Help me upgrade or buy a new PC please

[Mookeylama]

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-studio-xps-122b/4505-3118_7-33556483.html

 

that’s my pc. It’s done me well over the years. Played any game on setting I was completely happy with. High, some even ultra. That is any games, except the ones I like the most. Fallouts and Skyrim. It just can’t handle the great outdoors, at least not with all the mods I add, but even just vanilla Skyrim is giving me lotsa lag and stutter outside. Dungeons are fine. What it’s doing that I just hate is stutter or even stop for seconds when crossing into a new outdoor zone, and lots of stutter when looking around fast, especially if there’s followers behind me or lotsa npcs. And mods make it worse. Mods that add spawns, ENB, better textures (even the performance ones). I’ve searched and tried every tweak and trick I could find over the last 4 years. not many have helped. The 4GB Enabler helped w/ Fallout, and compressing the textures and BSAs have helped w/ Skyrim. But I’m tired of spending untold hours searching out tweaks that don’t even help much.

 

So my goal is to play Skyrim and Fallouts w/ NO stutter or lag, a decent FPS (40+), and with mods that add npc spawns. The Hi-res, and ENB lighting would be nice but not a real requirement if upgrading. If going new I want the whole shebang tho! . I know it’ll need a video card and power supply (think it has a 350 in it now). But it might need extra cooling and a new case too. The case only has a 1 ½” by 4” row of slits for the vents on either side. The 4850 in it CONSTANTLY runs around 60 idle and 85-100C playing games. I used to get worried but have read numerous times that the 4850 runs hot like that. Anyways, if I can upgrade this one to play Skyrim like I would like to, then I’d rather upgrade. Provided the cost is not over say 50-60% of buying new. If it’s be more than that, think I’d rather go new. Also I’m told that Skyrim and Fallout need a good CPU too, so not sure if that would need replacing. Read about a Solid state something but not sure what that’s about.

 

As for new, gimme you thoughts on that too please. I’m an old gamer and fairly new to the PC, plus my eyes are bad now with small stuff so I’d probably have Microcenter locally build it, or maybe a reputable online place if shipping wasn’t a killer. If there’s a pre-built out there that would do what I want, then even better. That’s why I got the one I have 4 years ago, because it was all built in a box lol. I’d like to keep new to around $1300 or less, but if going new I also want it to be a beast. I mean play Skyrim and other games over the next 3-4 years, like it’s it’s damn job! Lighting mods, extra spawns, no lag or stutter. The whole works.

 

Any suggestions on upgrades or example builds please include links or exact names I can search for. It would be much appreciated. Help this old gamer take gaming up a notch! thanks

[Tamb0]

To be quite honest, the PC itself is not a bad spec. The i7 processor is still one of the best processors out there (there are newer versions available), but your big let down, as you correctly stated, is your graphics card. A newer card is also going to mean a beefier PSU (as you guessed as well).

 

Have a look at these -

 

SAPPHIRE HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5

OCZ 650W PSU

 

I'd think this is all you'd need to see a great improvement. Both for under $300. Very easy to fit, but even if your in doubt, I'm sure a local PC shop would fit these for you for around $20. It's only 5 minutes work.

 

One thing to check is the dimensions of the PSU and length of the GFX card, to make sure they will fit in your case.

 

It's just a pity that you cant overclock on the Dell motherboard. I've got my i7 920 running at 4GHz. That also makes things a little bit faster.

 

You guys in the US are lucky to be able to pick up hardware at those prices.

Edited August 3, 2012 by Tamb0

[Mookeylama]

thank you much^! at those prices i might upgrade. was leaning towards new because i thought an upgrade would be 600+ and still would not run Skyrim as well as i'd like (i want it running about as good as it possibly can be). and yeah, i'd have to check the case for the room needed. i've been told buncha times how there's very little room in there.

and yes, i hate that the bios are locked! 1st time i tried to overclock, i didn't know they were. i OC'd it just a tiny bit, checked ingame, and it was a spastic, colorful mess lol.

[HKnight13]

Tamb0 linked some good stuff.

 

I'd recommend that, for your next machine, to take the time to learn how to put a custom machine together.

Quite possible to put together a computer comparable to an Alienware (oh boy . . .) for half of their price or less.

 

I built mine a few years ago for about $900 and have been able to play everything Ive installed on High or better.

I only had to replace my video card.

 

2¢

[Mookeylama]

thanks. but now we've decided to definitely ditch the upgrade idea and go new. decided we really would like having 2 PCs. so if folks could give some links to new parts, then i'll get a list together and take it to Microcenter to build me a beast! oh and what do ya recommend, Nvidea or AMD?

[dragonslayer2k12]

The thing is, now is the worst time for video cards. Drivers have issues on both sides, nvidia has nothing more than some power hungry slight improvements to offer... I read somewhere that the 660ti is only 46% faster than the 560ti. I have a 560ti 1gb card and only skyrim slows it down. All other games do just fine with it. Buying amd would be refreshing if the drivers didn't need patches and tweaking and fixing all the time just to get a game to work normally and not black out textures and faces and UI graphics in various games. But you probably have better chance of finding 2gb models in better price range with amd right now.

 

Next year probably later on next year some new consoles will come out and finally some new cards from both companies too so then would be a better time to go new. Also both intel and amd might have something released in cpu that is better than what they have now and use less power.

[xenithflare]

I just recently finished building my computer using an i5 2500k and a Radeon 6850, and with dozens of high-performance mods running I never experience a lag in FPS. Haven't honestly checked what my numbers are, though. After I finished it, I threw together a cheaper version of what I've got just on a whim, so here it is:

 

http://amzn.com/w/12T2NY5F62OM3

 

With all of those parts (keep in mind dual 6670 in CrossFire; didn't include price for OS), the total only hovers around $950, though that can fluxuate based on Amazon's prices. You could also forgo the dual GPU for a single two-slot card like I did, or just use the HDD for boot instead of a SSD, but that's up to you. The main differences between that build and mine is that mine has:

 

Corsair H80

Radeon 6850

Corsair M4 256GB (instead of 128)

WD Caviar Green 2TB (instead of Seagate)

850w Modular PSU

HAF 922 case

RoseWill wifi PCI card

5-fan Controller

P8P67 PRO B3 mobo

 

You should still get similar performance, but the extra cooling options and accessories will bulk up the cost.

[Mookeylama]

so Dragonslayer, you're suggesting to upgrade for now, and build new in about a year? hmm, dunno. the Grand Authority (wifey lol) has decreed that we go new so we have 2 PCs.

 

thanks for the list Xenith. so i should be able to just print a list like you gave and take that to Microcenter for them to build it right? and i'm not sure about SLI. i know it's powerful but i read about games not running right with it from time to time.

[dragonslayer2k12]

Don't waste money on SLI/crossfire it is not necesasry to run any game. That sort of thing is for the watercooling types that like to get a three or six screen setup going and three or four video cards all watercooled with raid arrays etc. Just one video card will do just fine, I have a 560ti from asus right now but from reading recent online reviews of asus stuff over the last five or six months it would appear to be a bad time to buy asus brand. Gigabyte, evga, xfx brand seem to be doing just fine in reviews on average. I used to have an xfx brand gts250 back in the day and it never went bad. My card can run skyrim ok but I wish I could have found a 2gb version so I wouldn't feel the urge to upgrade for several years. I really don't think the next gen consoles are gonna push graphics any harder than they do now maybe just a few more tricks from dx10 and nothing more. The unreal 3 engine is still around, I think they upgraded it recently or was it a new version unreal 4 engine came out? Can't remember atm but without big time game engine makers backing anything new we won't see it mainstream so it goes consoles/tablets/iphone/ then pc lol. We are always at the bottom now as pc gamers/users it seems like the industry doesn't like us because we think just like they do instead of just give our money without hesitation. They want to dumb down all of us and probably raise the price on games to $80 on average within the next year or so.

 

Sandy bridge pc will be just fine and although ivy bridge uses less power it is a possible problem for heat issues later on. You could always go amd system but they are not nearly as fast as new intel systems but they do cost less. Would be nice to hear from someone running latest amd stuff to comment on how much they spent and what kind of performance they get with skyrim.

[panurgy]

Here's a quick build for $1239. It's got an i5 3570K and a superclocked EVGA GTX670 4GB. I'm a fan of > 2GB video cards for being both future proof and allowing the option to really overdo texture mods. ;) I'd consider this build a starting point (because I really just threw it together), but it's got many quality/popular components.

 

As far as I'm considered SSDs are nice to have but optional, so you could cut $134 off if you drop the SSD.. I didn't include a sound card, but I'm a big fan of the ASUS Xonar.

 

 

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/faSn

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.98 @ NCIX US)

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Microcenter)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.98 @ Outlet PC)

Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($134.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 670 4GB Video Card ($459.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($109.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $1239.39

(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-20 19:11 EDT-0400)