who "recommends" these PC Setups?

[MyndZero]

I am wondering who recommends these PC setups posted on the front page.

I feel that the "Narwhal" setup should be either Intel i5 or AMD X6 1090T/1100T. They would compete on the same level so there is no reason to not have that side by side.

Also this unicorn thing should be like top of the line in my opinion. It is not. It is lacking complete domination by graphics. It should have the HD6990 there. Fastest & Most powerful video card on the market to date. :P

[ayako]

I am wondering who recommends these PC setups posted on the front page.

I feel that the "Narwhal" setup should be either Intel i5 or AMD X6 1090T/1100T. They would compete on the same level so there is no reason to not have that side by side.

Also this unicorn thing should be like top of the line in my opinion. It is not. It is lacking complete domination by graphics. It should have the HD6990 there. Fastest & Most powerful video card on the market to date. :P

Unicorn is highest while still keeping some semblance of bang/buck I believe.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/members/523085-chaud

Writes the recommended setups.

[Samyaaza]

While I don't totally agree all the time, with those recommended setups, I can see why keeping it in line money-wise, it's just nonsense for "normal" people to pay 5k Bucks instead of 2,5k Bucks for marginal improvement at best. If you want some serious overkills there're pages like alienware.com etc...

[vesseblah]

I feel that the "Narwhal" setup should be either Intel i5 or AMD X6 1090T/1100T. They would compete on the same level so there is no reason to not have that side by side.

Sorry, but no. PhenomII x6's are nowhere near i5-2500K for gaming use, falling behind 20-50%. Recommending to buy those for anything other than hardcore math/rendering purposes where all 6 cores are used is dumb beyond words.

Also this unicorn thing should be like top of the line in my opinion. It is not. It is lacking complete domination by graphics. It should have the HD6990 there. Fastest & Most powerful video card on the market to date. :P

Buying top of the line cards like R6990 or GTX580 is colossal waste of money. If somebody really wants to pay 50% more for 5% speed increase then go ahead, but putting that kind of recommendations on the front page is irresponsible.

[fableman]

6990 isn't the fastest and yada yada.. Check out GTX590 benchies. And yes, it's a waste of money. WoW uses only 40-50% of all power my GTX580 can offer, now imagine what percentage it will be on those 2 monsters? WoW wants your CPU power mostly.

[Brett Skullcrack]

Curse gets a cut if anyone purchases those components through the links. There's no reason to believe that those setups are designed for anything else than maximizing income for Curse.

[ayako]

6990 isn't the fastest and yada yada.. Check out GTX590 benchies. And yes, it's a waste of money. WoW uses only 40-50% of all power my GTX580 can offer, now imagine what percentage it will be on those 2 monsters? WoW wants your CPU power mostly.

Typically when CPU is the bottleneck most people turn the settings up until the GPU is almost maxed as well.

[Wries]

curse gets a cut if anyone purchases those components through the links. There's no reason to believe that those setups are designed for anything else than maximizing income for curse.

sneaky!!

! ...product/B001C271MA?ie=UTF8&tag=cursegaming0f-20&linkCode=as2&camp...

I'd do the same, though. :P

[Deleted]

While I don't totally agree all the time, with those recommended setups, I can see why keeping it in line money-wise, it's just nonsense for "normal" people to pay 5k Bucks instead of 2,5k Bucks for marginal improvement at best. If you want some serious overkills there're pages like alienware.com etc...

I agree except for mentioning alienware, I recommend anyone to stay away from them. The systems are great but cost far too much for what you're actually getting.

[BicycleMafioso]

6990 isn't the fastest and yada yada.. Check out GTX590 benchies. And yes, it's a waste of money.

The HD6990 beats GTX590 if both are stock clocked.
But if the GTX590 gets OC'd with the drivers that comes with it rather than those that can be d/l'ed, it bricks ;p
THAT's a waste of money.

[chaud]

I am wondering who recommends these PC setups posted on the front page.

I feel that the "Narwhal" setup should be either Intel i5 or AMD X6 1090T/1100T. They would compete on the same level so there is no reason to not have that side by side.

It loses to a dual core.

[Cantii]

6990 isn't the fastest and yada yada.. Check out GTX590 benchies. And yes, it's a waste of money. WoW uses only 40-50% of all power my GTX580 can offer, now imagine what percentage it will be on those 2 monsters? WoW wants your CPU power mostly.

GTX 590 and 6990 are pretty much neck and neck, one performs better in some games while the other performs better in others, they're pretty much absolutely the same... except for the GTX 590 bricking :P And the jet engine that is the 6990

[Simonzi]

It loses to a dual core.

Does the article that goes with those images say why the 2500k is beating out the 2600k? You'd think hyper-threading and a higher clock speed would be better...

[shaw0050]

GTX 590 and 6990 are pretty much neck and neck, one performs better in some games while the other performs better in others, they're pretty much absolutely the same... except for the GTX 590 bricking :P And the jet engine that is the 6990

The 6990 is only 6 dB louder. (than the 590, that is) :P

[Fuzzykins]

Does the article that goes with those images say why the 2500k is beating out the 2600k? You'd think hyper-threading and a higher clock speed would be better...

Not if the game can't utilize hyperthreading. (Which all the games listed don't.)

[ispano]

Does the article that goes with those images say why the 2500k is beating out the 2600k? You'd think hyper-threading and a higher clock speed would be better...

Actually i've seen HyperThreading HURT performance in several games. I'll need to look it up again, so don't quote me. But I have seen it.

[Cantii]

The 6990 is only 6 dB louder. (than the 590, that is) :P

O_o No it's not... the TomsHardware review has two videos, one with the 6990 and another with the GTX 590, both doing a Just Cause 2 benchmark, the 6990 is horrifically louder.

[shaw0050]

O_o No it's not... the TomsHardware review has two videos, one with the 6990 and another with the GTX 590, both doing a Just Cause 2 benchmark, the 6990 is horrifically louder.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/asu...eo_card_review

"The company estimates the card to be roughly 6dB quieter than the HD 6990 at full load."

It's entirely possible that they're wrong, but that's just what I've read.

[Rennadrel]

I like my X6, the 1055T overclocked to 3.5Ghz is plenty efficient for gaming. I will probably upgrade to something better later in the year when the i7 2600k drops in price and the boards are more widely available, but I also plan on upgrading my graphics card too. The X6's are good for budget builds, some of the cheaper i7's like the old 960 are just as good as the top end X6's. I think at a certain point it comes down to how much you are willing to spend and which you are going to be doing more of, as the X6 is a beast for video editing and stuff.

---------- Post added 2011-03-24 at 09:54 PM ----------

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/asu...eo_card_review

"The company estimates the card to be roughly 6dB quieter than the HD 6990 at full load."

It's entirely possible that they're wrong, but that's just what I've read.

6 dB is a very nominal sound difference in my opinion.

[BicycleMafioso]

some of the cheaper i7's like the old 960 are just as good as the top end X6's.

The opposite; The top-end X6's are almost on par with the cheapest Bloomfields