Help with a mid range pc build that's around £250ish as poor

[Sian.7419]

As the title suggests, Im honestly looking for something affordable and can run Guild wars on something better then low graphics as I want to see the game, all I've known is low graphics which was sad to look at.

So I ask for everyones help again! Give me your cheapest builds that's affordable for a poor person and still somewhat delivers as I'm absolutely clueless with everything pc!

Please be kind and bare in mind with how much of a noob I am! 

Literally console gamer with small pc gaming experience 🤣 pc is alien to me so I won't understand all the lingo.

I'm everything clueless and just want this game 🤣 I'll even give my lungs at this point.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Sian.7419
Mistake

[Teknomancer.4895]

If you take a look at the minimum needed to run the game, it really isn't much compared to what's available these days:

Quote

Minimum System Requirements

WINDOWS Minimum System Requirements

• Windows® 7 or better (64 bit only)
• Intel®i3 3.4 GHz / AMD Athlon x4 3.8 GHz or better
• 8 GB RAM
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 / AMD Radeon HD 7970
• Broadband Internet connection
• 70GB available space
• Keyboard and mouse
• DirectX 11

That will bare-bones run the game. It won't be as pretty as it could be or as fast, but it will run.

Most machines made in the last 6 or 7 years should either meet or exceed that. To exceed that:

• Look for better CPU first because the game is CPU-heavy.
• Next important is better/newer graphics.
• Last would be more RAM.

Good luck.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

1 hour ago, Sian.7419 said:

As the title suggests, Im honestly looking for something affordable and can run Guild wars on something better then low graphics as I want to see the game, all I've known is low graphics which was sad to look at.

So I ask for everyones help again! Give me your cheapest builds that's affordable for a poor person and still somewhat delivers as I'm absolutely clueless with everything pc!

Please be kind and bare in mind with how much of a noob I am! 

Literally console gamer with small pc gaming experience 🤣 pc is alien to me so I won't understand all the lingo.

I'm everything clueless and just want this game 🤣 I'll even give my lungs at this point.

There is a lot of Youtube video that explains how to build your own PC for the first time. Do a search there and you will find what you need to know as base even if you would end up and buy a pre-built computer.

 

As for mid range you will need a storage device (SATA SSD should be cheaper then M2 SSD, although M2 SSD have higher speed for larger files [copy and read time] which can be useful for GW2 as you need to have around 60 GB free space only for GW2 [and it is possible with future patches it will even need more] - and add into this that you will need to expect MS Windows etc to also grow in size, so don't go for a too small SSD device for storage; if you want to do streaming or have a large collection of self made video from gameplay then it might be useful to add or use mechanical storage device as those tend to be cheaper for larger storage space).

Don't skip on cooling solution which include having a large enough case (I would recommend to read up on what ATX stand for as both mainboard use ATX as form factor and case need to fit ATX sized MB - smaller form factor like microATX or even ITX can be very narrow with space for mounting Air cooling - AIO [All in one] water cooling means you need to have case that can fit elements on front or inside of case roof).

Another issue first time builder have is to cheap out on Power Supply Unit (PSU) as that can cost a lot today have a high quality PSU which will save you some headache. Read up about what standard there exist and try to get PSU with stable power efficiency. It is too complicated to explain here, but in general the number that you see in Watt is not enough to know how good any PSU would work in real life as power draw also will have variation depending on processor and video card. All energy that isn't used will turn into heat, so there is a correlation between high efficiency, low power usage and cooling for your system.

AMD and Intel have their own plat form and you need to know what work with Intel's CPU and what will work with AMDs CPU. When you find a CPU that you think you can afford look up on internet that CPU by combining its name with "Benchmark" or "Review" and you will see some test with different apps to reflect real world performance.

Gamers Nexus, Hardware Unboxed, Paul's Hardware and there are plenty other on Youtube that all have video for both explaining on what to think when building a PC and also benchmarks, so you can get some better understanding on what to expect.

The only thing you wont find is GW2 benchmarked as it is not being used a part of a test benchmark game (there is only a few MMO that are used in benchmarks and that is to show either CPU or GPU, in most cases MMO are more CPU depending then GPU).

EDIT:

Just to make sure that you understand: all MMO are also depending on network which means that you will also have to expect that your ISP, your router and where in world you are living might have an impact on PING and response time even with a high end computer.

The £ 250 isn't much money and I don't know what today's cost would be for each part, but you need to know that prices on hardware have increased. Especially on video cards, but also good gaming mainboards have jumped up in price over the last years since covid made demand spike.

Make sure that when you put together a package and are ready to order that what you order is in stock. Especially video cards have had a tendency to be out of stock and having to wait for parts before you can complete and test if any part might be dead on arrival (DAO) is not fun if it turns out that it was for parts you could have bought somewhere else or planned better.

Therefore make sure to read what Terms of Service (and all Trade agreement) each shop have and what their RMA procedure will be in case you will need to return anything, before ordering. Just because they might be cheaper then other shops doesn't mean that when you have issues that you will get any support from that shop you bought thing from which is often the last part buyers will discover too late and regret to have saved maybe a few pound, where other shop might have better follow up on issues.

Make a copy of all trade agreements from webshops and keep all documentation including recipes in a safe place in case you will need it in the future!

Never borrow money to purchase computer parts or a pre-build computer as the worth of what you paid will never be the same as you will have to pay back to the company you borrow money from.

If you only played on console it is possible you also need to add a gaming keyboard and gaming mouse, a decent display which isn't too small in physical dimension and head phone or a cheaper gaming sound system (5.1 to have all corners covered and a base speaker which is the ".1" in 5.1 which means (2 front+ 2 back + 1 centre for mainly for voice and 1 for base).

When or if you pick head phones make sure that those also aren't too heavy to wear for some duration as it can become tiresome to have tight and heavy headphone for some duration on your head. Those also tend to get damage faster then anything else, so don't waste money on too expensive one and use phones with threaded connection instead of wireless as wireless need some kind of battery which also adds to weight.

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by ShadowCatz.8437

[Sindust.7059]

If you want to buy new, I cannot in good conscience recommend anything you'd get for under 400-500 (this would be the lowest I would go for a new build). But if you are willing to buy used, there are options.

For GW2 specifically, look for something with strong single core CPU performance. So in essence the CPU should be as new as possible, but if it's at least gen 10 intel, it can be a low end i3 or r3/5 if it's at least AMD ryzen 3000. For GPU an rx580 8GB/1060 6GB (with a bit of bargaining you can probably get one for about 50-70) will be more than enough for GW2. But if you can get it significantly cheaper, an rx570/1050ti will do too. But to put it in perspective, for new AAA games an rx580 8GB is a 1080p low settings at 30 fps card, so don't expect stellar performance if you decide to play Starfield or something.

The easiest option would be to buy some old office PC without a GPU that has the CPU you need and with enough RAM, and then buy a GPU separately. You would just have to make sure that the PSU in that system you buy has enough spare PCIe 6/8 pin power cables for the GPU that you want to install, and the mobo has a free PCIe x16 slot. That way you don't have to worry about compatibility of the mobo, CPU and RAM.

[Puck.3697]

I can only agree with the poster above. 

The problems going to be at that price bracket, ur looking at a extremely old PC. 

My only recommendation would be, save alittle longer to get abit more money together, and start looking for deals, black Friday is upcoming so you maybe able to find a good deal on there, but £250 prolly wouldn't happen. 

I've seen some with high CPUs and decent graphics cards drop to 500-600 on black Friday deals, haven't seen anything go lower then that however unfortunately. 

[Puck.3697]

3 hours ago, ShadowCatz.8437 said:

Never borrow money to purchase computer parts or a pre-build computer as the worth of what you paid will never be the same as you will have to pay back to the company you borrow money from

Tbh you could say the same for mobile phones, I dont think finance methods are terrible. However you are right you do pay more for the pc then you would without, but this is a method many people can only afford. 

I'd say more be careful with it tho, some sites significantly ramp up the prices of PCs because they have these options, and you don't wanna be paying £40 a month on a pc every month for 4 years espically if you cant afford to lose that sorta money each month

Think last time I did it I was paying £11 a month, but it did allow me to add the extra I needed to get a high grade PC at a non bank breaking price. 

But yes, do know over 4 years, you prolly will have spent more, I think last time it equated to the cost of the PC being overall £300 more expensive then outright purchasing, but it was £11 a month and I knew overall I could afford that without trouble. 

But I do know some sites charge more because the option exists. 

And never take a pc out on 100% finance, you will be amazed at how much extra they will throw on top when you do that :p the prices don't get too bad, if your doing 50/50 or so fourth but the amount extra charged goes up based on how little you pay upfront. 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Puck.3697

[Tiamat.8254]

Are you in the UK? My advice would be to source parts from CEX. I got a graphics card from there around 12 years ago for really cheap, still runs gw2 fine today. 

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Tiamat.8254 said:

Are you in the UK? My advice would be to source parts from CEX. I got a graphics card from there around 12 years ago for really cheap, still runs gw2 fine today. 

That's exactly what I was going to suggest. Because it's all second hand there's no guarantee what you'll find, but especially in the bigger branches they often have some nice stuff for good prices. You may not be able to get a whole PC that way (or it'd take a long time) but if you can get some of the more expensive parts it can bring the overall cost down a lot. Also they guarantee everything they sell, and will have tested it when it came in.

Also don't be afraid of building it yourself, which also cuts the cost over buying a pre-built machine. It's not as complicated as it might seem, most things will only fit where they're supposed to go and there's instructions available (either in the manual or online) for every step and if you do make a mistake you can fix it. (Hypothetically there are ways you could break some components by doing it wrong, but it's not easy unless you try to cut corners - forcing things in places they don't fit or skipping things like thermal paste for the CPU.) My newest PC can even be taken apart and put back together without any tools (although 1 screw driver does make it easier).

[Tiamat.8254]

1 hour ago, Danikat.8537 said:

That's exactly what I was going to suggest. Because it's all second hand there's no guarantee what you'll find, but especially in the bigger branches they often have some nice stuff for good prices. You may not be able to get a whole PC that way (or it'd take a long time) but if you can get some of the more expensive parts it can bring the overall cost down a lot. Also they guarantee everything they sell, and will have tested it when it came in.

You can also buy the parts online now.

[fatihso.7258]

250 bucks will not get you a decent computer to play this game “smoothly” saying this bcs you emphasized on running it good. it’s impossible to get a discreet gpu at your budget. But still I went ahead and tried to make two builds which will run the game at least.

intel : https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8MqNvj

amd : https://pcpartpicker.com/list/C3Vfh3

assuming you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

AMD one will be better in general and open to upgrades. These are for demonstration only.

However take my advice, save more money and check used/second hand market. You can find a much better computer with your budget. Have a friend at it who knows what he is doing and look for you.
 

 

 

[Cuks.8241]

New one will be hard to find. Youll need to find a second hand one. Youll also need monitor, mouse and keyboard and sound system/headphones.

You can get really good deals second hand but its always a bit of a lottery. 

Do you have any gamer or graphic designer friends that can help? Those usually have a bunch of old stuff that are more than decent for gw2. You could also ask in graphic designer companies. When I was in highschool I was buying old monitor, found a company that had a full room of old stuff. We walked out with like 5 monitors (for all my friends) for basically free.

[Tiviana.2650]

The main issue is performance, you can get some older hardware that still runs AAA games fine, but the heart of the matter is going to be cpu/apu now if you want to budget build I did one this year using a ryzen APU cost me about 600US but it plays this game fine I have 3 pcs and this one keeps up in raids and metas just fine yes there is a fps dip in high pop areas but thats a gw2 issue its the engine and the optimizing of an old game. Anyway black friday sales are a good time to shop around.and nixing the vid card for now is the best option a ryzen 5600G APU is fantastic for playing this game. Unlike intel that cant do an APU worth a kitten to play games. If you can get it on sale and get a B550 motherboard , I went with a workhorse motherboard because i do other things on that pc besides game. Get fast ram I use patriot ram in most of my pcs they are good and not to expensive , good timings never had an issue over the years. I went with an MSI B550 pro series instead of the regular gaming board , its a tough bird can handle heavy loads. I got most of this on the last black friday sale and its been running fine since 

[AngelMouse.7345]

The other thing you want to look for is whether the PC can run Windows 11. Anything used might not. Oct. 2025 Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 10 so you want to be sure it can run 11. For example, my PC is only 4 years old and it won't run Windows 11. I'll need a new motherboard 😭

Edited November 22, 2023 by AngelMouse.7345

[Pinkeh.4207]

In today's economy  a mid range gaming pc for £250 is impossible. Even on the second hand market you probably won't find much.

 

I mean....this skeleton build should run gw2 but it's already over your budget.  https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/avaery/saved/spJvRB

Edited November 23, 2023 by Pinkeh.4207

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

a) no build is going to run GW2 at 60 fps on max at all times.

b) a £250 won't run anything at all, not even 10 years ago ...

c) considere paying for GeForce Now instead if that's possible for you (even then, the game will drop to -30 fps in many zones like the ones in SotO or when more than 20 players are in the same area).

[Avenrise.3592]

So I cant really recommend where to buy the parts from but as someone else said CEX is pretty great for second hand parts. What I will say is I'm still rocking a PC that's older than the game is so it would probably be pretty cheap to build/buy (maybe eBay?):

Intel Core i7 3770K
16.0GB DDR3 RAM
ASUSTeK MAXIMUS V GENE
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (EVGA)

With this you'll get about 30-40FPS @ 1080p but you'll have to drop down a few settings like shadows to low, LOD to medium and character model limit to lowest. Not going to lie, super looking forward to my brand new build as it can be a bit of a pig in meta events and I have to reduce the settings further and EoD maps do drop the FPS down even more. 

[Gracey.6904]

Don't bother with a PC at all, my computer is a potato gaming-wise, but I play GW2 on Geforce Now cloud gaming service, all graphics options maxed and it never misses a beat.

I have the UItimate subscription which costs 18 quid a month - all you need is a fairly decent internet connection. It doesn't matter how rubbish your actual computer is...

You won't buy anything that comes near what you need for £250, so this is the obvious solution.

[Antarian SvK.8167]

Sry i didnt want to post that like this but this website somehow screwed this post so this one is Acer Nitro 5 obsidian black and it is actually good i brought aditional 8 GB RAM for 20e and game runs pretty nice total cost of that Notebook was around 666 euro with. but this one is 2 years ago today you will most likely find something better for that price range for example asus rog Tuff gaming laptop.

Point is you cant find anything decent with 250.  you need to check something with at least 16 GB Ram and GTX 1650  maybe check bazars.

please ignore that link under i dont know how to delete it. it lead nowhere.

108c7i04u2/NC108c7i04u2-05.jpg?width=50&height=50

 

 

Herný notebook – Intel Core i5 11300H Tiger Lake, 15.6" IPS matný 1920 × 1080 144Hz, RAM 8GB DDR4, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB, SSD 512GB, numerická klávesnica, podsvietená klávesnica, webkamera, USB 3.2 Gen 1, USB-C, WiFi 6, hmotnosť 2.3kg, Windows 11 Home, HDD upgrade kit (AN515-56-52QX)

Edited November 28, 2023 by Antarian SvK.8167