can do a standard OC to 4.3ghz, above that u need to use the base clock frequency, standard is 100.0 but it should be able to go up to 125. Anyway ull have to adjust voltages and such aswel land other setitngs via the BIOS of the mothebroard, i sugest u look up some indepth OC’ing guides for that particular CPU. 43x 105 to get 4.515ghz OC or if u can only choose between 100 and 125 then 36x 125 would get u exactly 4.5ghz, again theres more to it than just chaning those 2 figures.

OC’ing is needed to stay above 30fps in WvW battles (BIG battles), 4.5ghz is a good recommened OC to aim for as its doable under air cooling with most chips, specialy sandybridge.

If u get the OC then that rig will be 9.5/10, for GW2.
Only way it woulda been beter is with ether a 3930k or a 3770k. 3930k for the extra cores and easier OC’ing, the 3770k for the faster clock for clock speed.