Which is better - downloading through Steam or installing from the DVD?

[smallvizier]

I have purchased a Civ V DVD from Amazon, and it should be arriving in the next few days (but talk about slow! They've not even despatched it yet!). Once it does, I will have the option of either installing straight from the DVD, or activating my CD key with Steam and downloading it.

Are there any advantages or disadvantages I should be aware of, apart from bandwidth? Is there any reason to do one rather than the other?

 

[Furiey]

You save the time to download it, that is all, how long that is depends on your connection speed and the server load at the time (It's over 3GB). As you have the disc you might as well use that, you will still need the key to activate it on Steam and will then get a patch from Steam as one has been released already.

 

[Quboid]

Very few people have a faster internet connection than they do DVD drive (and I'm massively jealous of those who do, unless it's because their DVD drive is broken).

I'm downloading it after needed to reinstall. I bought it on Steam so this is my only option. Installing from DVD would take about 5 minutes. This will take about 5 hours in total.

 

[zellfaze]

I agree that the DVD option is way faster.

You may have to wait for the DVD (high latency) but once it arrives it is a lot faster (high bandwidth). Can't have everything right?