Hello everyone, thanks for taking a look into this thread, and the help you provide =]. My brother has just graduated high school and managed to score 1400 dollars, now I'm not one to harass and say "Save your money idiot!" So if I could possibly get any help building an entire PC for 1,400, it can't exceed that amount, and he's building it to play Guild Wars 2, which currently has no low/rec specs. So if I could get your guys to help building a solid PC for that amount I would greatly appreciate it. =] Thanks once again if you took the time to read or even help me out. =]
GW2 will not requite a huge amount of processing power to run I dont think. The game has already been in development for some time, thus it will not use some new super advanced graphics engine. Ill help you look for parts later tonight.
Here is a start. Some of the prices have probably dropped a bit since this was made. http://www.tested.com/news/how-to-build-a-future-proof-1500-gaming-pc/2003/ Also keep in mind you can put an adequate gaming rig together for 700-800 dollars (+ a screen if you need one) these days. I like these guys http://www.ncix.com/ because of this http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=7842&vpn=PC-ASSEMBLY&manufacture=NCIXPC Means you can pick any parts on their site you want and for $50 they will put it together and make sure the parts work. Nothing worse then ordering a bunch of parts putting them together and finding out you have to wait a week or two because of a bad part. Don't forget to switch to the U.S. site if your in the U.S.
Well I picked out some parts, but you should really wait a few weeks if possible. AMD is *supposed* to release their new processors very soon and the new MBs will be out soon as well. But here is what I picked out if you want the computer right away: Monitor: you said you didnt need one, so read on: Antec 300 tower: Antex 300 series is a well built, cheap tower. It looks professional and isnt really a flashy tower. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042 Power Supply: Silverstone makes quality PSUs that live up to their wattage rating and more. They are a good company and the famous Corsair PSUs that everyone loves are actually Silverstone products for the most part: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256072 Motherboard: Well it kinda sucks that this motherboard is a bit expensive. Normally AMD boards are much cheaper for these features and build quality. The reason this one costs so much is because it is the top level 8 series chipset (9 series will be released in a couple weeks) and has the new AM3+ socket, so this motherboard is compatible with the new CPUs that will be released soon. This gives you some upgrade potential down the line if you want a new more powerful CPU. This board has two full PCI-E 2.0 16x slots, it does NOT split the bandwidth when multiple graphics cards are installed. It also has six SATA 6.0 ports, this gives you lots of potential for the newest solid state drives and future hard drives down the line. And it has two USB3 ports along with a bunch of USB2 ports. Unfortunately, you can only run multiple AMD graphics cards for crossfire with this motherboard. If you want to do SLI down the line, you will need to wait a few weeks for the 990FX chipset to come out that is both XFire and SLI enabled. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157248 CPU: I chose only a lesser quad core because honestly these quads are plenty fast for anything out today. And you might want to upgrade to a really fast 8-core processor next year or something so I didnt want to spend a bunch of the budget on a really powerful CPU that will be "last gen" in only a month from now. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808 CPU heatsink: this isnt required, but I like to get aftermarket heatsinks because they are quieter and cool better, and give you potential for overclocking. I am taking Erock's recommendation here about how good the Hyper 212 is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065 RAM: ram is really important, and you want fast ram so it is never a bottleneck in the entire life of the computer. With this, you will want as much RAM as you can afford. So if you can only afford a single kit (8GBs) then do that, but if you can afford to buy two kits (16GBs) then definitely do that right now. I chose 1866 speed because the next gen processors will have DDR-1866 as their standard speed. This means that currently you can "overclock" the memory up to 1866 (which is its rated speed so it isn't truly overclocking) and with the next gen processor you will have a compatible RAM speed already so you wont need new RAM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233142 or if this is still on sale, get these instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455 GPU: I am normally an advocate of AMD graphics cards in the current market since AMD has a better price/performance ratio. However, I remember Guild Wars ran smoother on an Nvidia graphics card and I am willing to bet GW2 will be the same way, thus I am recommending an Nvidia 560ti, which is currently Nvidia's best price/performance ratio graphics card and is very powerful. This one is a special 2GB version that will allow you to play future games easier. It also has an aftermarket cooler for quieter cooling and a VGA output for old style monitors: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261099 hard drives: You definitely want a SSD if you can afford it, therefore I have chosen the Crucial M4 which is Crucial's latest and greatest SSD. It is incredibly fast and very reliable. What you will need to do with this is install your operating system and main programs onto the SSD, and then install GW2 onto it when that comes out. But all your other games and storing of random files should be done on a standard mechanical hard drive (listed next). This is because the SSD doesnt really have a lot of space to do whatever with it, you need to manage important data being on the SSD and meaningless stuff and less played games go on the larger standard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348 Mechanical HDD: I chose the Samsung F3 because it is cheap, reliable, and fast (for a mechanical): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185 DVD drive: for this you can really choose whatever is the cheapest. They are all basically the same. I choose whichever drive has a 24x read speed and free shipping, currently that is this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289 Keyboard and mouse: you said you didnt need them Your grand total, after tax and shipping, will be between $1300-$1380 (depending on if you have to pay tax or not). That fits in your budget and will get you a really amazing gaming computer with being somewhat ready for next gen things and have a decent upgrade path.
ok wells ince you dont need a monitor, I would suggest getting the special 2GB edition of the 560ti, this will give you much more headroom for future video games and high levels of AA in current games. The 2GB version costs $40 more: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261099 Also, if you want you can upgrade the SSD to a 128GB version which is a bit faster and gives you more space to work around with: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348
Found the new board I would recommend listed for pre-order. SO if you do end up waiting a little bit for the new hardware to launch, I would recommend getting the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5. this will have the newest features and speeds, as well as SLI and XFire support (which is good since you would be getting an Nvidia card) http://www.ncix.us/products/?sku=61546