Question for the pc pro's : Getting new pc

So kinda newby on pc stuff
what would get me the best results for FFXIV ( or gaming in general )

if i went for a build with

intel® Core™ i7-5820K Processor (6-cores, 15MB Cache, Overclocked up to 3.8 GHz w/ Turbo Boost)

or

the CORE I7 4790K 4 core 4Ghz

witht the same gpu NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980 with 4GB GDDR5
and 16gb ram

alsow what is everyone's thought about the alienware Area-51 ? and can i install exstra ssd's
its that i want to be future proof , and seeing its a big investment i dont want it to be breaking on me in 3 years

thanks for any feedback

My personal opinion:

FFXIV is capped very severely due to its compatibility concerns for lower-end PCs. A mid-range gaming PC today already can run the game at maximum quality. FFXIV is a bad indicator if you also play other games.

yeah its ofc to play other games to

I would be careful with prebuilt computers, especially alienware. They will charge a very high premium to build a gaming computer for you. i7 is generally overkill for gaming. the i3 4330 is usually enough to run games at 60fps. i7 is more for video editing. generally people will go with i5 as a middle ground.

The 980 is a very nice card. Both the GTX 970 and 980 should easily outlast ps4 and xbox one, when it comes to video games.

Other than that shop around all the websites, try to find a good i5/970 or i5/980 combo that isn't $2000 or higher. You should be able to get that combo for around 1000-1200 bux.

EDIT: If you know how; building yourself will be even cheaper

You can build a computer for $700 and something that is capable of running anything currently on the market. That's what I did, and I plan to upgrade my graphics card eventually, when the need rises. Don't spend a ridiculous amount like $1000-$2000 on building a PC unless you have that kind of money to blow. And if you do... Can you buy me a cheeseburger? I'm feeling a bit peckish... Just send it in a limo. Thanks!

Honestly either of those configs is going to be overkill for just about anything. I would go with the second processor unless you're doing something that you know would benefit from SMP (chances are you aren't). From their website the area 51 can have at least 2 internal drives but probably you could fit more in there. What resolution are you running? I'm doing 1440p with a GTX 980, no problems with 60 FPS in XIV on highest settings. Scored almost 8k on the DX11 benchmark with max settings. If you're going higher than 2560x1440, maybe consider 2 980s in SLI (graphics load increases exponentially with resolution).

This is actually very similar to my current build. I expect it to last 5+ years, maybe eventually upgrading the graphics card if something stupidly high end comes and I really have to have the best shinies.

Enjoy your new rig.

Prebuilt gaming computers have a huge margin of profit and they pass the costs onto you!

If you really want to go the custom/gaming pc route, check out ibuypower or cyberpowerpc. They have less mark ups than alienware and from time to time when they do promotional stuff, sometimes it's even cheaper than buying the parts yourself and assembling it.

Go to pcpartpicker.com to see what each component is worth, then do some shopping around. You may be able to find a custom rig for the price of parts, if not, then it's time to get building.

I'll just add real quick... yes, the people talking about the profit margins on prebuilts are correct. Any equivalent build is going to be much cheaper if you build it yourself.

However, not everyone wants to mess with that and prebuilts do have support. If you've got the cash, do what you're comfortable with, but if you want a powerful rig on a budget, it's not too terrible to put the pieces together yourself (there's youtube videos and stuff).

yeah about the prebuild stuff , i dont know enough to do it my self i probly could do it my self but seeing were talking about a +2000€ pc , im not going to worry about the 80-100€ they charge extra to put it together if i break something its going to cost me more

as for the extra cost on the alienware one , i tryd to recreate what they are offering with local dealers that will put it together for me ( using asus parts ) and come out at least 500€ more

quike eddit , there is a promotion going on with the alienware if it was full price the difrence would be mutch smaller ofcours

Quote:

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Originally Posted by supreme

yeah about the prebuild stuff , i dont know enough to do it my self i probly could do it my self but seeing were talking about a +2000€ pc , im not going to worry about the 80-100€ they charge extra to put it together if i break something its going to cost me more

as for the extra cost on the alienware one , i tryd to recreate what they are offering with local dealers that will put it together for me ( using asus parts ) and come out at least 500€ more

quike eddit , there is a promotion going on with the alienware if it was full price the difrence would be mutch smaller ofcours

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Ya i would advise against spending that much on a gaming pc. The experience you will get more than likely will not be worth the 2000 euros/pounds. I would try to find something a bit more reasonable, probably half that price.

Something like this would max out just about any game. http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/sy...kly_sales_III/

I have an Alienware Aurora R4 (Intel Core i7-4960X, blah blah blah) and my nerdy friends gave me shit for months about how I overpaid for it. You know what? I really didn't care. I made a phone call, and the thing was sitting on my desk 10 days later. Could I have bought everything inside the case cheaper had I scoured the internet? Probably, but I had the money at the time and I didn't want to mess with all that. I have had it nearly a year, and yes...it is overkill for this particular game, but I have enjoyed it every day since it arrived. It looks badass, and I have zero regrets.

I guess what I am saying is, if there is a build that you want and you can afford it, I say go for it!

Ouch, unless you're really going to be using all 6 cores, 12 hyperthreaded, then I'd consider that 5820k to be just a tad too much for gaming. Unless you're going to be using that computer as a workstation, I'd probably just forget entirely about the haswell-E platform and just stick to something like z97 or h97 (maybe even earlier chipsets if you want to save some money) if you're not going to overclock. Mainly because the price to performance ratio of x99 (more so with gaming) is just simply more costly, especially if you're just going to use that computer to play games.

The 4790k sounds good though, but I'd probably go with its younger brother the 4690k to save roughly 100 euros or whatever, and use that extra money you saved to get a 980ti that's going to be released in a few months. Or maybe just get a 980 today if you don't want to wait. Hell, you could even 2 way sli some 970s, sli support is getting even better nowadays especially with triple A titles.
Even though mmos in general are more CPU intensive, you said you're going to play other games as well so I'd definitely shell out more cash on the GPU.

If money is no object however, then get the best of the best if you want. Just know that the price to performance ratio generally gets worse as you go up.

I have a i7 4790s with a GTX 970 and this setup can run modern games at max settings at 60 FPS and absolutely crushes FFXIV. I bought a cheap i7 system and built up the rest of it over time as I could afford it. It's not top of the line but it works for me and it didn't break the bank.

I will agree with an above user that i7 processors are super beefy and i3 and i5 will probably give you a good performance for less money. I went with a i7 because I do video editing and work in Autodesk. If it was just for gaming I probably would have aimed a bit lower.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by supreme

yeah about the prebuild stuff , i dont know enough to do it my self i probly could do it my self but seeing were talking about a +2000€ pc , im not going to worry about the 80-100€ they charge extra to put it together if i break something its going to cost me more

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That's the thing.. for a $2000 rig, parts are worth $1500 or less..