Looking for advice on purchasing new computer

Hi there,I have been playing GW2 for a while on my laptop, but lately have been considering getting a desktop computer to improve the performance. I have been looking around and have become a bit overwhelmed by the jargon. I was hoping some of you may have some advice on where and what to look for.

1: cpu. (The central chip). Gw2 relies more heavily on this one then other games. This is handled better by intel then by and. So I recommend an intel I5 or I7 cpu. I7 being better but higher priced.2: memory: not a big deal. It is recommended to have 8gb of memory, but it is pretty standard. If you want to stream you need more..3: gpu (the graphic chip) even though it is less a factor then with other games, it is still a factor. The newer the better. But it comes with an exponential price tag4: storage. An ssd drive instead of an hdd drive to store the os and the game reduces loading times a lot.

Quite a few techie types here in the Players helping Players forum that will help you on things like best pc's performance vs price etc.What is best to seek out and best to avoid etc.

I'm sure more people would be able to help if they knew what you were willing to spend $$in order to help suggest the best computer in that price range, and what specificationsyou can expect to find within that price range.

@wardog.3598 said:Hi there,I have been playing GW2 for a while on my laptop, but lately have been considering getting a desktop computer to improve the performance. I have been looking around and have become a bit overwhelmed by the jargon. I was hoping some of you may have some advice on where and what to look for.

Really it all depends on what your budget is, but I would definitely build one over buying. There's a really good website called userbenchmark.com which you can select any GPU or CPU and get a good idea of the differences in power between components, these are the most expensive and important parts of the PC, and therefore the things you should be looking out to not get ripped off on.

The most important thing you should be looking at is the CPU, the other components in a PC like the GPU, RAM and storage are easily upgraded in future. When you build a PC you have to choose a CPU first as this will define which motherboard and RAM you can use, so this means if you want to upgrade your CPU in future you then have a limited amount of options to upgrade to without having to change the motherboard and RAM too, ideally you want to choose the best CPU you can afford, this way you can easily upgrade the other components in future.

Intel currently make the best CPU's, AMD make cheaper ones, beware though, AMD CPU's compared to Intel CPU's of equivalent cores/hyperthreading will not perform as well, which is why you need to compare them on something like userbenchmarks.com. Generally though when we talk value, there is no difference between Intel and AMD other than Intel make better performing processors and have been around longer, so, I would stick with Intel.

There are two variations of CPU out there atm, one is hyperthreaded, one isn't. So you're gonna see 4 core processors, 6 core processors, and the same processors with hyper-threading. Hyper-threaded processors mean that each core can be split into two to spread processes, so a hyper threaded 4 core processor can act as an 8 core processor. This is something which most games aren't really utilising that well at the moment, hyperthreading can be less efficient than using physical cores. So if your on a budget you might be better of getting a processor with physical cores only. Hyperthreading is better for workstation stuff when you need to use multiple programs and processes.

For CPU, personally I would be looking at the new 8700k or 8600k.For GPU, I would be looking at the GTX1060, 6gb version, or a GTX1070.Then I would pick up 16gb of decent RAM, which I add another 16gb later.Then I would pick up a standard samsung evo/pro SSD 250gb, then I would add another at a later date.

But that's around an £900 PC maybe more or less depending on how good your shopping skills are, all depends on budget!

8700K is an overkill for this game, 7700K would be a better option unless the game can utilise the extra 2 core, which GW2 can't even utilise all 4 cores to the CPU's max potential

You gotta tell us what your budget is.

@Itz Jay.8941 said:

For CPU, personally I would be looking at the new 8700k or 8600k.For GPU, I would be looking at the GTX1060, 6gb version, or a GTX1070.Then I would pick up 16gb of decent RAM, which I add another 16gb later.Then I would pick up a standard samsung evo/pro SSD 250gb, then I would add another at a later date.

But that's around an £900 PC maybe more or less depending on how good your shopping skills are, all depends on budget!

Do me a favour drop me a PM where you are buying your stuff from, I looked at a top UK site and sorted price low to high, and went with the near cheapest option each time, and I looked for, CPU, GPU ( Nvidia massively overpriced at the moment because of crypto mining ), SSD, and DDR4 ram ( again massively overpriced at the moment, due to drop later this year with more supply hitting market ) I also added a motherboard in there too, and it came to around £1300,

I don't personally use AMD but someone who does maybe could give the OP cheaper options here, as the Intel/Nvidia setup is going to be expensive at the moment, esp if this is the only game they are really playing.

I can personally testify that the 7700K runs the game on all the highest settings and does a good job. About all the help I can give ya.

@crepuscular.9047 said:8700K is an overkill for this game, 7700K would be a better option unless the game can utilise the extra 2 core, which GW2 can't even utilise all 4 cores to the CPU's max potential

Yeah the only reason I said 8700k is because there is such a minimal price difference between the high end intel CPU's atm.

@Ok I Did It.2854 said:

@Itz Jay.8941 said:

For CPU, personally I would be looking at the new 8700k or 8600k.For GPU, I would be looking at the GTX1060, 6gb version, or a GTX1070.Then I would pick up 16gb of decent RAM, which I add another 16gb later.Then I would pick up a standard samsung evo/pro SSD 250gb, then I would add another at a later date.

But that's around an £900 PC maybe more or less depending on how good your shopping skills are, all depends on budget!

Yeah I mean that's a high end spec I'm talking about and it's a bit overkill for GW2 CPU-wise but not if you're playing other games, it's probably more thinking about the other little bits but not nearly £1300. You can always think about getting a better processor as I said and settle for a lower end GPU for the meantime like a 1050ti, that would shave a bit of dough off the build. The main thing is keeping an eye on all the offers on different websites as they come up, I've seen 8700k go to £250 and seen some really good bundles of a CPU, motherboard and GPU. Other things you can do is look at sites which offer discount if you spend a certain amount, and if you really wanted to go for it you could ask them to price match, maybe even haggle if your spending enough!

@Itz Jay.8941 said:

@crepuscular.9047 said:8700K is an overkill for this game, 7700K would be a better option unless the game can utilise the extra 2 core, which GW2 can't even utilise all 4 cores to the CPU's max potential

dont forget to factor in the motherboard tooAlso, if OP dont mind, check out the used market, plenty of 7700Ks floating around, not so many 8700K

I am aiming to keep my budget for the tower between 700 to 1000. While I like the idea of being able to build my own, I don't think I have the technical skills to do it at the moment. I will still check out userbenchmark.com.I am considering the HP pavilion with the intel i7 cpu at the moment.

@wardog.3598 said:I am aiming to keep my budget for the tower between 700 to 1000. While I like the idea of being able to build my own, I don't think I have the technical skills to do it at the moment. I will still check out userbenchmark.com.I am considering the HP pavilion with the intel i7 cpu at the moment.

They are not that difficult to build. Components come with very good documentation for installation. Your biggest concern to watch for when buying the components is compatibility, what works best with each piece.

Starting with CPU>Mobo>Ramm>Vid Card>HDD. After that, what is the best OS to run it.

You will be hard pressed to find a pre built system that includes everything you want. When you start adding in changes, the price goes up.

Whenever I upgrade, I am always one step behind of the latest and greatest because the previous always drops in price.

I guess any CPU OC'd to high value will do great job. I did OC every main component of my PC and it's really an overkill. 170+ fps in normal scenario, usually 50 - 60fps in 3 way fights in SM (WvW) on 4K ultrawide monitor...

Building custom PC isn't that hard, but you have to spend day or two for research. It's really simple.

If you don't want to overclock your PC, get stuff which isn't necessarily ready for overclocking. It means, it's pointless to buy CPU with K at the end (unblocked multiplier with Intel CPU, although currently 7700 and 7700k stays at similar price tag) or Motherboard (MOBO) which allows to play with voltages and what not. As well your PSU (Power Supply) doesn't have to be powerful at all (just with silver or gold certificate, 450 - 550W) as long as you don't go for SLI GPU (2 Graphic Cards). Pretty much fast RAM can give you some additional FPS in game but there is no reason to go above 16GB (here don't forget to use 64bit system) and more than 3000 Mhz on clock.

One thing worth to mention is that Nvidia graphic cards are compatible only with g-sync technology (expensive monitors) and AMD with freesync technology (much cheaper monitors). Obviously both cards can be used with normal monitors but you won't utilize full potential. Also keep in mind it doesn't make sense to have powerful CPU and weak graphic card and vice versa, otherwise one of them will be bottlenecked.

I do strongly suggest that you start there:http://www.userbenchmark.com/PCBuilder