MrMastodonFarm

MrMastodonFarm, on 14 November 2012 - 11:47 AM, said:

The i7's of the same generation come stock at slightly higher clock speeds than their i5 counterparts, a difference that can be made up with a simple BIOS setting. Most benchmarks are run at stock speeds unless they specify otherwise. So no, that almost-illusory difference does not justify paying $100 more on its own.

Of course, $2000 is a very, very large budget. Its not hard to find situations where i7's really shine, they're just usually not games. It depends on what else, if anything, you want to do with this machine.

MrMastodonFarm, on 15 November 2012 - 12:23 PM, said:

Everyone probably has their own horror stories, but AMD products are as solid and reliable as Nvidia's. Due to recent driver improvements, AMD has a card on the market now that matches every Nvidia product, and often can be found for a bit cheaper. They also tend to have extremely wide memory bandwidth compared to their Nvidia counterparts, which can be helpful in some games/monitor setups.

I don't mean to dissuade you from Nvidia necessarily, but there's no practical reason not to consider both.

MrMastodonFarm, on 14 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

Notwithstanding what Sojar just said, as far as I'm aware games will utilize the cores they are written to use, virtual or otherwise. The problem with an i7's hyperthreading is that its already got four physical cores and so hyperthreading will usually go unused.

By that same token, if you're using a Core i3 in GW2, does it limit itself artificially to only two cores because it just refuses to use hyperthreading? I'm not sure, but I suspect not.

Though of course as this thread is on the topic of laptops, an i7 is still preferable because mobile i5's only have two physical cores.

With "around $2000" is a TON of money.

This is a gaming rig that will definitely play every single game in existence on any monitor on the absolute highest graphics setting, while having 20 other applications/games open, and still average 80+ fps.

http://www.cyberpowe...om/saved/1EL7KT

Intel Core i7-3770k
32gb RAM
TWO AMD Radeon 7970 3gb running in CrossfireX/SLI
1000 Watt power supply
1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32Mb Cache 7200RPM HDD

Thats if you dont mind spending $2200+ on a overkill gaming PC...

Zoose, on 14 October 2012 - 01:49 PM, said:

GW2 does not use hyperthreading. An i7 does not add anything besides a possibly higher clock.

MrMastodonFarm, on 12 November 2012 - 03:09 AM, said:

You can get lots of info right here in the Buying & Building forum.
http://www.guildwars...uying-building/
Basically, you'll want an i5-3570K (or better) with an HD7870 or GTX-660, or better.

Quote

Water-cooling would only be desirable if you get into extreme overclocking. For no overclock, or even 'normal' overclocking, air cooling is just fine. If you plan to overclock, a CM Hyper 212 EVO is all you'd likely ever need.
Of course, some people do water cooling just for the 'techie' aspect, but it's generally not needed.

Did a quick search, didn't see a thread for this. Hopefully, I didn't miss it.

Anyway, like the guilds in GW1, it would be nice if there was a column in the roster that told you tie last tile the members in your guild logged it. As a guild leader, this would make it a lot easier to gauge your guild activity.

Impmon, on 07 November 2012 - 03:32 AM, said:

I don't really agree with this.  Yes, GW2 dungeons let you graveyard zerg some fights where other games would make the group wipe and start again but not all fights are really like that.  Also, the sense of achievement comes from doing those fights properly - clearing one of the harder COE paths with no deaths feels like an achievement to me.  Clearing Arah Explorable is hard, period, and gives me a sense of achievement especially when done without deaths.  I find it a bit amusing that you say the bosses aren't hard but also that you spend most of your time running back to them having died - if they are easy why are you dying to them? If it's because you get 1 shot then you should wear more sensible gear.  If it's because you got bored and sloppy after doing the same thing for ten minutes... I'd have more sympathy.  Some fights are boring because their main challenge is sustaining something for 5-10 minutes but I still think there is a real progression path as you move away from farming the easy route of a dungeon (e.g., COE Sub) onto something more challenging and fun (e.g., COE Front Door.)  The rewards don't change between the paths, which is perhaps a bit of an issue, but as you are probably already in max gear by the time you start doing the hard paths it is less of an issue for me than the fun element.

To add to what Brokerib said, there is also some level 80 (end game)only content, but the format is the same as what you might find earlier in the game.
At present, there's 2 level 80 zones, containing event chains that culminate in big boss battles, as well as level 80 dungeon paths.
The patch coming November 16th will also apparently be adding an end game dungeon, described as having many floors that progressively get harder, but give better rewards as you get deeper.
Finally, there are end game goals related to gear, however you won't be going for stats (max stat gear isn't that hard to get), but rather rare items with unique skins.

Anet have said that endgame starts from level 1, and that's pretty much true due to scaling.  You won't find end level content like you would in WoW, but you will find content throughout the entire game that would be considered end-game for your normal MMO.  For instance, dungeon explorable modes are quite difficult and can give a real sense of accomplishment, but they start from lvl 35.  World bosses can provide a long event chain that leads to a massive battle and good rewards, and the earliest one I remember participating in was lvl 15.

As for WvW, it doesn't really have an end point, though there is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from taking or holding a keep, or looking at the scores at the end of a week long match-up and seeing your opposition laid waste before you.  But it isn't really end game either as you're scaled to lvl 80 when you enter WvW, so you can head there from lvl 1.

So the moral of the story is, don't worry about looking for lvl 80/end-game content specifically, there's alot out there that requires skill and dedication as soon as you start playing.

As for gear, you can quite easily get hold of basic top stat armor as soon as you reach lvl 80.  So the armor stats aren't a focus, but armor looks are.  Certain armor skins are only available from completing difficult content (explorable dungeons) or participating long term in game modes (sPVP or WvW), and are in general immediately recognisable.  So effectively everyone the ability to gear up to the top tier, but people who are dedicated are able to display their accomplishments through the cosmetic appearance of their armor and weapons.

Hope that helps.