potential new x51 owner

[Airframe]

Hey guys,
I am looking to get back into the PC gaming world and I think the X51 would be a great fit for what im looking for. Currently I play games on my laptop...so even the base x51 would be light years beyond what I have now.

I am thinking about getting the base i5-4440 version. I am confident that this computer would be about 5x faster than my current laptop I am using I cant help but wonder if any of the upgrades would be worthwhile.

I do not believe the word futureproof is a good term to use, but for our purposes that is what I am thinking. (IE extending the useful life of the machine and opening up gaming possibilities that I am not currently into because I'm gaming on a laptop).

I was highly attracted originally by the base price point, but if it could be justified I could spend more possibly.

Here are the prices I was quoted recently:

i5-4440 with GTX 645 1GB (240w psu): $892
i5-4440 with GTX 760ti 2GB : $1134
i7-4770 with Radeon R9 270 2GB: $1207

My biggest issue with the base config is that it comes with the 240w psu...meaning if I do want to upgrade some day it will cost $100-150 for the 330W psu, effectively making the base cost ~$1000.

So in short, what would your thoughts be? is the GTX 760ti worth basically an additional $242?

If that is justified would an additional $70 (+$312 total) be worth going up to i7 but swapping to the R9 270?

Or could this all be a waste and I probably would be completely content with the base model and/or upgrading on my own.

Thanks for any feedback you guys are willing to provide!

 

[MattyB]

Welcome! I would definitely go with the 760ti option. It's a pretty nice card and you will really want that 330W PSU. The i5 will be plenty.
At the end of the day, go with what you can justifiably afford. I don't think you will be happy with the 645 at all. You will regret that decision quickly. The extra $242 gets you a way better GPU and the better PSU so it's a good investment. There seems to be a few people around that are having issues with the AMD cards in the X51 too so I wouldn't opt for that personally but I'm an NVidia guy anyway.

 

[Airframe]

Thanks for your feedback that is kind of what I was thinking also.

If I could have some feedback on the following scenario also:

i5-4440 with GTX 760ti 2GB: $1134

i7-3770 with GTX 660 1.5GB: 1138 (tigerdirect)

It appears that the 3rd gen i7 would be a about 15% faster than the 4th gen i5.

In my research the the 660 would be ~10-15% slower than the 760ti but I could be wrong there.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this scenario?

 

[acarlton]

Thanks for your feedback that is kind of what I was thinking also.

If I could have some feedback on the following scenario also:

i5-4440 with GTX 760ti 2GB: $1134

i7-3770 with GTX 660 1.5GB: 1138 (tigerdirect)

It appears that the 3rd gen i7 would be a about 15% faster than the 4th gen i5.

In my research the the 660 would be ~10-15% slower than the 760ti but I could be wrong there.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this scenario?

I bought the i3-4130 gtx 645 version with the 180W psu. The gtx 645 sucked. I then bought a I5-4430 of ebay for $150 and sold the i3 for $100. I then upgraded to the EVGA GTX 750ti SC 2gb version, which is an amazing little card that is extremely power efficient. Changed the 6gb of ram to 8GB g.skill ram. All for about $850. However I did get a discount through my job on my X51. I Only paid $630.74 for the base model.

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I need to update my sig.

 

[Airframe]

I bought the i3-4130 gtx 645 version with the 180W psu. The gtx 645 sucked. I then bought a I5-4430 of ebay for $150 and sold the i3 for $100. I then upgraded to the EVGA GTX 750ti SC 2gb version, which is an amazing little card that is extremely power efficient. Changed the 6gb of ram to 8GB g.skill ram. All for about $850. However I did get a discount through my job on my X51. I Only paid $630.74 for the base model.

- - - - - Updated; Consecutive Post Auto Merged - - - - -

I need to update my sig.

thanks for your input. With all things considered...of the options I listed what do you think you would go for?

 

[acarlton]

Of your options I would go with the i5-4430 with the GTX 760ti. You would have a better gaming experience on a 256 bit memory interface instead of a 192 bit interface. Also the GTX 760ti has 2gb's of memory compared to the 660 1.5GB. Check out the specs of the cards on nvidia's website below. The 660 would still give you a decent gaming experience and you can always upgrade the card later. Basically you need to ask yourself, do I need an i7-3770? The i7 has hyper threading, but from what I've read about the i7's is that hyper threading does not matter when it comes to gaming.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-760ti-oem/specifications
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-660-oem/specifications

 

[Airframe]

Hey guys I just wanted to say thanks for all of your feedback. After much consideration I have decided to go with the base i5-4440 with the GTX 645.

My plan is to eventually upgrade to a GTX 750ti SC as I believe that wouldnt require me to run a 330w psu (which would allow me to upgrade for less than what alienware was asking, and would allow me to keep the GTX 645 as a backup.) I'm still in the research phase of looking into this though...i see there were others on this forum with some positive results.

The computer should get here next week! very excited.

 

[Alienwulf]

Looking forward to how it works out.

 

[jayhernandez7]

I would like to see some photos of your upgrades as they come