Guild Wars 2

Hello there,

Currently I have simple PC with a dual core intel e5700 3.0 GhZ and an AMD Radeon 5450 graphic card, and this has been working fine in PvE.

I don’t need extremely high settings or anything so in PvE this works fine. In WvW though it gets a lot less very quickly, even when playing on lowest quality. I am a bit sick of seeing all characters as the same coloured toons they are, so I would prefer to see other peoples armour etc also in WvW.

I decided to build a PC but I need some help, I will be using alternate.nl as I know they are trustworthy. My budget is max €725 including an OS. Currently I’ve been readin about this build on a forum that was called : budget gaming PC of 750$.

Please check whether this build would work together, and after please give me advice on how I can reduce the cost to €725 , while still making sure I can play decent WvW!

(assembly is a must, I would surely break stuff if I would do it myself)
(would the radeon 7770 do ? Or maybe the GT 620 with an extraprocessor cooler and OC?)

76,90 Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
87,90 Processor: AMD FX-4100 quad core 3600 mhz
199,90 Graphicscard :XFX HD7870 Core Edition (FX-787A-CNFC)
82,90 SSD:Kingston SV300S37A/120G, 120GB SSD
16,99 CD Driver:Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE
49,99 Case: Corsair Carbide 200R
63,99 Power: Corsair CMPSU-600CX
66,90 RAM: Corsair 8 GB DDR3-1333 Kit
49,99 Harddrive: Toshiba DT01ACA050 500 GB SATA 600
80,00 Windows 8 64bit
55 Assembling
€825

I am hoping you guys can help me out here

Nobody plays descent WvW on that small of a budget (or sometimes even a large budget). The FX-4100 is an upgrade but by how much, I’m unsure. If possible get the FX-4300, it’s an upgraded FX core plus it’s a bit faster, but it will likely (guessing here based on US pricing) around another €15-20, which is the opposite direction here.

The obvious choice is scratch the SSD, it’s a luxury that will have little impact on frame rate, but it will help load times (queuing pro SSD crowd in 3,2,1…).

Next would be getting a smaller power supply. The Corsair CX500 will be more than adequate with that setup, no idea what kind of savings you may get (guessing only €5-10 range), it might not be a lot, power supply pricing can be a little odd at times.

After that there really isn’t anything else but the video card and I’m assuming that isn’t really negotiable.

I am coming from a €400 retail computer. I have never been a hardcore gamer, and i really never complained about my current setup, just decided it is time for something new. Now I do not even want to get to a high end PC or anything, I just want improvements to what I have now. I want to be possible to play GW on anything higher than “best performance” and more than perfect to me would be avarage.

How big of a change would it be to pick a radeon 7770? Can I completely scratch out that SSD without picking another one? Will this set up work well together? Any thoughts on that? Will it synchronize ? (I don’t know a lot about computers so therefor I need help)

I can only answer in general terms about the video card. The HD 7770 is around 45% slower than an HD 7870. The HD 7790 is around 30% slower, the HD 7850 around 15% slower (note the pattern).

The GT 620 isn’t even considered a gaming card. The GT 640 is around 70% slower than the HD 7870 and I have one site reporting the GT 630 at 80% slower. The GTX 650 Ti, not Boost model, is close to an HD 7790 in performance while the GTX 650 is slower than the HD 7770, at half the performance of the HD 7870. The GTX 650Ti Boost is only 10% slower.

Again these video card performance numbers are average performance based charts from TechPowerUp where they test across 18 different games. Closest we have for this game is an old TomsHardware article on Guild Wars 2 performance when the game first came out.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-6.html

An SSD, solid-state drive, is just a really big flash drive but configured for high performance. Upside is major reductions in boot and load times, usually in half. Downside is cost per GB which referencing the parts in your list is about 7x higher. Yes, you can go without, you do have an actual hard drive on the parts list, the 500GB Toshiba. The OS can always go there for now.

A couple places you could save money:

Your GPU…199.99 for a core xfx 7870 is not a good deal.
Your PSU again 63.99 for a corsair 600w builder series is not a good deal
Your RAM….same story…you can get 1600mhz easily for the same price
Assembly…if you can screw in a screw and plug in a wire you can build a PC

If you were to save in those areas you could easily afford to upgrade your cpu.

Essence Snow.3194:

A couple places you could save money:

Your GPU…199.99 for a core xfx 7870 is not a good deal.
Your PSU again 63.99 for a corsair 600w builder series is not a good deal
Your RAM….same story…you can get 1600mhz easily for the same price
Assembly…if you can screw in a screw and plug in a wire you can build a PC

If you were to save in those areas you could easily afford to upgrade your cpu.

I hope you realize that those prices are not in USD. Since you didn’t mention the currency I can only assume you meant USD.

As for the OP, get at least a FX 4300, the newer architecture is worth the money. Scrap the SSD drive since you can later get one and add it to the system. Keep everything else as-is.

Just realize that without overclocking your CPU you will still get lower frame rates in more crowded areas of the game, like LA, large WvW battles, and large dynamic events. If you plan on learning how to overclock, you’ll want to get an after market CPU cooler in addition to what you are currently getting.

I’m not sure what your plans are for the older computer, but you can salvage parts from it, like the CD Drive, case, and hard drive(s). This will save you more money which could get you a FX 63XX or FX 83XX instead of a FX 43XX processor. You might be able to meet your goal of 725 then.

You should post where about’s you live, maybe someone from the same place knows of places that sell pre-made gaming rigs of a decent quality and price.
You can certainly live without the SSD, it speeds up boot/load times but wont make enough of a difference to justify the price, especially when you could use the money for something else.
I recently bought myself a new pc, couldnt afford a new Graphics card at the time so I’m still running a HD7750 and tbh it plays pretty well, although my fx8350 CPU could be carrying it a bit.
I can reach 40-50 frames in wvw just solo roaming and I tend to dip to 25-30 FPS in a average size zerg. Blobs drop FPS a lot but I’m sure that’s the same for even high end cards. I’m running everything on high and just have shadows and Anti-aliasing turned to none and keep pretty steady FPS. Can get 60+fps in PVE easily enough although boss events on AG are super crowded so effects can kill FPS completely.

GW2 is pretty heavy on the CPU so even if you get a high end Graphics card, your CPU could bottleneck your performance if it cant keep up so keep that in mind.

Definitely worth looking around. I built my rig for about £750 which is probably a bit more than your budget but I got a high end Gigabyte mother board and an fx8350 CPU as well as 16gb of Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz RAM, a closed loop water cooler for the CPU and 750watt Corsair PSU. I had it made for me so the parts cost me a little more than they would have if Id have built it myself but it shows you can definitely get a better deal if you look around.

76,90 Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
110. AMD FX-6300 6 cores 3.5 Ghz (internet says higher overclocking abilities)
.?? Processor cooler to make over clocking possible
170. XFX HD7850 Core Edition (FX-785A-CNJC)
16,99 CD Driver:Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE
63,99 Power: Corsair CMPSU-500CX
66,90 RAM: Corsair 8 GB DDR3-1333 Kit
49,99 Harddrive: Toshiba DT01ACA050 500 GB SATA 600
80,00 Windows 8 64bit
55 Assembling
€730. Excluding a processor cooler

How about this?
Downgraded graphics from 7870 to 7850 saved me almost €40
Downgraded power from 600cx to 500cx saved me €10
Upgraded AMD FX-4100 to 6300 cost me about €10 extra

Yes the parts are more than if you build it yourself, true but it is just not possible for me, i’d rather just get it fixed. I could buy a 750 worth pc at a dutch retailer but it will give me a lot of harddrive space and an intel graphics card. My old PC will be used by someone else, no salvaging for me.

I am from the Netherlands.

AkiraZero.8514:

You should post where about’s you live, maybe someone from the same place knows of places that sell pre-made gaming rigs of a decent quality and price.
You can certainly live without the SSD, it speeds up boot/load times but wont make enough of a difference to justify the price, especially when you could use the money for something else.
I recently bought myself a new pc, couldnt afford a new Graphics card at the time so I’m still running a HD7750 and tbh it plays pretty well, although my fx8350 CPU could be carrying it a bit.
I can reach 40-50 frames in wvw just solo roaming and I tend to dip to 25-30 FPS in a average size zerg. Blobs drop FPS a lot but I’m sure that’s the same for even high end cards. I’m running everything on high and just have shadows and Anti-aliasing turned to none and keep pretty steady FPS. Can get 60+fps in PVE easily enough although boss events on AG are super crowded so effects can kill FPS completely.

GW2 is pretty heavy on the CPU so even if you get a high end Graphics card, your CPU could bottleneck your performance if it cant keep up so keep that in mind.

Definitely worth looking around. I built my rig for about £750 which is probably a bit more than your budget but I got a high end Gigabyte mother board and an fx8350 CPU as well as 16gb of Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz RAM, a closed loop water cooler for the CPU and 750watt Corsair PSU. I had it made for me so the parts cost me a little more than they would have if Id have built it myself but it shows you can definitely get a better deal if you look around.

I could go for a 7770 as well it is still a lot better than my 5450 righ? A 7750 could save me another 70 euros which I could reinvest in CPU and maybe motherboard and ram?

Trying to work slowly towards my final build

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

Essence Snow.3194:

A couple places you could save money:

Your GPU…199.99 for a core xfx 7870 is not a good deal.
Your PSU again 63.99 for a corsair 600w builder series is not a good deal
Your RAM….same story…you can get 1600mhz easily for the same price
Assembly…if you can screw in a screw and plug in a wire you can build a PC

If you were to save in those areas you could easily afford to upgrade your cpu.

I hope you realize that those prices are not in USD. Since you didn’t mention the currency I can only assume you meant USD.

I had assumed the € meant Euros. 825€=$1,095. For that they should be able to do better. For example the GPU @ 199.99€=$265 that’s over priced for a core edition 7870. Heck one could get a Club 7870 LE for 203€ or Asus DC II Top for 193€.

Essence Snow.3194:

Ilithis Mithilander.3265:

Essence Snow.3194:

A couple places you could save money:

Your GPU…199.99 for a core xfx 7870 is not a good deal.
Your PSU again 63.99 for a corsair 600w builder series is not a good deal
Your RAM….same story…you can get 1600mhz easily for the same price
Assembly…if you can screw in a screw and plug in a wire you can build a PC

If you were to save in those areas you could easily afford to upgrade your cpu.

I hope you realize that those prices are not in USD. Since you didn’t mention the currency I can only assume you meant USD.

I had assumed the € meant Euros. 825€=$1,095. For that they should be able to do better. For example the GPU @ 199.99€=$265 that’s over priced for a core edition 7870. Heck one could get a Club 7870 LE for 203€ or Asus DC II Top for 193€.

Sorry to say this but you are not helping me. I am not going to assemble the computer myself the other great pc builder in NL is about 10-15% more expensive. I except the fact that I pay more but everything will be installed and assembled for me + great customer service and I can just go back to the store whenever necessary. I pay for that, and I’, fine with it.

Any thoughts on the new build? Any advice on what cooler I could put in to overclock the processor?

One more question If I can find a cheaper club one, would that make any differnece, or is it the same card but cheaper because of the producer?

woutterr.5974:

I could go for a 7770 as well it is still a lot better than my 5450 righ? A 7750 could save me another 70 euros which I could reinvest in CPU and maybe motherboard and ram?

Trying to work slowly towards my final build

Yeh I think I had a 5450 in my old dell system before I upgraded to the 7750 and it was a lot better so a 7750/70 should do the trick as well!
Like I say, my 7750 runs GW2 just fine, I’d like to eventually upgrade it but as long as it can run GW2 on pretty high settings then I’ll just keep holding off until the price of a 7970 comes down or something similar.
If you’re wanting to run on medium-high settings a 7770 should do just fine if you set shadows and anti-aliasing to None like I have done.
Not to mention the next patch will have an option to reduce some of GW2’s effects which should help FPS a lot for us too!
The rest of the stuff you just need to have a proper good look around and see where has the lowest prices to get you the best deal!
Certainly a good idea to invest it into a better CPU and then think about upgrading to a better GPU and an SSD later on down the line if you ever want to upgrade. I bought a basic 500gb HD when I built my machine and it was great, saved me enough money to get some extra RAM and then I invested in an SSD a few months later when I’d saved up a bit more money, love the loading time of the SSD but I could have certainly lived without it.

I personally went for a corsair h60 closed loop water cooler for my CPU cooling needs, I didn’t plan on over clocking so it was enough to keep it cool. However, any aftermarket CPU cooler will be better than the stock, you don’t need to invest into a really high end one, just ones that’s better than a stock cooler.

Yeah sry I can’t help ya if your not willing to try building one yourself (although idk y…it’s simplistic and takes little time) as you will have to pay quite a bit more to go through a middleman. You’ll easily pay 100€ more + the 55€ building charge, but it’s your 155€.

@Essence you are forgetting that in the EU there’s roughly a 20% VAT included on the price. So you can’t just do a currency conversion.

@woutterr I was going to guess Dutch or German. Your English is very good. Assuming the case (it’s not listed in the parts list anymore) is still included in that price I don’t see a problem.

As for a 3rd party CPU cooler, what is good and inexpensive in the US are the brands Xigmatek and Cooler Master tower style coolers. Seemingly always on sale and with rebates. No idea on their availability or price over there. I think you have Scythe still available in Europe, US distributor folded, they are also a very good brand but I don’t know the current prices anymore, they may not be as inexpensive.

Behellagh.1468:

@Essence you are forgetting that in the EU there’s roughly a 20% VAT included on the price. So you can’t just do a currency conversion.

As for a 3rd party CPU cooler, what is good and inexpensive in the US are the brands Xigmatek and Cooler Master tower style coolers. Seemingly always on sale and with rebates. No idea on their availability or price over there. I think you have Scythe still available in Europe, US distributor folded, they are also a very good brand but I don’t know the current prices anymore, they may not be as inexpensive.

I didn’t. I went to Netherland hardware retailers for the prices. If there is an added 20% from a Netherland online retailer to a Netherland customer…then yeah sry bout that I didn’t know.

There was..(this one yes was in the states) a Cooler Master Seidon 120mm for $10 after rebate/google promo…which show one can get an aoi on the cheap.

All i have to say is stay away from AMD go with an Intel processor.An i5 2nd or 3rd gen blows FX cores out of the water.

We know but budget eliminates the i5.

well if you go with amd you really need to overclock it to get any sort of FPS out of guild wars 2.

Behellagh.1468:

@woutterr I was going to guess Dutch or German. Your English is very good. Assuming the case (it’s not listed in the parts list anymore) is still included in that price I don’t see a problem.

As for a 3rd party CPU cooler, what is good and inexpensive in the US are the brands Xigmatek and Cooler Master tower style coolers. Seemingly always on sale and with rebates. No idea on their availability or price over there. I think you have Scythe still available in Europe, US distributor folded, they are also a very good brand but I don’t know the current prices anymore, they may not be as inexpensive.

Behellagh: thanks! I’ve been studying in London for a little while, was great fun =]

76,90 Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
110. AMD FX-6300 6 cores 3.5 Ghz (internet says higher overclocking abilities)
20 cooler master Hyper tx 3 evo
170. XFX HD7850 Core Edition (FX-785A-CNJC)
16,99 CD Driver:Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE
63,99 Power: Corsair CMPSU-600CX
66,90 RAM: Corsair 8 GB DDR3-1333 Kit
49,99 Harddrive: Toshiba DT01ACA050 500 GB SATA 600
80,00 Windows 8 64bit
55 Assembling
45 enermax ostrog case
€750

Those saying I should go for i3-5, first of all they don’t fit in my budget, second I came from an e5700 3 Ghz, I accepted the extremely low framerate in WvW, my only demand was to play with higher settings than “highest performance”. This new build will be a great improvement to what I had, and I am interested in overclocking the processor to get more out of it.

Myself and my guildies are convinced this new build will be a significant improvement compared to what I had. Where an AMD might not do the job for you, please try to see it from my perspective, and keep the overclocking in mind.

Oh yea, it’s going to be like night and day to you.

I wouldn’t bother experimenting with overclocking until you break in the system, get a sense of it’s stability, temperatures, general performance. From what I can see online you should be able to get a 20% (4.2GHz) overclock fairly easily.