Vanquish Level 2 or 3?

Budget:
[$1130 (this is how much the vanquish level 3 costs with shipping)]

Expectations:
[I want games to play smoothly with no stutters because the hardware is not up to par, nothing too fancy.]

Usage:
[I will be playing mostly strategy games such as Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, Civilization 5. FPS games such as Counter strike, battle field 3(and 4 when it comes out). RPG games such as Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, GTA 4(and 5 when it comes out). ]

Special Needs:
[N/A]

Saved Ticket #: [Vanquish level 2 or level 3]

Specifications:
[Monitor resolution: 1680 x 1050]

I purchased a computer from Digital Storm, order #11670, in 2010 for more intensive gaming purposes(I played 24/7) and sense then have thoroughly enjoyed my experience. I passed it on to my older brother since he plays more than I do last year since I scaled back on gaming and eventually just stop playing. But since the spring semester ended this year and there was a huge sell on steam, I just had to go back to gaming but much more toned down and casual this time around.

At the moment, I am using my brother's computer which was built by my oldest brother almost 10 years ago now and it is still kicking with a few upgrades over the years. However, it does not play the games that I listed to well and can't play on the system for too long because of heating issues. Also it has a small HDD and don't want to start investing money into it when I can just purchase a new computer.

With that being said, I wanted to purchase the Vanquish level 2 but noticed that it came with a stock heat sink. I wanted to know if this would cause heating issues. I also want to know if committing an extra $200 dollars would be worth it for my expectations.

Just purchased level 3!

Yeah the hardware on level 3 for just a $260 more than the level 2 seemed too good to pass up. Plus, Knowing the quality of the computer, I think its a good investment because I'll be playing on this for at least 5 years.

Thank you for choosing Digital Storm!

Originally posted by Meller I think you made the right choice. I'm an avid fan of not buying an i3. It's like the Celeron's of the Intel world. (For those of us who remember the Pentium and Celeron days). I realize we can't all have a 3970X, but me personally, I'd rather keep saving up and go longer without a PC than buy one today with an i3.  So *claps* I think you made the right choice and I promise you... you should be happy you did it.

I think my old dell had a Intel Celeron

Congrats on the Vanquish 3 and Welcome to the forums.

you've put together a very strong system there Congrats on your new DS system and welcome to the club

Did you hook your monitor to the graphics card ports and not the motherboard ones?

You're welcome, let us know when you get it working

Glad its working.   Congrats.   Arkansas strikes again.

If you have the gtx 760 in the Vanquish 3 then there should be 2x DVI, a Displayport and a HDMI port on the back of the card.     Maybe a plastic cap covering the port?

Either way, Enjoy.

Originally posted by bprat22 Glad its working.   Congrats.   Arkansas strikes again. If you have the gtx 760 in the Vanquish 3 then there should be 2x DVI, a Displayport and a HDMI port on the back of the card.     Maybe a plastic cap covering the port? Either way, Enjoy.

Good to hear.   Have fun.

Originally posted by ArkansasWoman777 You're welcome, let us know when you get it working

Odd thing is, I was actually looking to buy the Vanquish Level 2 ;) another odd thing is the computer im running on  has XP, Pentium proccessor, and I live in Arkansas as well.