College Student budget pc for GW2

[WithoutForce]

Greetings,

I'm looking to build or buy (whichever is cheaper) a pc so I can play GW2. My HP Pavilion g4 laptop most likely won't be able to handle it. Help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Purchase date: 1-2 weeks

Budget range: 400-600 (would love to include the monitor in this price range)

Uses: Low setting graphics with high frame rates gaming, surfing the web, writing papers

Parts not required: speakers, mouse, keyboard

Preferred website: Newegg or Tiger

Country: USA

Parts preference: No preference, just cheap and powerful enough to get the job done

Overclocking: Never tried it before

SLI or Crossfire: Unsure

Monitor resolution: I would prefer it to look semi-decent - not much expertise here either sorry : (

Additional comments: I have a copy of Windows already. I don't mind how loud the machine is, and would spend more money making sure that it doesn't overheat even.

Again, any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[WithoutForce]

Wanted to mention that I wouldn't be opposed to buying prebuilt from Dell or Hp, etc etc.

 

[jsrudd]

At the 400-600 range w/ a monitor you might be better served buying a prebuilt that is on sale.

There are some deals on Tom's today

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ssd-sale-coupon-deal-solid-state-drive,15478.html

The hardest thing about buying prebuilt is that they will come with a bad graphics card and will have a low wattage power supply that might not support a better graphics card.

 

[WithoutForce]

The hardest thing about buying prebuilt is that they will come with a bad graphics card and will have a low wattage power supply that might not support a better graphics card.

That's fine, as long as I would be able to upgrade it in the near future.

 

[jsrudd]

Okay I did a quick build for you. It costs slightly less than 600 (without shipping) and does not include a monitor. However, it will easily play most games 1080p probably on high. It doesn't include windows, but since you're in college you can probably get a copy for free or at a greatly reduced price.

$69.99 ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157236

$124.99 Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077

$114.99 (w/o $20 Mail in Rebate) ASUS EAH6770 DC/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121468

$37.99 G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231424

$79.99 Samsung by Seagate Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

$16.99 LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

$99.98 COMBO:
Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower
Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.867806

Total (w/o Shipping) 544.92

 

[jsrudd]

The hardest thing about buying prebuilt is that they will come with a bad graphics card and will have a low wattage power supply that might not support a better graphics card.

That's fine, as long as I would be able to upgrade it in the near future.

The thing is you probably won't be able to upgrade it in the future unless you upgrade PSU first.

 

[horaciopz]

I dont want to start a war of fanboys, but i guess that an AMD APU would do the job, since its in a tight buget, a monitor + windows 7 dvd wont let too much money to spend on parts.


This will do the job, but it doesnt have a monitor. Also its overclockeable and you learn, and play with overlocking in a easier way.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229306


And i gotta here a good enough build.

CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103943 $100

Mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157260 $75

Ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 $30

Case + PSU (this will give you upgrade room) http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.867806&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=18lgzxn9f7ggn <----- Great combo, no doubt $100

Dvd burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204 $18

Windows 7 64 bits http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 $100


For $ 423 this "run" games at decent resolution level as 1680x1050 and mid mid level of graphic detail.


So with that you can get a good build, and enough space of some upgrading. The bad side of the story is that because the socket, you wont have many processor to choice for upgrade. But well, I can say that with this you can play while you save for a HD7770 and get better performance.

Hope it helps.

Edit: typos and add info.

 

[mercer95]

i have being playing the beta on an athalon ii x4 645 , 8gb ddr3 ram and a hd 6670 and it runs fine, it doesnt seem to be very demanding imo.

 

[jsrudd]

I dont want to start a war of fanboys, but i guess that an AMD APU would do the job, since its in a tight buget, a monitor + windows 7 dvd wont let too much money to spend on parts.
.

He actually states he already has Windows. So he could go with this build and drop in a 6770 since its around $100.

 

[horaciopz]

Well thats even better, an intel build is the way to go. In my build i didnt included a HDD, which is at least 80 bucks more. So my build would be going 500 bucks.

I guess that going cheaper in memory ram, changing 8GB for 4GB and take the saved money to get an 6790 would help, since he is not going to use more than 4GB in games. The better memory interface will help at higher resolutions, something like this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150564