Looking to Buy

Okay, so it's that time again, but my first time going with Digital Storm. My current computer has developed some issues that have basically turned it into a glorified paperweight. I'm afraid, however, that I haven't totally kept up with the latest and greatest in technology, so I could use a little bit of help in re-orienting myself with what's out there.

I'm especially unfamiliar with NVIDIA graphics cards (all of my previous computers have been ATI Radeon). I had my eye on the Level 4 Vanquish II, which looks like its sports a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 2GB. I have no doubt the card is better than what I have now, which is a 5750, but reviewing the configuration options on some of the other models starts to get a little overwhelming after a while.   

Budget:

$1000-$1500. I don't mind spending a little bit more (up to about $1800), if I have to. I'm always open to doing some future proofing. No need to factor peripherals into that budget; I've already got my monitor, keyboard and mouse covered.

Expectations:

Gaming on a budget.

Usage:

Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dead Space, BioShock. Concerned about the latest iteration of Dragon Age franchise, to be released later this year, which is making the switch to the Frostbite engine. Will the 770 handle Battlefield 4 (I'll use that game as my benchmark, for a lack of released system requirements for the other).

Special Needs:

The quieter the better.

Other Questions/Concerns:

I want faster load times. The laptop I purchased has a Solid State Drive, and the speed has totally spoiled me, so I think I'd like to have that in conjunction with a larger HDD. Just to verify, Digital Storm will go ahead and load the operating system onto the SSD and not the HDD, correct?

I'm a little concerned with the integrated sound card. If I go with the Vanquish II, can I open this thing up in the near future and easily add a dedicated card?

Here's another link benchmarking BF4 with a 1920x1080 at various graphic settings.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2013/11/27/battlefield-4-performance-analysis/3

At that resolution, on Ultra, fps would be in the  50's with 40's for minimum when things get heated,  and   over 60 fps on High consistently. 

The gtx 770 is a strong card.

Hope this helps.

Just for kicks, here's a comparison of your 5750 to the 680 which is about the same as the 770.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/537?vs=555

Huge jump.


Edited by bprat22 - 22 Apr 2014 at 6:50am

I couldn't find a 5750 to 770 comparison, so here is a 5770 to 770 comparison.
The 5770 is about 10-15% better than the 5750.  As you can see, the 770 has frame rates about 2-3 times the 5770

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1078?vs=1037

Most of the games I play on the Vanquish II Ultimate (Skyrim, World of Tanks, Path of Exile and AC4:BF) all use the VSync with my older 1600x900 LG 20"...  my GTX 770 pumps out the steady 60fps and usually holds it's temps <60ºC.

Digital Storm did announce in another post, and mentioned as a notice on top of config page, that the Grey with Blue LED  fans is out of stock and replaced with Black case with Red LED fans.  Plus the new cases might not come with the internal lighting kit because of high demand.

The chassis fan selection in Vanquish is just a generic picture to show it uses the stock fans that come with it from Corsair.  There are different versions. 

The Vanquish are pre-built, meaning no changes to the build.  If you wanted a larger SSD, then you'd have to add it yourself or go to a custom setup as you mentioned.  Cheaper just to add it yourself.

Just wanted to thank you all again for your assistance. I just ordered the Vanquish II Level 4 tonight (I caved and upgraded my monitor too).

Congrats! .. enjoy your new "Budget Beating Beast"...