Comparing Vanquish 5(2) to Asus G11

So I came across Digital Storm a short while back after reading some great reviews from a number of sites. I was also happy to find out that a shop opened here in British Columbia(In Vancouver myself). What attracts me seems to be the quality of the product and the support.

I don't mean to come off as cheap, but for the majority of products DS provides I just can't justify the price. With that being said I've still been leaning heavily towards DS because I know the quality will be there.

While I'd like a larger budget my price point comes in around the Vanquish 5(level 2) model. My questions and concerns are in relation to another pre-build I've been comparing with, the Asus G11. I'll list the basic specs of both below, but I'm having trouble disagreeing with the price and specs of the Asus G11. Don't get me wrong I know that there's going to be no questions that I'll have more confidence buying from DS, but I feel like the specs of the G11 are really hard to argue with.

A few things I was hoping someone could clarify or correct me on are:

- The Asus G11 gives me one of the top CPU's in the i7 6700, compared to the i5 6500. From what I can read up on I think either will do the trick for my needs, but why not get the i7 6700? It's the CPU used in most of DS's higher end models and the Asus gives me it for a lower price.

- Graphics card wise I wish I had the option to upgrade the Asus to a 970 like the Vanquish, but the 960 is still no slouch and this is something I can change out for reasonably cheap myself in the future.

- RAM...Asus has it beat there.

- Hard drive. I'm no expert but I believe I understand the majority of perks for the SSD, but they just seem so expensive for what appears to be such little benefit. I play all kinds of games and I understand thet will help load times, but 250GB is nothing in terms of space. Does this not force you to have a secondary drive anyway? Is it crazy for me to think that despite the speed getting 2TB heard drive is just a better option. I realize I can change this in my build on DS as well to bring the price up or down. I'm hoping someone could clarify the perks or reason for the small SSD over a larger HDD, rather than just load times and noise.

- Asus G11 has wifi which is actually really handy for a number of networking features I use around the home. Also comes with an Asus keyboard and mouse. I've used the keyboard and it's solid, mouse is bad.

Appreciate any comments or help. I've been reading plenty of posts from the community and everyone seems great. Thanks in advance!


Budget:
$1600 (Approx CDN)

Expectations:
Mid-High desktop that will last for 5 years plus, running the current gen at a very high quality, and get me by into the next 3-5 years with it's core components. I'm willing to update graphics cards etc as I have in the past, but want the core of the build to be able to stay intact for this time period.

Usage:
Daily. Games of all types, web, video(movies), and video game development(game engines, basic 3d software).

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Specifications:

Vanquish 5 Level 2 Specs:
- Base price $1,639
- Intel Core i5 6500 CPU
- NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB
- 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Memory
- 250GB Samsung EVO SSD
- H110 Motherboard
- 600W Power Supply
- DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
- LED Internal Lighting
- Microsoft Windows 10

Asus G11 Model
- Base Price $1499
- Intel Core i7 6700 CPU
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB
- 16 GB (2133 MHz DDR4)
- 2 TB HDD
- H110 Motherboard
- 500W Power Supply
- DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
- LED Internal Lighting
- Microsoft Windows 10
- Wifi

If you want a case that can be upgraded, you will want a replaceable rear I/O plate, not a stamped one with tabs, as well as a standard PSU mount, not a proprietary mount (you can drill it out to fit a standard unit, which I've done with a mass pre-built many years ago, but that will get messy).

An i5 with a GTX 970 will play games much better than an i7 with a GTX 960. The benefits of hyperthreading won't matter too much, but the additional graphics power will give a substantial boost to the frame rate of your games.

Edit:

An SSD will offer a significantly noticeable improvement in load and boot times over an HDD. If you need more storage in the future, that is an easy upgrade.

Edited by  - 23 Feb 2016 at 8:17pm

Just checked and the Vanquish 5 level 2 base price is $1140, not $1639, several hundred less than the other competitor you posted.  Less money for much better performance. 

If you want the I7, the V5 level 4 for $100 more than the competition, will give you a better motherboard, larger power supply and the gtx 970 after you drop the 980. 

I'm not DS sales but you just can't go wrong with Vanquish price per performance, imho.

Originally posted by bprat22 Just checked and the Vanquish 5 level 2 base price is $1140, not $1639, several hundred less than the other competitor you posted.  Less money for much better performance.  If you want the I7, the V5 level 4 for $100 more than the competition, will give you a better motherboard, larger power supply and the gtx 970 after you drop the 980.  I'm not DS sales but you just can't go wrong with Vanquish price per performance, imho.

Hi bprat22,

He is in Canada. I wonder if the prices in Canada are different than in the US.

Frank

First I'd like to say thanks for the initial responses!

Very courteous and informative. I'm happy to hear the responses, especially with regards to the difference and value in return between the CPU and GPU of the two compared items.

The price discrepancy mentioned above is because of the USD to CDN dollar. So my initial price assessment of the V5s2 is still correct at $1649, not $1140 as referred too in a previous reply. I would love for the CDN dollar to be a little more on par, but that's not the case. I'm currently losing .30 cents to the dollar. ;)

I'm still playing with a few ideas in the configurator between Vanquish's level 2-3, and def willing to up my budget a few hundred if I know it will save me down the road. I just want to be sure I'm putting that money towards components I will see a noticeable return in, and not something I wouldn't realize I'm not even utilizing.

Depending on your needs, I would put more emphasis on the graphics card for any gaming.  Your monitor's resolution will determine the best card.  For 1080p, the gtx 970 will max most games right now. 

For your 3D, the i7 with its Hyper-threading will make a difference, again depending on what level rendering.  If its light weight , the i5 still works great.

The H110 mobo is the less expensive but doesn't allow overclocking of the cpu and might restrict the ram total to 32gb, which should be plenty for most.   It's 2 DIMM slots will mean replacing the ram sticks instead of just adding on if a ram increase is desired.

Power supply...I would go 600 watt minimum just for the future.  500watt is considered minimum for a 970. 

Just some thoughts. 

Here's somthing to consider with the G11 you get a 1 year warranty   with the Vanquish you get 3 year warranty and lifetime tech support.

Good move switching to the 970.  The 980 isn't all that much better in gaming, for the price.   Better, Yes.    Maybe 10-20% better, the higher resolutions above 1080p getting the 20%. 

 Gtx 970 is a definitively  better bang for your buck.  

Edited by bprat22 - 29 Feb 2016 at 9:06am