I've been a console gamer for a long time aside from a stint on World of Warcraft. I grew tired of how much work it took to play that game with top rated players so I went back to the console. A family member and a close friend recently started playing GW2 so I figured I may look into getting the pc fired up. I'd like to stay around $300 to get it going but if its worth it for the longevity of the system I could spent a little more. Not sure if anything I have is of use but, what I currently have is
TT|W0136RU 500w psu
Windows xp 32
Case
750g caviar black hd
Acer P244W Monitor 1920x1080
I do occasionally come across fairly cheap laptops at work. I wasn't sure if something like that would be capable of running the game. I'll see what we have in the shop tomorrow to give a better idea
Look at the game's recommended speccs and get something that's more powerful.
For GW2, the game does not need much to run as it's not intensive on anything, really. I think it would help if you shared what your current specs are (CPU, GPU, Motherboard ... etc)
A good thing to do would be to look over the guides for PC building that Tek Syndicate posted on YouTube. They might be slightly old, meaning you can upgrade some parts instead of using the ones in the guide and still fit them in your budget (especially since you have some parts already). Below is a link to the playlist. Each video has a link back to this website for a list of components and whatnot.
That's a copy of my order from newegg back when I built it it. I also meant to say around $400. For some reason this forum doesn't want me to post from my phone. I'm not sure what's good if anything on that list, I haven't even turned on that pc in ages because there was something wrong with it at the time