hoofhearted4

i heard it was basically only Bethesda made mods (which would be no different than a patch or DLC) or maybe it was Bethesda approved mods or something. but not all 3rd party mods will be available, and by and large most 3rd party mods wont be available. but thats just what ive heard.

i thought the graphics looked pretty good. i mean yes i absolutely wish for a FallOut with Crysis or Witcher Graphics. would be insane. but all in all im honestly just happy they didnt reuse Skyrim's engine and call it good.

that is my all time favorite commercial for CoC.

So I wanted to bring attention to a game I've backed and been following on Kickstarter called Umbra. I'll let you go there and read about it but i'll give a short summary Its an open world Diablo basically. It runs on Cryengine 3. They are focusing on customization. If you want to be a two hand weapon wielding fireball casting thief, you can go for it. Weapons are customizable in great detail. there is forging as well. As i said, the game is open world, not linear based like Most ARPGs. It has a fully unique story. Skills and environment interact. Lightning in water and fire on ice are just a couple they've mentioned (the obvious ones) They talk about destructible environments. They also have something called an Apocalyptic Form, which sounds like an ability you unlock that is tailored to how you've been playing the game. basically the Apocalyptic Form will be based on if you've been doing a lot of melee, a lot of dodging, using fire spells, or what have you, and did i mention it's running on CryEngine 3 and looks absolutely beautiful? particle effects, swaying grass in the wind. the environment reacts to you and your skills. Anyways, this is a crude overview. Please Please go check it out! they arent asking for much. The campaign has only been going on for (i think) 5 days and they are already over 50% of their goal with 4000 backers and counting. the game itself is already quite a ways along (vs just an idea with sketches), the money is mostly for wrapping things up and production. Even if you aren't interested, I would ask you to kindly spread the word. someone you know, or dont know, may be interested in such a game but wouldn't hear about it otherwise. Thank you for your time!

Only 30 hours. which for a game like Skyrim is barely any. I wasnt a huge fan of Skyrim. however, huge fan and played the crap out of FO3, and i understand your point. The Dark Souls comparison doesnt do it for me. Really sick of those games. Demons Souls was killer. Dark Souls was alright. Dark Souls 2, well i still havent gotten through it through lack of interest. Bloodbourne, I'm interested in however, i dont have a PS4. I have a friend who is wildly obsessed with the game. wont shut up about it. and while its annoying, ill let him try and convince me. some of what he has said intrigues me. I'm not entirely against playing the first two. but thats a lot of time, time i dont have. i already have too many games to play as it is.

are you set on that case? thats quite an old case, and while its good, and the most rated case Newegg, there are certainly better cases out today. if you want quiet, i would tried to go closed loop. Not that heatsinks arent quiet, the good ones are. Noctua is known for their NH-D14. though that was a couple of years ago and i am not up to date with products.

ugh i wanna like this game soo bad. i own the first two, played a couple hours of the first one, but i never could get into it. ive seen some gameplay, and reviews of the 3rd one now. Game is absolutely gorgeous. huge. outstanding reviews. but the combat, just doesnt cut it for me. and it looks like A LOT of running (riding) around. I need to see a let play of a good hourish of gameplay. see what the majority of the game is like. Reviews are too time lapse-y, they have to be with such a big game, but they dont give me a good idea of what you spend your time doing, or what combat looks like in real time. IF i somehow am convinced, do I HAVE to play the first two?

look into a Closed loop system like the H100i. good fans are noctua fans or Corsair fans. (i used the H100i and 7 Corsair fans, my case is currently open, side panels off, and i can't hear it). it does get a little louder when gaming, but thats more the GPU, side panels on though, and i still can't hear, especially with headphones, but even without i can't. I have a Fractal Arc Midi case. plenty of room, i like it. it does have some sound proofing as well, on the sides. but there are cases (by other manufacturers, but by Fractal as well) with more sound proofing) you CAN run into heat issues with more sound proofing, but honestly, it's not a big deal unless you have like 3 GPUS and are gaming for 12 hours. and even then, a good air flow and it wont matter. also, whats youre native language?

silent PCs are easy. it mostly depends on the fans and heatsink you put in your computer. and your case. this video is a few years old now (it came out when i built my pc), but its of a fanless heatsink! anyways, if you want a quiet pc, get good fans, get a good heatsink, and get a good case. boom. silent.

how old is the laptop?

Dell makes some awesome monitors. BenQ is high quality, though price reflects it. Ive been looking into Ultra-Wide myself. or 1440p i havent decided. i personally dont mind 60fps. so a 120Hz+ monitor isnt desireable for me.

make sure your PSU is modular. I didnt read FMods post, too long, so he might have said that.

i do only have one GPU. see no issue fitting in two. have two HDDs and an SSD, no issues with heat, or space. i will say with all the extensions I have for braided cables, and all the extra fans, the space in the back is a little tight, but unless you want more than two GPUs, a 1200W PSU (since those are longer) and more than one Rad, a Midi is plenty big enough. i doubt my next case will be bigger. wouldnt want a bigger case. this case was actually bigger than i thought....that said i want my next case to be a desk. lol

the Arc Midi is a few years old now, i believe they made an R2. could even be further then that, im not sure....I could easily fit 2 cards in there, but it is smaller then an XL (duh). ive never had a problem with air flow. i have 2x140mm fans in the front, 1x140mm in the back, and 4x120mm on an H100i in push/pull in the top. silent. never any problems. i think there is even room for a fan on the bottom of the case too haha. I'm not saying dont go with the XL, but ill say the midi is a big case on its own. i can post pictures if you like, to get a sense of size.

i dont know current products enough to suggest things, but can answer the more general products. 16GB RAM is going to become the norm shortly. especially within the next 5 years. youd be fine with 8, and RAM prices have gone up, but if you can, get 16gb. CPU, just get an i5. theres usually a jump in price between then and no reason jump unless you want hyper threading, which IIRC, is what differentiates and i5 and an i7. i could be wrong. its been a couple years since ive had to be in the current know how. PSU, depends on how many GPUs you put in really. estimate between 650-850. overkill is never a bad thing. youll want a couple hundred watts lee way anyways. look for 80 PLUS Gold or Platinum. Seasonic and Corsair are two top of the line makers. (in fact Seasonic makes a lot of the higher end Corsair PSUs anyways. or they used to) SSD, youll want at least a 128GB. this will account for OS inflation. plus you can have several apps and maybe even a game or two on there. I bought one, but upgraded to a 480gb so that i could mess with multiple OSes, have most apps i use, as well as any game that doesnt use Steam/Origin (ie is a disk install, or MMO) on it. with plenty of room left over. Cases, i recommend looking into Fractal. they have cases of all sizes, and are amazing quality. I have a Fractal Arc Midi that I LOVE. Corsair is another good brand as well. they have some good cases. NZXT also IIRC is good. they usually had more flashy cases, but were always good. and i believe they had some non flashy cases that were stellar as well. extra expenses. HDDs are cheap. you can get a 3TB for $150 maybe? i could look to confirm but im lazy. As I said before, RAM prices have gone up the last couple years. i think 16GB will run you around $160? again i didnt confirm. back a few years ago you were looking at <$100 for $16GB. look into good fans. Corsair has killer fans that i run. but they add up. cooling as well, i run an H100i. not necessary, but more expensive then the best Heatsinks (and for the most part only as good) i just prefer the clean look with a Window. any LEDs? what about keyboard, mouse, monitor and headset?

I have a Fractal Define Arc Midi. LOVE it. I'd always recommend Fractal. Corsair is good too though.

by not a whole lot of improvement, I would honestly gear towards none. i would just leave the card out. less power draw, less heat, less chance for issues or incompatibilities. a 980 will have the power to run the game and physx no sweat. a dedicated Physx card was more for weaker cards that couldnt handle games and physx. now cards are strong enough, even a good mid range card, that a dedicated card for physx just isnt worth it, for the aforementioned reasons.

I use the 3570k. Never had any problems. Once you get to that tier of CPUs, quad core and a solid GHz, you're going to be fine. at that point, its not likely your CPU will be your bottleneck. Adding additional GPUS increases horsepower, but not VRAM. when you have multiple cards they need to be the same card anyways. but VRAM is not doubled. so two 3GB cards is 3GB, not 6GB. its frustrating but thats how it is. I don't really know the technical reasons why, I'm sure others know if someone wanted to explain it. or you could Google it. its nothing complex, I've seen the reasoning behind it, i just never cared to remember....you could add the second card for Physx, but I'm pretty sure tests have shown that a dedicated physx card doesnt actually do much, that a single Good GPU can't do by itself. but i digress haha Depends on your budget what you should get. can you afford a 4GB card? if so, then go for it. I have a 3GB 7950, and I havent had problems BUT i don't use a lot of mods. I think you'll be ok with 3GB, though 4GB would be better for obvious reasons. maybe someone whos up to date with the cards and the mods can elaborate just exactly what you can handle with a 3GB vs 4GB card.

ive played both, modded, on Win7 and never once had a problem. the thing is, saying youre making a build for a specific game isnt going to get you any different results than if you were building a rig to play games. you build a gaming rig, and its going to be able to play games. the specs you have listed will play FO3 and NV maxed out, with mods, and most new games maxed out as well. if youre looking for a crap ton of mods, VRAM is your friend.

Steam doesnt have a monopoly because there is Origin as well. same thing but from EA. there are even some games that are on both Steam and Origin. Also there are plenty of games that dont require you to have Steam. Those that do likely have a contract with Valve to have their games published on there, and if someone buys a physical copy, it must register with Steam. that fact though does have many gamers complaining, as, like you said, if you buy a physical game you shouldnt have to have anything to do with Steam. but cest la vie, thats how it is. others, like myself, dont really have any issues with it. i love Steam. its a great way to have all my games in a library and able to play with a click of a button, keeps everything up to date, sales often, DLC, and mods.

inb4 "buying an Alienware was your problem" but in all seriousness. what games are these spikes occuring in? what is going on onscreen when they happen? lots of action? lots of NPCs, particles, going in and out of a world, fast travel etc. also how long into the game before they start happening? 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and hour or more? and how long do they last? are they just dips of a second or two? do they last multiple seconds? tied to the second question, do they dips stop, when action on screen changes? do you play with mods? the laptop isnt bad. but its not the best either. it might not be able to handle games with a lot going on on screen, or new games at high settings. plus youre using an external monitor, that eats up performance as well. depending on whats going on it could be your VRAM getting capped, or your GPU just not being able to handle something going on.

ive had an Asus Gaming Laptop in the past. it was $1000 new, several years ago and it was good. your minimum price for any laptop will be $1000. if you find something cheaper, you should probably ignore it....Asus and MSI are pretty big when it comes to gaming laptops. Lenovo has made a few good ones as well. actually I was looking recently and Lenovo had the cheapest, best system. I wish i still had it saved. it was a few years old, hard to find places that were selling them online. but yea. ofc there is always Alienware. but its over priced. I mention them, but dont suggest them.

first, what do you consider cheap? what is your price range? second, as everyone else stated, do you need a laptop? if not then desktop is the way to go bar none. you wont be building your own laptop. you can customize one on different websites, but it gets expensive fast. you can also have (usually those same) websites build you a desktop computer. its more expensive then building it yourself, but its a good option if youre not up for it yourself. building it yourself is the best case scenario though. you get to hand pick your parts, so you can feel confident in what you are getting (vs some random chinese equivalent) you can get the models and brands that are performing the best, so your power per dollar is capitalized upon. honestly building a PC is extremely easy. theres tons and tons of videos out there, forums, build logs. i mean you name it. as far as a PC goes, to build something worthwhile id be looking in the ballpark of $800-$1000 for the Desktop itself. yes you can go cheaper, but id argue that its not worth it. you only want to play Skyrim reasonably, which isnt hard to do, but if a game comes along (say Elder Scrolls VI) that you want to play, even reasonably, a >$800 is going to have a real rough time of it.....continuing on, if this is your first PC, youll also have to factor in monitor, keyboard, and mouse at least. of the three, invest in a good monitor. expect at least $200. while a solid argument can be made for a good keyboard and mouse (and i dont disagree) if you need to keep a budget, you will make it going cheap here until you can upgrade. lastly as Vagrant said, theres also a Desk to consider. if you literally just need a piece of wood with legs to hold the monitor and such, $100-$150 will get you what you are looking for. if you plan on an office of any sorts, or any desk with features or hell, even a desk thats a case, the price will go up as expected. anyways, let us know some more details. what specifically you need. price range. interest in building vs buying pre built, etc. we can help you from there

i use a Program called BitDefender. its a paid program, but i run it on my PC and phone. its got a bunch of extra features too. so far ive loved it and would recommend it i also use Malwarebytes for my on the spot scanning. as does the business I work for.

i have a friend, who has an old PC. his died on him the other day. he said it would freeze at the windows logo screen and he got a BSOD. he has stuff on there he needs however. so i told him Id take a look for him. I tried hooking up his PC to my monitor via VGA, and my monitor wouldnt read his computer? just went into power saver mode. so I hooked his HDD up to an external kit and tried to boot to UBCD4Win, but that game ME a BSOD? so i tried to see if i could just view it normally but when i plug the HDD, Windows wants me to format the HDD in order to view it. which of course, would be counter productive. so how can I get files off his HDD? any other software I can try? i just had UBCD4Win from my days in school.