Guild Wars 2

Behellagh.1468:

Raijinn.9065:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx

I wouldn’t have said it, if it wasn’t true. 3 month trial

I don’t suggest cheaping out on the gpu if you don’t have to

“The Windows 8 Enterprise 90-day evaluation is intended for evaluation purposes only and cannot be used for productive business or personal purposes. In order to use this evaluation, the product must be activated online with Microsoft-hosted activation and validation services. Microsoft does not provide technical support for this software.”

“This is evaluation software designed for IT professionals interested in trying Windows 8 Enterprise on behalf of their organization. We do not recommend that you install this evaluation if you are not an IT professional or not professionally managing corporate networks.”

EQuake would still have to pay $100 90 days from now and likely need to reformat his drive.

@Fermi, yes the cooler isn’t necessary but there is little harm and no cost saving right now between the CX430 and the CX500. It’s not like he’s getting an 850 watt PSU that’s $50 more. So unless you are part of the shaft Microsoft totally or postpone getting Windows by misrepresenting yourself to Microsoft crowd then you still will have to pull $25-30 out of thin air for that GPU upgrade after getting rid of the cooler.

All of us technocrati could suggest better options with another $50-100 in the budget.

Doesn’t make a difference. You don’t give any credit card info to download just agree to user agreement and download. After 90 days buy whatever version you want and use that. Me and a friend used that on our first builds to beef up our systems a little more and neither of us are certified it professional. Nothing wrong with using this bett alternative than offering him a cracked version. I could download the iso myself and send it to him, how would he get charged? Enterprise is just made for businesses it’s got everything Professional does, but with a few additions like BitLocker full-disk encryption and direct access capability, so you don’t have go through a VPN for remote access.

EQuake.3456:

Then I’ll forget about the disk drive. Would the 650ti be able to play the game in 3d?

I highly doubt it, 3d cuts your framer ate in half this is why I recommend the 7870. Always get the best you can get with your money because you never know what you will want to do with your pc later. Believe me, my first build had a 6870 and now I have a gtx 690. I decided that same year i want a 3d vision and surround setup and you gotta pay to play

To be clear Fermi means a DVD drive and not the hard drive. You would still need one if you get Windows on DVD to do the initial install.

But if you do still want to go with the 7770 at least grab the 7790. Also forgot to add OP if you live near microcenter or fry’s you can really save a ton or do a lot more.

Fermi.2409:

EQuake.3456:

That intel build looks pretty good. Fermi, but is the 650 ti really necessary? Medium settings was my overall goal. Shouldn’t a 7770 get me medium just fine?

You should easily run on medium/high on a 7770. However, if you want to play other games, especially as time progresses, the 650ti will do much better. Also, for higher resolutions (ie 1080P) it’s good to have the 2 GB card as opposed to the 1 GB.

Personally, I’d just go for the 650ti, but you can grab the 7770 if you want.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1BsMZ

Edit: Grabbed some cheaper ram.

Behellagh.1468:

FrostyRulez.7052:

Remade the build I listed earlier. This would definitely be better as well as it lands perfectly in your price range and you get a free game.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Bnjq

Nice. And that’s how you play by the rules guys.

The PSU is excessive, an aftermarket heatsink is unnecessary, there’s no reason to buy Windows 7, and you can easily get by without a disk drive (although it can be convenient). Although, now that I double check, the CX430 isn’t $25 atm so no reason to drop that down. And if you really want the disk drive:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1BsV3

I think Fermi has done a pretty good job of squeezing out a low price there!

All the components seem of reasonable quality.

Even the PSU is decent and known!

Personally, I would go with 650TI GPU version too.

As far as OS goes, I would buy the OEM Win 8.0 as well.

The OEM version is a lot cheaper than buying Windows normally. But, you can usually only buy it when buying motherboard and CPU.

Later on, you won’t get the same deal.

People have been suggesting use the online evaluation version.

You can do that. It will expire in 90 days.

I guess you can totally reinstall your PC every few months.

/edit changed 180 days to 90 day- thinking of server evals:)

I think I may just go with Fermi’s i3 build.

Sounds good.

That’s the problem, prices always in flux. At some point you just have to pull the trigger, or as the saying goes “in the life of a project there comes a time to shoot the engineers and put it into production”. Same difference.

I have similar pc too the one your thinking of building, my cpu is amd fx 8120 and gpu is amd hd 7670 so slightly weaker then the one your thinking of building, and I play gw2 with my settings at medium to low and get in lions arch or big groups of people (30+ ppl) around 20 – 40 fps when I am out in the world lvling exploring doing dungeons etc.. I get around 45-70 fps, on swtor I played at medium to low settings and got average of like 40-60 fps depending on the area.

my biggest question is, is the 8g of ram really necessary? People I ask in game tell me 4 is plenty, and 8 is just overkill for it.

Better with 8GB. Lots of ceiling, allows the OS to run with large file cache, you have memory to allow a browser to idle in the background without impacting the game, etc. At home my rig “idles” close to 2GB with only an AV and Firewall and a couple of small utilities running that track CPU temp, system usage and Internet usage. I’ve seen the game used a bit over 2GB by itself. Plus that MB only has 2 ram slots. The only way to expand in the future is tossing the 4GB out for 8GB later.

Think of it as getting a bit larger U-haul to move yourself cross country. The smaller one probably could pack everything in there but better safe than a last minute tag sale.

It looks really good as it is.

AMD FX-4130 – $105
MSI Radeon 7750 2gb – $98
Cooler Master 460w – $35
Kingston Value 4gb RAM – $30
1 TB Hard Drive – $63
Intel Z77 Motherboard – $100
CM Storm Enforcer Case – $82
Top Case Fan – $13
Side Case Fan – $9
ASUS DVD Drive – $22
Windows 7 or 8 – $100

The FX-Series when Over clocked can stand up to the i5’s pretty well. I would watch tigerdirect for a couple weeks and look for an FX Combo on sale. I saw one last week with a MSI Motherboard, and a FX-6×00 Series for 149. Don’t let anyone here say AMD is not good enough for this game, cause thats just BS. The AM3+ is where it’s at, DO NOT get a AM3 if you do not buy a Motherboard/CPU combo.

Your motherboard should have 4 slots for Memory. always buy your Ram in pairs. 4GB is cheap, so you can get 8GB (2×4GB) from newegg for about 50bucks shipped. You want DDR3-1600MHZ CL9 or lower (CL7 is very expensive) for best results. You can then over clock that 1600Mhz ram to 1800 or 2100 (running at about CL10 or CL11) and push that CPU to 4Ghz+. G.Skill is one of the best Ram Manufactorers for the Buck.

For your GPU, the HD7750 is going to be weak. Drop down to the 6000 Series and get a 6770(you’ll be happier) and you will get 50-80% more performance out of it compared to the 7750.

I would avoid an Intel Motherboard, go AMD for an AMD Cpu (Dont touch Geforce/Nforce either) the AMD980Chipset is very nice, but the 880G is also decent too. Supports USB3.0, Sata6…ect. MSI, BioStar, Asus(rarely) are the brands to look for.

Drop the Optical Drive (you don’t really need it anymore)
Drop the Extra Fans
Buy a cheap lightweight Metal Case. 80MM or 120MM Exhaust Fan slot, and a 80MM intake fan slot in the front. I wouldn’t run a top or side fan port.

You can get Win7Pro OEM for 119~, or Win8Pro(Full) for 149 from Newegg. Both are ok, But Win7 still handles gaming better then Win8 IMHO.

EQuake.3456:

Then I’ll forget about the disk drive. Would the 650ti be able to play the game in 3d?

Sure, but it will be slow. Also a 3d Monitor would be required with the glasses. For a 3d setup you are looking at a $2000-$3000 PC Build.

sirsquishy.8531:

The FX-Series when Over clocked can stand up to the i5’s pretty well.

Not for gaming.

sirsquishy.8531:

Don’t let anyone here say AMD is not good enough for this game, cause thats just BS.

Wrong.

sirsquishy.8531:

G.Skill is one of the best Ram Manufactorers for the Buck.

RAM is RAM. Going for the cheapest DDR3 1600 from a company you trust is the way to go.

sirsquishy.8531:

I would avoid an Intel Motherboard, go AMD for an AMD Cpu

You would avoid an Intel socketed mobo on an AMD build? The CPU won’t even go into the socket, for god’s sake.

sirsquishy.8531:

You can get Win7Pro OEM for 119~, or Win8Pro(Full) for 149 from Newegg. Both are ok, But Win7 still handles gaming better then Win8 IMHO.

Why would you ever waste the money on a Pro version of Windows unless you needed the features? Go OEM. Also, Windows 8 is slightly less resource intensive, so you’ll run games better with that. And there’s no reason to get Windows 7 these days, anyway.

I didn’t realize that the mobo in the i5 build only had 4 ram slots (I just switched some parts in someone else’s build to make both Intel builds), so I swapped them out:

i3 build w/ 4slot mobo
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1ChL9

i5
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1ChSM

I also switched both PSUs to the CX430 since the CX500 went up $12.

sirsquishy.8531:

EQuake.3456:

Then I’ll forget about the disk drive. Would the 650ti be able to play the game in 3d?

Sure, but it will be slow. Also a 3d Monitor would be required with the glasses. For a 3d setup you are looking at a $2000-$3000 PC Build.

I’m going to be using my 3D tv as a monitor.

I should mention, if I haven’t, that I have no interest in overclocking, at all.

Just to randomly toss my 2 cents in here….

You can also check tigerdirect.com for components, they are comparable to newegg usually, and you can sometimes get some decent bare bones kits on sale, which might feature higher grade components while still being within your budget.

My husband just upgraded his case, mobo, processor, and ram for about 650$ (Asus Intel Z87-Plus, Intel Core i5-4670, and 16GB ddr3 ram, full tower case, so not too bad).

Never hurts to keep your options open, and price shop a bit.

I’ve never heard of that site before.

what about something like this?
http://m.tigerdirect.com/products/8033193