Edit: The build is done! Skip to post #9 for the details. Hey guys, I'm in need of a new rig for Guild Wars 2. There is still no set release date, so there is no rush just yet. It's been years since I've researched anything related to pc components, so I'm completely out of the loop, and honestly a big overwhelmed. I want a rig that will allow me to play GW2 on at least High settings, Max settings is preferable. I also don't have unlimited funds for this project, so I'd like to keep it under $1500 (I don't have monitor/mouse/anything). I would also prefer not to have to build it myself.. (lack of time and knowledge) Official system requirements: http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/game-faq/#four I've been fooling around customizing systems on ibuypower.com, using game-debate.com as a sort of gauge to see projected performance for the game. How reliable is game-debate.com and such sites? Is it a good "ball-park" at least to work with? I would honestly prefer a laptop, but not if it would compromise performance. Here are a few builds I've come up with. iBuyPower.com Case NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Gaming Case Black Processor Intel® Core™ i5-2550K Processor (4x 3.40GHz/6MB L3 Cache) iBUYPOWER PowerDrive None Processor Cooling Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooling System - ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow) Memory 8 GB [4 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance Video Card AMD Radeon HD 6870 - 1GB - Single Card Video Card Brand Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA Motherboard [SLI] ASUS P8Z77-V LK -- 2x PCI-E 3.0 x16, 4x USB 3.0 Intel Smart Response Technology None Power Supply 800 Watt - Standard Primary Hard Drive 60 GB Kingston V+200 SSD - Single Drive Data Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive Optical Drive 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black Flash Media Reader / Writer 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard Network Card Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-Bit Keyboard iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard Mouse iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse Monitor 24" LED 1920x1080 -- Sceptre E246W-1080P (23.6 viewable) Save $60! FREE Upgrade from 22" Sceptre X220T-Naga Speaker System Logitech Z313 2.1 Speakers System w/ convenient control pod Monitor Cable 1 x 15 ft. DVI to DVI Cable (DVI-D Dual Link, resolution up to 2048x1536 ) Advanced Build Options 1 x Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks Advanced Build Options 1 x iBUYPOWER Specialized Advanced Packaging System Protect your investment during transportation! $1459 total HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition series (laptop) 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz 2GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA] FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) 750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection $995 total - With this laptop, at least according to game-debate.com the video card will be the weakest link. Is it really? I mean, this is a hell of a deal if it will perform well.. By far the cheapest laptop I've found with half-decent graphics. I've looked at the various ibuypower.com laptops, some have the Nvidia GTX 670M video card, another the Nvidia GTX 675M card, which game-debate ranks as a "9", so damn good I'm assuming, but it's close to $2k.. Alienware and Dell XPS' have shitty graphics. Asus has older cards as well. Any help, tips, advice you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.
Or how about this. Case NZXT Tempest 410 Elite Gaming Case Black Case Lighting None iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction None iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion None Processor Intel® Core™ i7 3820 Processor (4x 3.60GHz/10MB L3 Cache) iBUYPOWER PowerDrive None Processor Cooling Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-2011] - [Free Upgrade] Standard 120mm Fan Memory 8 GB [2 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Kingston HyperX Video Card AMD Radeon HD 6870 - 1GB - Single Card Video Card Brand Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA Motherboard ASUS P9X79 -- 4x USB 3.0 Power Supply 1000 Watt - Standard Primary Hard Drive 60 GB Kingston V+200 SSD - Single Drive Data Hard Drive 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 32M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive Optical Drive 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black 2nd Optical Drive None Flash Media Reader / Writer 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer - Black Meter Display NZXT Sentry 2 Touch Screen Fan Controller & Temperature Display USB Expansion None Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard Network Card Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-Bit Keyboard iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard Mouse iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse Monitor 24" LED 1920x1080 -- Sceptre E246W-1080P (23.6 viewable) Save $60! FREE Upgrade from 22" Sceptre X220T-Naga 2nd Monitor None Speaker System None Video Camera None Case Engraving Service None Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty Service Rush Service Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days Monitor Cable 1 x 15 ft. DVI to DVI Cable (DVI-D Dual Link, resolution up to 2048x1536 ) Advanced Build Options 1 x Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks $1684 total The thinking being, while yes I did exceed my own price limit, but this gives me option to not only be able to upgrade or add a second video card in the future, but to upgrade the processor as well. Thoughts?
Ivy bridge releases in like 2 weeks and it's release at virtually the same price point as the old Sandy bridge processors and gets better performance at a lower power. Get yourself an Ivy not a Sandy! Are you feeling up to building your own system from parts? It would be cheaper and you could get what you want rather than what Dell thinks you want. Just so you know though, the requirements for Guild Wars 2 aren't very high: Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 or better NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI Radeon™ X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better) 25 GB available HDD space
This is what I put together on iBuyPower for around $1500. it will give you better cooling and better gaming performance than the last build you posted: You would probably save a good bit of money doing it yourself though. EDIT: Actually, the same parts doing it yourself comes out to $1,517.85. So it doesnt save that much. iBuyPower gives that free upgrade to a GTX580 which is the big money saver over buying individually ($140 savings)
Thanks for the reply guys. I'm going to go ahead and assume laptop gaming on a budget is out haha. I did see, and read your "Ivy vs Sandy" thread. I may as well wait a bit for their release. One question though, if Ivy will deliver better performance at the same price point, wouldn't that mean the old i7 Sandy chips will be marked down? If so......... I wouldn't mind having less-than-cutting-edge-but-still-damned-good, with the option to upgrade the chip later on. Seeing as how I want/need to stick to a budget.. To be honest, I was just being lazy, not wanting to get my hands dirty building the machine, but it is really hard to argue with those numers. Especially considering the ibuypower system doesn't include monitor/speakers/etc. Question, I've seen you guys talk about either building a z77 i5 because it's an awesome affordable workhorse, or an x79 top tier i7. Is my idea of getting a x79 motherboard - with low end i7 (that can be upgraded down the line) rig not common? The z77 i5, from what I understand, has very little room to upgrade later on. The i7 on the other hand - I'm spit balling here - I could upgrade the processor, add dual video cards, it has 8 slots for ram - so lots of room there. Thoughts?
I fail reading comprehension.. It doesn't come out much cheaper if you build it on your own.. Regardless, thanks for the responses. Any corners I can cut with that last build? Remember, I don't have a monitor, speakers, etc. I don't even have a desk and chair where I'm going to set this up! -.-; Edit: For example, getting only 8GB of RAM right now, upgrading in say 6 months once I can stash away a bit more cash.
Personally, I think you should build it yourself. It is not hard at all and will save you some money because you can mix and match the perfect combination for your budget. I suggest all these for a price of $1493. It includes a copy of Windows, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and headset in addition to the tower. It is very high end and is just lacking in the extras area, such as additional RAM, nicer header, bigger monitor, and solid state drive. But it is a really solid base to go from for the next years with a very high end CPU and GPU that will keep you going for a long time. The monitor is really great for its price too, the best one in its range IMO. It uses the latest and "greatest" graphics card. I put it in quotes because although it uses the newest architecture and is the lastest release, it is one step down from the best card on the market. Still easily will handle anything though for years to come. And if need be you can always add on another 400MHz in an overclock later for a big increase in performance. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146085 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115230 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231552 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161400 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826193055 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826193060 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823334011 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236153 The two things to upgrade later would be a high end CPU cooler so you can get an additional 1.2GHz from your processor speed, and another 8GB of RAM to total 16GB. Both can be had later on for $150 more. You can also save $80 right now by stepping down to a GTX570, but Id recommend staying with the 7950
Thank you very much for the responses guys. Now, let's see what you put together.. I'm actually getting hyped up to build it myself now! Edit: Just built an "almost" identical system in ibuypower, it comes out ~$100 more expensive. More than enough to sway me to build it myself
Thread reaping! I just wanted update, as I bought and built the box myself! Specs: Asus P8Z77-V PRO i5 3570k ASUS Radeon HD 7850 2GB Asus VE248H Black 24" G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W CORSAIR H100 Rosewill R5 Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Case Rosewill Gaming Keyboard Rosewill RM-5000L Laser Gaming Mouse Rosewill Audio Pro USB Gaming Headset ASUS 24X DVD Burner Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM Total cost: $1500.96 (including shipping) There you have it folks. I'm aware it could have come out a few bucks less if I ordered from several retailers, and am fully aware I splurged on a few things. For simplicities sake, I opted to only go through newegg, as they've always treated me right in the past. I have to say I was really nervous going through it. I double, triple and quadruple checked myself constantly _@: . Thankfully though, it POST'ed on the second try! Forgot the psu power switch on the first.. I do have a few minor gripes. First, the monitor speakers are laughably quiet, consider external speakers into your budget. Second, the case almost did not allow enough space to fit the H100. I had to mount the fans on the top side of the case (see pictures), but it worked out, so no worries, just a heads up. Lastly and most annoying... It's the mouse. Why the hell didn't I check the reviews..... The mouse feels solid (after adding ALL the weights), but that's where the benefits end. The back thumb button (closest to your palm) takes much more pressure to get it to click, think "end of the range of travel" for the button. Whereas the front thumb button clicks in the "start of the range of motion". The scroll wheel mechanism is FUBAR. Won't always respond, it takes at least 1/8th of a turn for the mouse to respond when changing scrolling directions. For that price though, you can't expect miracles. I was able to take part in this last GW2 stress test. I was not disappointed. Ultra/maxed settings @ 1920x1080, it held steady at around 60fps in most places. Predictably (not yet fully optimized game) it did dip down to the 30's during heavy activity (WvW). Extremely pleased with the results. Overall I am very happy with it everything else. I did test out the OC waters a bit, and was able to reach 4.8Ghz @1.3v below 80c with no issues. I did however revert back to stock for the time being, will revisit this again soon. I do have a couple more things on my wish list (black Friday maybe?). Proper HDD storage (raid 1), upgraded fans (maybe), new mouse (g600), new mouse pad, speakers. I'm sure I'll come up with more.. PICS! Edit: PSU flipped and routed second motherboard power cable to the back.
Any specific reason for mounting the PSU "upside down"? It all looks good though! The cables in the back don't look too bad. Mine is a nightmare and I want to disconnect everything and rerun them. There are just so many!
#1 mistake made by people who dont build computers very often. That is pretty good actually, those H100 coolers are great. Voltage is plenty fine too with that speed. I would just set it at 4.6GHz and call it a day. That processor will keep you going for quite a long time, plenty of power in it. Ryld is right though, PSU does look mounted upside down. I doubt it too much though as long as you have it secured well enough. Temps will be a bit higher in the PSU but not that much higher.
Having had bought a computer from ibuypower, make sure you spend the extra 20-30$ to get a namebrand card. I did the same thing, and bought a gtx580, but got a sparkle name brand. Though I have had no issues, and the card runs suprisingly cold considering the nasty reviews that name brand got, I have been very happy with my purchase. The only downside I had, was the bios was not correct, with only giving my gpu .94volts, when it required 1.05 to run at max capacity. Since I have downloaded an evga tool to change that myself, I have had no issues. My advice, spend a few extra bucks on their site and get a name brand card.
:motherofgod: I did not realize the psu was upside down... Getting the main motherboard power plug in place was a PITA as it was barely long enough, and the second motherboard plug was not long enough to reach from the back as it is now. That's what I get for not RTFM! I'll fix it. Regarding overclocking, it was my original intention to overclock the fuck out both the CPU and GPU (hence the H100). Now, I'm not so sure. You must know that I've been using an N10J NETBOOK! (single core Atom 1.6Ghz 2GB RAM, Nvidia 9300 GS) for the past 4 years or so (I think..) for everyday stuff AND gaming. So this box seems unbelievably fast to me, at stock speeds. I actually feel slightly tempted to return the H100 and buy the G600 or an HDD with that money. Just slightly.. Edit: PSU flipped and routed second motherboard power cable to the back.
Much better! The cable was just hideous. I don't know how you dealt with it. The thing is..... you really don't need to overclock to be able to run anything right now with that processor. I had been running the 3570k at stock until yesterday when reading this thread motivated me to start and test out the overclock. I've had my GPU overclocked for a while and I am just fine tuning to find what is stable 100% of the time. While stuff is playable at stock things are just faster overclocked :/ so why not do it? I would keep the H100 were I you. The lower you can keep your CPU temps the longer the functional life of the part. The air cooler that would give you great performance is only going to save you ~40$ so just keep the H100.
My 3570k I got stable at 4.5 with a H100 and only had to bump voltage just a little. Max temps were around 70 with full load in LinX. So I'm quite happy with that.
Yeah, keep the temperatures as low as possible is the main thing keeping me from returning the H100, overclocked or not. That actually sounds pretty good, Sogetsu. When I pushed it to 4.8, I didn't fudge around and try to get the voltage to as low as possible. I just pumped it straight up to 1.3v (as JJ from Asus support recommends a max safe voltage on these boards/chips to be 1.325 - 1.35v), then incrementally pushed up the multiplier. You know guys, we should make a new thread just for overclocking info, and to compare notes. Also, would someone be kind enough to change the thread title to "[Build Complete] New GW2 rig - skip to post #9 for specs". If it's too long, drop the "for specs" and or "[build complete]". Thanks.