Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

I am not the most tech savvy of people and I know I need a new PC. Not looking to spend a fortune, just looking for the actual tower and components. I don’t need a monitor or anything like that.

Was wondering if any of you people out there could help a newb out with getting a new PC that will let me max settings in this game with good FPS, and be able to play upcoming games in the near future.

Thanks in advance.

Give us a budget to work with.

Otherwise I could recommend the Phanteks Enthoo Primo, quite an amazing case, but if you aren’t water cooling there are better choices out there for $250~ for just air cooling…… Of course also the amazing MountainMods cases that can range up to $800, great great cases for watercooling and DIY.

Give us a realistic budget and we can help.

First thing to remember is this:

Intel i5’s are not high-end gaming systems, they are budget CPUs only

If you can afford a little extra (I said little, keep that in mind) money go for an i7 based CPU if you plan on going Intel.

What is the biggest difference between i5’s and i7’s Intel processors:

• L3 Cache

Simpler terms:
“Level 3 or L3 cache is specialized memory that works hand-in-hand with L1 and L2 cache to improve computer performance. L1, L2 and L3 cache are computer processing unit (CPU) caches, verses other types of caches in the system such as hard disk cache. CPU cache caters to the needs of the microprocessor by anticipating data requests so that processing instructions are provided without delay. CPU cache is faster than random access memory (RAM), and is designed to prevent bottlenecks in performance. source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-l3-cache.htm”

So – you want more L3 Cache for gaming, a lot more, the most you can afford. i5’s will not give you this, they’re not meant to be high-end systems as they are affordable CPUs for your day-to-day simple games and tasks. No they are not bad CPUs, but they are not high-end CPUs either.

People will argue this until they are blue in the face stating “Well…My system runs great and my games are smooth!” Maybe so, but their defenition of “great” and “smooth” are completely different than mine, or yours — so ignore the naysayer’s and you’ll be fine. L3 Cache is a huge benefit when doing high-end calculations (gaming being one) giving the processor a larger buffer, so to speak, to handle the instructions being pumped in. A typical i5 will have much lower L3 Cache where the i7 will give you more, usually a lot more.

i3/i5 – your standard business PC for day-to-day tasks
i7+ – your high-end gaming / media creation

SolarNova runs an i7 3930, great CPU, it is also a 6-Core CPU which may be overkill but hey, if you have the extra cash do it. (We all know games don’t take full advantage of 6-Cores, that’s not the point of going for a 6-Core CPU). I run the 3920 and it’s a great CPU, it’s just below SolarNova’s CPU. HOWEVER: These are the 2011 Sockets, they are NOT cheap by any means. 2011 Sockets are Extreme-High-End systems. Motherboards for 2011 sockets typically run $100 – $150 more just for the motherboard. The memory for 2011 sockets also cost more because 2011 is a Quad-Channel memory controller on the CPU. Only serious hardcore gamers would go for 2011 socket systems (again, these are not cheap)

If you have the cash, then go for a 2011 setup, otherwise if you’re looking for a budget system you can still build an i7 system that is outstanding. (if you enjoy games: avoid i5 CPUs — and with the cost difference, go for the extra L3 Cache)

If you want any of us to spec out a system, there’s plenty here to help, but you will run into arguments about what you should buy. I’m only going to provide advice of the areas you may want to consider. CPUs, Motherboards, Memory and Video cards are my expertise (I even build $20,000 servers). I know my hardware, and avoid fighting with people that want to argue knowledge rather than providing simple logical assistance

Like SolarNova said: “Give us a realistic budget and we can help”

i5 2500k and overclock it, if your budget doesn’t expand enough for the i7.
Personally i think the i7 is a waste of money right now.

Crawford.4135:

First thing to remember is this:

Intel i5’s are not high-end gaming systems, they are budget CPUs only

If you can afford a little extra (I said little, keep that in mind) money go for an i7 based CPU if you plan on going Intel.

What is the biggest difference between i5’s and i7’s Intel processors:

• L3 Cache

Simpler terms:
“Level 3 or L3 cache is specialized memory that works hand-in-hand with L1 and L2 cache to improve computer performance. L1, L2 and L3 cache are computer processing unit (CPU) caches, verses other types of caches in the system such as hard disk cache. CPU cache caters to the needs of the microprocessor by anticipating data requests so that processing instructions are provided without delay. CPU cache is faster than random access memory (RAM), and is designed to prevent bottlenecks in performance. source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-l3-cache.htm”

So – you want more L3 Cache for gaming, a lot more, the most you can afford. i5’s will not give you this, they’re not meant to be high-end systems as they are affordable CPUs for your day-to-day simple games and tasks. No they are not bad CPUs, but they are not high-end CPUs either.

People will argue this until they are blue in the face stating “Well…My system runs great and my games are smooth!” Maybe so, but their defenition of “great” and “smooth” are completely different than mine, or yours — so ignore the naysayer’s and you’ll be fine. L3 Cache is a huge benefit when doing high-end calculations (gaming being one) giving the processor a larger buffer, so to speak, to handle the instructions being pumped in. A typical i5 will have much lower L3 Cache where the i7 will give you more, usually a lot more.

i3/i5 – your standard business PC for day-to-day tasks
i7+ – your high-end gaming / media creation

SolarNova runs an i7 3930, great CPU, it is also a 6-Core CPU which may be overkill but hey, if you have the extra cash do it. (We all know games don’t take full advantage of 6-Cores, that’s not the point of going for a 6-Core CPU). I run the 3920 and it’s a great CPU, it’s just below SolarNova’s CPU. HOWEVER: These are the 2011 Sockets, they are NOT cheap by any means. 2011 Sockets are Extreme-High-End systems. Motherboards for 2011 sockets typically run $100 – $150 more just for the motherboard. The memory for 2011 sockets also cost more because 2011 is a Quad-Channel memory controller on the CPU. Only serious hardcore gamers would go for 2011 socket systems (again, these are not cheap)

If you have the cash, then go for a 2011 setup, otherwise if you’re looking for a budget system you can still build an i7 system that is outstanding. (if you enjoy games: avoid i5 CPUs — and with the cost difference, go for the extra L3 Cache)

If you want any of us to spec out a system, there’s plenty here to help, but you will run into arguments about what you should buy. I’m only going to provide advice of the areas you may want to consider. CPUs, Motherboards, Memory and Video cards are my expertise (I even build $20,000 servers). I know my hardware, and avoid fighting with people that want to argue knowledge rather than providing simple logical assistance

Like SolarNova said: “Give us a realistic budget and we can help”

Well I don’t want to spend more than I have too, but nobody does. I would say in the ballpark of 600-800. If I can get away without having to build it that would be best. Thank you for your help.

Ok im gunna asume thats in dollars not pounds or euros.

BTW, whilst the technical facts of crawfords post are accurate, the conclusions on gaming performance are wrong. i5’s ARE fine gaming CPU’s and are perfectly capable of handling most games just as well as ,and in some casses better than, an i7. That said GW2 is one of a handfull of games that does use an i7’s extra cores. But it has nothing to do with L3 cache, the difference bewteen a i5 and i7 L3 cache is only 2mb anyway (6 to 8 mb). Clock speed,per core performance, and in some casses core count, matter more than the difference in L3 chace.

So anyway, tower and all internal components.. Im asuming u have NOTHING at all to re-use form an older rig, like optical drive, HDD etc.
If u have anything u can re-use it would help greatly as this is slightly over budget but a very good gaming machine fir the price.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1UOLA

Due to ur tight budget an i7 is out of the question. GW2 does somtimes max out an i5 in extreme situations, but those situations also tend to max out individual threads/cores on an i7 aswell so even with the extra overall usuage not maxing out, the performance will still be pegged by the maxed cores, at which point the i7 will only show a marginal imporvment over the i5. An i7 really shows its might in games that are more thread optimised like Crysis 3 and hte up coming BF4, both of which show significant max FPS gains so long as u have ample GPU grunt, like Triple 780 SLi.

The difference between the K version of the i5 and the i7 is negligible (<5%) in most games, especially if you overclock. The $100 you save you can use for better cooling, video card or straight up savings.

The increase from 6 to 8MB of L3 cache between the i5 and i7 is to support hyper threading better since two simultaneous threads per core are forced to share the L1 and L2 caches which don’t increase. With less cache per thread means a greater chance of misses in these two caches.

Calls for an i7 on a build with only a reasonable budget is from those who drunk the kool aid. As I said before that the money is better spent, in general for a gaming platform, on a better graphics card. Unless you also plan to do work work on it an the apps you use for that are designed to scale with cores, or if your budget is over $1000 US in which case only then I would direct you to an i7.

In either case, i5 or i7, latest gen is the best so socket 1150 MB with a Haswell CPU.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-4670k-4670-4570-4430_5.html#sect0

We’ve always regarded Core i5 series CPUs as a good choice for building a high-performance gaming computer. The transition to the Haswell microarchitecture doesn’t change anything in this respect. They are fast enough to accompany a modern graphics card, so the frame rates are almost the same in most games in the Full-HD resolution. It means the frame rate is limited by the graphics card rather than by the CPU. As for their perspectives in future applications, the low-resolution results suggest that the Haswell generation is somewhat better than the Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge. However, the senior LGA1150 processor Core i7-4770K is still better than the Core i5-4670K. Many recently released shooters, e.g. Metro: Last Light and Hitman: Absolution, support multithreading, so the Core i7 enjoys an advantage thanks to its Hyper-Threading technology. There are also examples to the contrary, though. Hyper-Threading has a negative effect in the racing sim F1 2012 where the Core i7 series are inferior to their less expensive cousins.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7189/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-september-2013/10

In direct comparison, only two benchmarks had more than a 3.5% FPS jump with the 4770K in favor, and one actually in favor of the 4670K.

So in terms of answering the question, for our benchmarks, it would seem that the i5-4670K is the more cost effective choice in buying a Haswell processor.