Guild Wars 2

Well, I originally was gonna get the msi gt70 with nvidia gt 770m and i7-4700 with ssd boot and a normal storage drive, but parents decided to limit me to $1000 for my college computer. So I’m looking for the best possibility here.

Basically need the absolute best performance for gw2 for this price. Any ideas?

Ssd or no ssd?
Higher gpu like a 770 or 2 750 in sli?

If they include an SSD then of course they will take the money from either the CPU or GPU parts budget so I would go without.

There wasn’t a lot of options at NewEgg in your price range. You aren’t likely to find either of those GPU choices at that price point unless you are buying refurbished. The compact size of laptops makes heat dissipation more difficult so I would stay away from SLi.

The best single GPU in laptops under $1000 at NewEgg was the GTX 660M in the MSI GE60 with a quad core i7-3630QM.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152392

I have no idea how good this will play the game. The quad core helps but I have no idea if the GTX 660M will be reasonable enough, especially at the native resolution of 1920×1080.

A 3630QM and 660m are the minimum i would recommened to any1 wanting a gaming laptop. It should handle GW2 at high settings, it will ofc struggle alot with WvW and populated areas though..like all laptops with mobile processors.

I see no reason to go for an i7 over an i5 for a mid range gaming rig (especially a laptop). That difference alone should allow for a better video or an SSD within budget (or both).

You are paying a LOT of money for less than a 10% performance gain with the i7.

get a refurb or buy / trade for one on craigslist – this years models are only a tinge better than last years models – so you have a better chance of getting a higher performing last years model than a lower class newer model for under 1k. Companies don’t want to be known for having a single refurb mess up 2times so chances are it will work fine. On the used computers, these are the guys that either paid too much or dumping their old systems to spend thousands on a spec more of performance. So realistically if you want better performance for less, go used. :p

Brother Grimm.5176:

I see no reason to go for an i7 over an i5 for a mid range gaming rig (especially a laptop). That difference alone should allow for a better video or an SSD within budget (or both).

You are paying a LOT of money for less than a 10% performance gain with the i7.

In the world of Intel laptop CPUs, i7s are quad or dual cores, i5s are only dual core. This isn’t desktops CPUs where gaming performance isn’t affected a great deal between an i5 quad and an i7 quad. And in GW2, quad cores are favored which is why you choose a mobile i7 quad.