Hi guys! I'd like to request some advice. My wife is a casual gamer currently playing on a Sony Vaio laptop (I know, I know!!) which is starting to die its eventual death and wants me to build her a system. She's looking for a small form tower (Micro ATX, perhaps?), something that can be put on her desk easily. She's very much a casual gamer, but she wants the system to be able to run Guild Wars 2 at reasonable settings. She also wants the front panel connections to be at the top for ease of use. GW2 site lists their specs as follows: Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better • Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon 64 X2, or better • 2 GB RAM • NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI X1800, Intel HD 3000, or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better) • 25 GB available HDD space • Broadband Internet connection • Keyboard and mouse. She doesn't want a large monitor - 19" max - so high resolutions are not a requirement. Huge storage is not a massive requirement but a decent amount would be preferable (1TB perhaps). Budget is pretty open, and we don't need to budget for a monitor as we already have a 19" ready. I'd appreciate any advice you can give me. Thanks.
How does this look? I've been quite generous with the budget, including the beautiful FT03 and future-proof components, but if you need to trim it let me know and I'll have a second pop...
How's this? http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/ae7d3fe63049475ca4dae6541c2c36fd It doesnt include an OS or keyboard & mouse though
Here's one that's £700, if the £1.8k was a bit sweet for your tooth Obviously the CPU and GPU can be changed when the lower end Ivy Bridge and mid range kepler stuff comes out
I had a second pop for a much lower budget machine and came out with this: Only thing this case lacks is the top USB ports. They're on the side of the front panel instead. My mistake on the first one it was under £1000 but I somehow added everything twice, but I've redone it now so it's correct
FFS, just get her a 2nd hand PC from eBay for small money, no need to build a rig costing a load of money for her needs. Save the time of sourcing components and putting it together and have done with it. Itchy Rim
I kinda agree. Guild Wars 2 is such a low power game all of the above are overkill. Especially if she is used to playing it on a laptop. I don't really know why the people above are recommending such expensive components, given the rigs stated use. You might want to look at a Llano build. Please see below, then just add your chosen case.
^ For this reason, and the fact that this is Bit-tech and not PC Advisor Building PCs is much more fun than buying pre-built, and I'm sure she'll grow tired of Guild Wars 2 in the end...
Sure I agree. I'd always recommend a self build. However, no point in going overkill unless you have money to burn.
Very true, but CrazyBlade could build it with his wife and introduce her to the wonderful world of self-building. And he now has multiple component options should he choose to go down that path too
Hey Guys, sorry for the delay in replying. Thankyou all for the suggestions, very much appreciated and certainly food for thought. Itchy - you're probably right but I've kinda got the building bug and it's another system to practice on. I may even try some of the techniques with regards to spray painting the case etc that I've seen here and in the mag. Shirty - that's not too bad an idea, actually. She may actually enjoy building it with me! Parge - very interesting build there re: Llano. Would it really be able to handle the specs I mentioned in my first post? I must admit, I'm a little unsure of the power of such a build.