PC build with Skyrim in mind

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Nordcompanion

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Oct 15, 2012
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Hello everyone, I've been reading alot on these forums lately and now I'm asking questions myself because I'm having a tough time trying to figure this stuff out, not be very computer savvy.

Alright, I'm looking to build a computer for playing Skyrim at ultra high 1920X1080. I would like to keep the framerate high enough that it is not noticeable (I'm assuming around 60?). I am also in the budget of about $500-600.

These are some of the items that I am looking at right now:
APEX TX-381-C Black Steel Micro ATX Tower Computer Case $33 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154094
ASUS 24X DVD Burner $20 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
APEX AL-D500EXP 500W ATX12V Power Supply $41 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817154026
Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM $70 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769
AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor $105 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106009&nm_mc=OTC-FroogleNEW&cm_mmc=OTC-FroogleNEW-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-AMD-_-19106009

OR AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor $100 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $40 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186
GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $145 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130664


I'm not sure about motherboards. I've found these two and I don't really know what I'd be getting with the extra $40 for the second one:

ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $84 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280
BIOSTAR A780L3B AM3 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $44 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138329

I want something that will run Skyrim well and will not break my wallet past $600. And I already have a 23" monitor. Unbiased help would be greatly appreciated. I do not lean one way or another as far as AMD or Intel goes, I just want honest answers and to stay within my price range.
 
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Ceee9

Ceee9

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Oct 12, 2012
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If u gonna mod ur skyrim with superb end, 4k,2k, texture, sharpshooter enb etc, and 30+mod, ur fps might drop alot, enb is a little demanding, imo when playing skyrim with enb + mod, i think the worst place(if u have play skyrim) going to the south east of syrim map, orge vilage, it will surely drop alot

I didnt know much about amd board btw, seems the asrock support Sli, do you really need sli?
 
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Jay-Z

Jay-Z

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Sep 29, 2012
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Skyrim Ultra High 1920x1080 @ 60fps? That is pretty demanding, not just on the GPU but the CPU as well. I have a 560 ti which can run Skyrim comfortably at the same settings but I have a better processor. Theoretically, your set-up should be fine but I would definitely look at the 660 or the 560 ti if you want to be sure.
 
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ProVisionOman

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Sep 21, 2012
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If you're ready to lower your shadows.. Well your setup can run at 70 FPS. Ultra shadows... Don't. Go with high because unless you will screen shot and zoom in you shouldn't notice in gameplay. Your FPS will be dipping to 40 but 50 will you're average.
 
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ProVisionOman

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Sep 21, 2012
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Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119247
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145339
HDD:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236338
A cheap SSD that would fit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227797
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116775
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130654
DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152040
VideoCard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

THERE! And if you want to go a bit down.. You could save 15$ and go your 500GB WD drive not this 750Gb one :)
 
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Nordcompanion

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Oct 15, 2012
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Alright, after looking at the stats for the SAPPHIRE 100355-1GOCL Radeon HD 7850 1GB 256-bit I'm sold on it, but I still have questions about the CPU. Why should I get any Intel processor over an AMD processor? I don't want any "fanboy" answers, I just want to know which would be better to use.
 
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ProVisionOman

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Sep 21, 2012
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Well two reasons:
1- Skyrim doesnt use more than two cores. So it run better on two more powerful cores vs four same power.
2- i3 are better for gaming. For other things 4170 wins.. But the 4170 uses more power. Please read the whole thing:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-4170-core-i3-3220-benchmarks,3314.html
 
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ProVisionOman

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And yes.. You will surely get the SSD right? It TOTALLY fits in your budget man.
 
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nocturnal7x

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Dec 2, 2008
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IMO for skyrim get a 2gb+ GPU if you want to use the official HD DLC, Skyrim HD, vurts floral overhaul and other hi res texture packs. IMO the game looks great (for a DX9 game with no tesselation :( ) with all those texture mods. Im very limted with my GTX 57 1.25gb card, I can use skyrim HD @ 1440p but not the HD DLC or the floral packs.

Worst case id recomend a 2gb 560ti, or better yet a 660ti (670 would be the best without being crazy :p )

Also don't get an FX cpu, they are *** and a few games have serious issues with them. Try a phenom or i5.

holy *** this one is on sale: (nvm, its a refurb but still a good deal)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130763
 
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Nordcompanion

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Oct 15, 2012
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@ ProVisionOman: Um, yeah I just kinda ignored that... :p

Alrighty, after more searching and fine tuning what I am looking for, I have come up with a build that I would like to attempt so that I can expand further in the future and also try to save some money. If there is anything wrong with this build like mismatching parts or something else, could somebody let me know? Alright, here it is:

CASE- $55 Rosewill FUTURE Gaming ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147108


PSU- $33 COOLMAX V-500 500W ATX Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159062


CPU- $230 Intel i-5 3570k
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504


MOBO- $67 MSI B75MA-E33 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130654&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r-_-Motherboards+-+Intel-_-MSI-_-13130654


GPU- $195 HIS H785F2G2M Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161406


RAM- $40 CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233186


HDD- $80 Western Digital 1TB Caviar Green SATA Internal Hard Drive
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=734080&is=REG&Q=&A=details




And one more question: do I need the 2GB video card when I have 8GB of ram? I'm still not sure how that works.
 
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ProVisionOman

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Sep 21, 2012
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Two issues with the power supply.
1- you HAVE to get a 80 Bronze silver gold ANYTHING but at least something that says 80. Go here to know your power needs: www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

2- It doesn't have a PCIE power connector. The 7850 does need a single power connector. Don't think its too much or anything.. The 7970 needs one 6-pin and one 8-pin. The only video card that is capable of gaming that doesn't a power connector is the 7750. I don't think you would want it lol.

And about the video memory. The memory on your graphics card is around 5x faster than RAM. RAM doesn't have this crazy speeds. On video memory (for example) you're running about 100FPS. MAX you will get if you were using your RAM is 13FPS. So yeah. And 2GB is FAR from bottleneck. And I barely think you will be gaming at 1080p+ res from your budget. A 2560x1600 monitor is 1.5K lol. So what is your resolution? Dude the 680 has 2GB. So you should keep that in mind. If a 680 doesn't struggle form a 2GB memory... Why should you?
 
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ProVisionOman

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And take any of these three cards. The Sapphire one is amazing good in cooling. And the XFX has lifetime warranty (U.S. only if you're not from the U.S. like me there is no reason to go XFX)
www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=10000666240000048&IsNodeId=1&Description=7850&bop=And&CompareItemList=48|14-150-617^14-150-617-TS%2C14-150-642^14-150-642-TS%2C14-202-004^14-202-004-TS
 
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arnoldlouie

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Aug 13, 2012
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actually skyrim only uses 2gb ram.. you have to do some modding to make use of more ram.. also most build has 1:2 in cpu:gpu ratio when it comes to price.. my advice for you to is to take tom's advice and follow this build except the motherboard. This is $500 dollar build but you can get a better video card or cpu if you want to make it $600..hehe.. at least with this one you already know the performance. You can use this as a benchmark if you want better performance you can get a better cpu/gpu. this can do 46 fps on ultra 1080p. if oc'ed goes up to 53.


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-pc-overclocking-pc-building,3273-11.html
 
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Nordcompanion

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Oct 15, 2012
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Ok, so I'll get the Bronze PSU that you recommended before. I have a 23" TV/monitor that runs my xbox at 1080i, but I also have a 60" HD TV that I could use on occasion. Would the 2gb card be justified for that? If not I'll go with the 1gb.

Also, could you recommend to me a fairly cheap PCIE connector? I still don't know how all the pins and stuff work yet, though I'm sure I'll start to once I start putting it together.
 
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ProVisionOman

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Sep 21, 2012
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In graphic cards the size of a TV doesn't matter, Only the resolution. If you don't plan to mod Skyrim with graphical mods and gonna use the official HD DLC then at 1080p 1GB is enough. But ANY modding will require atleast 1.5GB. But wait. The 7850 only comes in 2GB -_-. And the PCIE connector comes with the Power Supply no worries. But as I said the power supply has to have a PCIE connector. To be safe AT LEAST two 6 pin power connectors.
 
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