Aesthetics or Performance?

[chromeboy42]

Which is more important to you when planning a build; raw performance or aesthetics? Would you sacrifice 5% of performance to have your build look nice. Or would you like a 5% performance boost if your build look miss matched?

[xToFxREAPER]

this is a tough answer that i cant vote on but rather comment, if the build is already very high powered and overkill to some extent yes i will sacrifice some things and make some changes for better looks, however if im on a budget i will pack as much power as i can into it as the budget will allow and care less about looks guess its kind of a situational answer

[SSOB]

Both , Compromises are for losers

[calarahil]

I kind of feel its a mix of both. Sure if you have a case that you can't see inside the case you may not care as much about Aethetics. However its possible to do both in any case or situation I feel.

[Cacao]

this is a tough answer that i cant vote on but rather comment, if the build is already very high powered and overkill to some extent yes i will sacrifice some things and make some changes for better looks, however if im on a budget i will pack as much power as i can into it as the budget will allow and care less about looks guess its kind of a situational answer

Exactly this!

I say when you're spending under 2.5k$ you should mainly be focusing on performance, once you're over that your price/performance ratio starts plumetting so you can concentrate more on the looks.

[ThunderShark]

If it has more than enough power for me, then I would want it to look nice. If I need the extra power, then I will have to live with the looks.

[chromeboy42]

I say when you're spending under 2.5k you should mainly be focusing on performance, once you're over that your price/performance ratio starts plumetting so you can concentrate more on the looks.

I would say 1.5k is when you should consider sacrificing performance for aesthetics. I mean you can get a 4770k, 16gb of ram, and a gtx 780 for 1.5k

[MJOLNITR VIPER]

Their is a happy medium in everything, I like a great performing system that looks just as good as it performs. So i cant pick between the two choices in the poll.

[Gamebozzo]

if its just sacrificing 5% then id rather go for asthetics unless im going for maximum performance

[ajoy39]

Aesthetics, which is why I will actually use the thermal armor on the Gryphon board when I get it. It doesn't help, and to an extent can even hurt, temps but it's a military themed build, what is more military than having armor on your motherboard?

[brownninja97]

A bit of both, a sexy card is nice but something like a case means i need get fans and stuff, being quite is for chumps, throw 8999 fans in there, also i might, only might need a few fan controllers.

[L.E.D]

I thought there was a thread for this.. Oh well. Performance over looks any day of the week.  

[Appelzaadje]

i would sacrafice 5% on a new build for looks gladly but then if i plan a new build i would take titan or 780 minimum with matching cpu etc else its not a upgrade for me atm

[Cacao]

I would say 1.5k is when you should consider sacrificing performance for aesthetics. I mean you can get a 4770k, 16gb of ram, and a gtx 780 for 1.5k

Well that's kind of stretching it, I doubt you could get those specs without really crapping out on some of the other parts. Even if you have a 780, you can add another one and get almost double gaming performance. Beyond that your price/performance goes to sh*t, so that's why I estimated 2.5k$.

[Veredux]

It all depends on the situation, I would go for the performance unless I already have plenty of power.

If I have plenty of power I would go for the aesthetics.

[Frix]

Depends what the budget of the build is, If i was more than satisfied with the performance of the build then I would sacrifice some of the performance to get a nicer looking build.

[mgsstar]

Would go with performance since not going to show off my rig to anyone.

[d33g33]

For a 5% performance hit I'd much rather my rig to look ballin' instead of a rats nest and it have a 5% performance boost. But, I'm a very visual person...

[Night]

I look for aestheticly pleasing parts that fit my performance criteria.

[MdX MaxX]

Aesthetics.

 

An NH-D14 may take me from 4.4 to 4.7, but I'd I'll give up those few MHz for a much sleeker-looking AIO liquid cooler.

 

And I would not have NF-F12s in my rig at all; the extra 3 degrees of cooling would not be worth destroying my rig's aesthetic.

 

(Not hating on Noctua, those were just the best examples. :P)

 

Fortunately, one doesn't have to give up performance for aesthetics in any other category, really.  All high-end mobos, graphics cards, PSUs, etc. look awesome.

[911^NEmeSis]

Get the best yet ugliest tech ever, slap it in a case and never see it again!

[Langdon]

With the variety of products available, it's very easy to have both. 

[Worth]

Both , Compromises are for losers

there is an Asus t-shirt that says that

[Dudenstein]

A bit of both but with an emphasis on a minimalist look

[Helltech]

Aesthetics is more important but the amount of performance has to be there. E.G. I would spend more on a 780 that performs/overclocks slight worse than another 780 variant as long as I got the one that matches my system better.