With NBW coming out, looking to upgrade (up to $3-4K)

[ColonelPanic]

Do yourself a favor and build a machine from scratch. That way you only get what you want/need and save a ton of cash.

For example, a "high-end gaming computer" from Alienware cost over $3000 and pales in comparison to my ~$1300 custom rig.

Depending on your use case scenarios -- aside from Civ -- I can help you configure a lower-cost, higher performance system.

 

[Zelig]

You cannot build a computer for $1300 that's faster than a $3000 Alienware (or any other reasonable system builder) system.

Alienware's $1400 system has a significantly faster cpu/gpu than your $1300 build, though no SSD or monitor.

 

[ColonelPanic]

You cannot build a computer for $1300 that's faster than a $3000 Alienware (or any other reasonable system builder) system.

Alienware's $1400 system has a significantly faster cpu/gpu than your $1300 build, though no SSD or monitor.

Firstly, you cannot overclock the Alienware's default Intel CPU, in this case the Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz, as the CPU ratio multiplier is locked. So while the Turbo Boost may seem impressive at 3.8GHz that is the highest the system will go unless you are willing to spend even more money to buy a "k-series" processor.

Secondly, buying SSDs or GPUs at current MSRP is the same as paying sticker price for a car. For example, the GTX 690 4GB GPU mentioned on Alienware's site is currently sold at $999.99 USD from Newegg (to name but one of many available options). In terms of the SSD, for a SATA III 512GB storage option the current cost is
~$429.99 depending on sales or manufacturer. Furthermore, 512GB is overkill for playing Civilization V and is more in keeping with content professional applications e.g. video rendering, editing or post-production work.

 

[Zelig]

Firstly, you cannot overclock the Alienware's default Intel CPU, in this case the Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz, as the CPU ratio multiplier is locked.

Right, but it's still loads faster than any AMD CPU for $120, regardless of overclocking.

Actually, Alienware's $1100 system is across the board faster than yours, you can throw an 120GB SSD you purchase for $100, and you're at the same price as your system but with significantly more CPU/GPU speed.

These aren't really fair comparisons because your system is a couple years old now, but there's still no way that something you build yourself for $1300 is going to cost $3000 pre-built.

 

[illram]

As for the CPU, it does make a difference for Civ AI turn times. The 3350P isn't top-end, but it's decent and a good price. I'd probably go for the 3570 over it, though, given your budget.

There is no reason to not buy a Haswell chip if you want a top end machine right now. With Haswell also comes the LGA 1150 mobo which, if Intel continues its current business model, should be good for at least one more chip release.

Do yourself a favor and build a machine from scratch. That way you only get what you want/need and save a ton of cash.

For example, a "high-end gaming computer" from Alienware cost over $3000 and pales in comparison to my ~$1300 custom rig.

I agree that custom building is better for the money for a high end machine, but there is no way in hell your $1,300 system is even close to that Alienware build. The CPU and the video card alone are orders of magnitude slower than the Alienware build, even if the pre-built is sandy-bridge-e and not Haswell. I agree that you could put together a great build for $1,300, but picking the same parts as that Alienware still yields a fairly expensive build of around $2200-$2500, depending on how choosy you are with components. A quick Newegg shopping trip turned out a build with the same base components (GTX 690, 512 GB SSD, 16GB RAM) with an i7-4770k instead of i7-3820, since it is better, for around $2300. Give or take a few hundred to choose higher performance SSDs or RAM or whatever. Now of course, cut out the wastes of money, like the 690, and pick a smaller SSD, and you are back in reasonable-price land. But still a bit higher than $1,300.

Anyways custom built vs pre-built is usually more about convenience. In the case of Alienware they also throw in gimmicky stuff (like the moving case fins and changing LEDs) that some people like. If you're thinking pre-built you are usually willing to spend the extra money to not have to worry about building it yourself. Even though 90% of the time a custom build will go totally smoothly, if you have never done it before it can be sort of intimidating.

 

[Zelig]

There is no reason to not buy a Haswell chip if you want a top end machine right now.

Well, if you want to avoid a chip with onboard graphics, or if you get a good enough deal on a previous-gen chip. Stores are clearing out stock of IB processors, so even with the 10% performance-per-clock Haswell got, you can still sometimes get a better priceerformance from IB, and the big battery life gains don't matter on a desktop.

With Haswell also comes the LGA 1150 mobo which, if Intel continues its current business model, should be good for at least one more chip release.

I wouldn't count that as particularly important, I find CPUs are very rarely worth upgrading - the difference between compatible CPU generations aren't significant enough unless you really cheap out on the CPU in the first place.

(Also, it seems pretty wasteful, if you're upgrading GPUs, you can always find someone to buy your old one for a few bucks, but nobody is interested in paying anything for an old CPU - if they've got a mobo for Socket X, they've probably already got a CPU for socket X, and if you're selling only a CPU, it probably isn't the fastest CPU available for that socket, which is probably the only thing they'd be interested in.)

 

[illram]

If you're just buying retail, the way Intel rarely prices things buying last gen rarely makes financial sense. Same problem with avoiding a chip with onboard graphics, since most of them have it and the ones that don't aren't worth the price difference between a much better chip that does have it. I agree if there is some sort of deal on an IB mobo combo or something then yeah, go for it.

 

[Zelig]

Oh, Intel never has sales on anything, even at the enterprise level they're remarkably stingy. (Most notably recently, they weren't willing to ship parts cheaply enough for the XB1 or PS4.) It's simply retailers eating the costs so that they can clear out their own inventory.

My local shop currently has the 35070K and the 3770K each priced $40 below their Haswell equivalents, you can make your own choice about whether it's a worthwhile saving, but it's a >10% price difference for a ~10% performance difference.

 

[Quintillus]

There is no reason to not buy a Haswell chip if you want a top end machine right now. With Haswell also comes the LGA 1150 mobo which, if Intel continues its current business model, should be good for at least one more chip release.

If you're buying prebuilt, though, I think it may make sense to go Ivy Bridge if the rest of the package is a better deal. Sure, with this budget, a 4670K makes more sense than a 3570K. But if the ideal box if found, with the only flaw being 3570K instead of 4670K, I'd say go for it. Haswell isn't much faster than Ivy Bridge anyway - at least from the CPU aspect of it, which is all that matters in a high-end build.

And the socket on the motherboard doesn't really matter if you're buying prebuilt and don't plan to upgrade. I'd argue that it doesn't really matter with Intel even if you are building your own, since they rarely last more than two generations nowadays, and the generations are so similar in performance. With AMD, buying the latest socket matters more, since theirs last long enough you can make a meaningful CPU upgrade.

I also agree with Zelig's point that sometimes you can get good deals with previous-gen or soon-to-be-previous-gen hardware that's being cleared out. Even today, if I had a choice between a 2500K at $180 (what I paid when Ivy Bridge was almost out in 2011) vs. $220 for the 3570K or $240 for the 4670K (their current Newegg prices), it would be a tossup. In pre-built, too, there can be good deals - I narrowly missed a great deal on a laptop a few years back due to deciding to buy a day too late, and ended up buying its more expensive successor with marginally better hardware.

 

[caketastydelish]

If NBW is your primary concern, you don't need to spend near $3-4K. My iMac cost 1100 when I bought it (not including tax) and that was almost 3 years ago. Macs even have a reputation for being bad at video games, but BNW works like a charm, even when I max it out to 22 civs playing in the same game on a huge map with forty something city states.

For the record, I'm not saying you should buy a Mac (although you also have that option). I'm saying pretty much any computer will do as long as it's a desktop that isn't exceptionally cheap.