FMod

You don't paste the updates, you run them. Then they update the game.

HD6850 and GTX460 are by far the most powerful GPU on your list. HD6850 is only a little slower than GTX560 and almost 1/3 faster than GTX550. The other two are just slow. There can be some debate between 460 and 6850. HD6850 is faster at stock speeds, and it's newer, with more features. GTX460 can be overclocked to match it. The performance of HD6850 is more consistent, it can handle higher resolutions and very complex scenes better than GTX460 (performance doesn't drop as sharply). If your TV is 3D-compatible, so is HD6850, it supports it via HDMI, can handle it at moderate settings, and runs it at no extra charge (for nVidia it's a $40 charge to enable 3D gaming). Going for GTX460 could be more timely driver updates by nVidia, while AMD is less consistent with that. On the downside GTX460 consumes more energy (TDP 160W vs. 127W for 6850), and there are fanless HD6850 versions available. There is just one HD6850, but there are officially 5 versions of GTX460, most of which are slower than the standard, and some research is required to be sure which one you get. So the best choice would be HD6850, but if you find a GTX460 on sale for considerably less money, it's OK too. If you are not in a hurry, HD7750 should come out Q1 2012, and it will probably cost $149 (since 7850 is $199, and there is 7770 in between). It might or might not be better bang for the buck than 6850, but will definitely consume even less power.

Excuse me for saying - but it's not. Not nearly. Not nVamp, not PN, not FOOK, not anything. At most they push the point where you are G-d (I could live with playing Terminator, but you aren't even that) a few levels up. At level 14+, only excessively careless play can get you killed. The problem is not there. For one, realistic combat is when people go down from 1 (one) shot to the head with a 9-mil, not a few, and so do you. Or with 1 shot from anything more powerful than a 10mm pistol, if you're wearing a helmet - they can protect from pistol rounds, but no helmet has ever existed that can stop rifle rounds (power armor might). Maybe 1.5 shots, to simulate cases of people surviving a shot to the head or jaw hits. In fact, the problem is high realism in damage department... and no realism in AI department. In real life, snipers can score hundreds of kills, as long as they aren't noticed - which, in real life, takes extreme care and frequent relocation. In FNV, you have to be in the guy's face for him to notice you, so staying out of range and taking them out is a piece of cake. When I first started playing FNV, I downloaded all reasonable difficulty mods I could find, then made my own, which made most creatures rip you up, maxed out AI specs, all that. Since I remembered how easy FO3 was, and wanted to avoid a repeat experience. But still at level 2->3 I managed to crawl from Goodsprings straight to Vegas, cleaned out the casinos... by level 15 I abandoned the game, because it wasn't a game anymore, it was a walkover. Bethesda should have taken lessons from Operation Flashpoint, which did 100+ sq.mi. of landscape without deactivating actors, and actually worked. You could still exploit it, but at least it took some effort to do so. Not a big deal. The engine can partially auto-generate the world, like it was done in Oblivion for territories outside Cyrodiil. There are tools to finish the job. If you are just going to recreate Fallout 1 and 2, you don't need to actually design these empty territories, just auto-generate them.

7970 isn't even out yet, and will cost $550+. Try turning some settings down, particularly shadows, it will help. Also, don't install every 2048x2048 mod you find, the textures are usually upscales, which is a useless exercise in wasting GPU power.

Not meaning to be contrarian, but there are better programs for this. And it really weirds me out. I use voice-rec in flight sims, just because HOTAS doesn't have enough buttons and you can't let go of the stick. But in Skyrim? You could just buy an intact mouse.

Turn the shadows down to High, not Ultra.

A lot of people thought, but no one seriously, I think. It's not really a lot of work. What takes 90% of the time is creation, not implementation. If you have everything spelled out for you, it's real easy to go ahead and code it. However, I don't think it would be all that amazing. Agree or disagree, but Fallout's combat system wasn't broken. FO3's and FNV's is. It's more realistic, for sure, but at just level 10, at max difficulty, with a balanced (not combat-centered) character, I could exterminate about the entire Mojave Wasteland. Except for BoS and... well, if you count Gannon family, that too. Get them just visible, aim for the head, *click*. Next. In FO3 that would be harder due to all the supermuties, but for exterminating all humans except for BoS even level 6 would suffice. Gameplay-wise, FO1 and FO2 were much more involving. Combat is actually challenging there. A port to FNV engine with its broken combat would make the games overly easy. Short travel distances aren't helping either, ruining the challenge that the V13 timer brought to the game.

It's up to 64GB for SSD cache. The way to use a SSD is to have your OS on it, some games (you'll really have to start changing the install directory to something other than C:\...), and with Z68 some space for SSD caching of the HDD. You don't need to spend the whole 64GB, just 16GB or so works fine. Or you could spend more space while you don't need it, then cut down the cache as you need more pure SSD space. That is a concern. How many USB 3.0 devices do you plan on having though? It might not be a big problem really. The only devices that use USB 3.0 are newest external hard drives, and you need a USB->miniUSB cable for them already. Pretty much everything else is USB 2.0, or even 1.0 (keyboards, mice, game controllers). Not sure if two 4-pin connectors matter at all. Most Asrock boards have a 4-pin Molex for power delivery, but it's not necessary, it just lowers the load on the cables or allows some late-2000s era PSU that have separate 12V lines to supply more power. Extreme4 Gen3 is good, but if you want to save some money, Extreme3 is very similar for a good bit less. If you buy the Elysium case, a 2xUSB 3.0 header is integrated with it already.

It really depends. There are people surprised at why would anyone need a 40"+ display and 6"+ speakers - and then there are people puzzled why doesn't everyone run a 100"+ projection screen. If you have the space, don't write it off, playing on a big screen just adds an extra dimension to the game, like how you would install Qarl's texture pack, even if visuals aren't the reason you're playing. If not, well. But TVs today are cheap enough to seriously consider, so price shouldn't be what stops you. Well, it's not clear if it is faster or significantly faster even there. Momentus XT has very little flash memory, it's not very fast, and the controller isn't good either. It only just gets on par with good laptop drives. Compare it to this: http://www.storagereview.com/samsung_spinpoint_m8_review Desktop drives are often faster. WD Caviar Black, the latest model, will probably be faster about everywhere. There was a disaster, the floods in Thailand that damaged most HDD makers and specifically Nidec, the main hard drive motor maker. So HDD will stay expensive for a while. The prices are also very haphazard, you can get good deals and terrible deals, without any relation to the price. Well, what about this one? http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3 It's got USB 3.0, two on the rear and two optional extras, it's got two max-speed PCI-E 3.0 (which will matter), it's their top series with all the features, it's black with gold detail, and it's very attractively priced, Newegg has them starting at $115. Asrock probably figures people will go for Extreme4 - no need to, Extreme3 has everything you need.

Well, if it's cheaper, then yeah. I don't track the prices, they change every week. I see Newegg doesn't even seem to stock the RAM I had in mind. But just to know, RAM clock rate means very little. Personal choice I guess. In my time, I've gone from 11.5" CRT, to 14" CRT, to 15" Trinitron, to 21" CRT, to 24" Trinitron, to 30" LCD monitor, to 40" LCD TV, to 72" projector screen, to that and a 55" 3D LED TV. Each time felt like I had to watch all my favorite movies all over... the last time I was divided though (and 3D is pretty lousy yet). For me, it really made a difference in immersion. First I was just playing around, then on the outside looking in, and finally on the inside looking out. For the feel of being there it will take a few more generations of hardware, but I hope to get there someday. That's what I mean by immersion, just how deep I am in the world. For your preferences it might not be a good thing, but just in case, check out some friend's system that has a 40"+ TV, hi-fi surround sound, and lights turned off - you just might get hooked. Or not. But if there is a field where size matters, it's displays. OK... I guess you did, but just for this, make sure before you buy, because it's not as great as it sounds. Just check some reviews - it's fast for a laptop HDD, but not as fast as desktop HDD. And you don't need it at all if you buy a Z68 board and a SSD - they can use SSD cache on their own. This review puts it in comparison: http://www.storagereview.com/seagate_momentus_xt_review You can see it's pretty fast, but only competing with the best laptop HDD, not ripping them apart, falls well behind Velociraptor, and far behind SSD. It's just not that fast, and it costs a premium. Better invest more into your SSD. AsRock is very good in terms of build quality. It's not the best overclocking-wise, but really you're talking 4700 MHz vs 4800 MHz, tiny difference. I think you can find boards with USB 3.0. $125 is a good price. Z68 has the advantage of SSD caching, which lets you use your SSD to speed up the HDD. And it can work without a GPU. And it's guaranteed to work with Ivy Bridge. Not much difference, but that's it. However they'll have Z77 (probably) when Ivy Bridge is out, that's a new chipset all around. i5-2500K overclock very well and easy. Stock is 3300->3400->3700 MHz (stock->turbo->max turbo); you can get 3300->4000->4300 (stock->turbo->max turbo) no problem at all. I've tested mine at 3300->4600->5200 MHz, although 99% of the time I cut it down to 3300->4400->4700 to save power. So a good heatsink is a worthy investment. Mugen 3 is less than $50 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185168 - and it's worth the extra. Hyper 212 is good, but it's not as good as Mugen. Besides the stock fan on Mugen is pretty good and you don't need to replace it, so there's almost no extra cost at all.

This doesn't hold true for my experience. I've been involved in the Fallout modding community since Fallout 2, and on Bethesda boards since 2003. In the meantime I've come to know a number of modders, and quite a few people I know to be responsible and respected members on other boards have been banned here for things that would hardly warrant as much as a verbal warning anywhere else. In fact, checking my mod load orders, about 1/4 of the mods and their authors have been deleted and banned from Nexus. Maybe it's my choice of mods (some are indeed as edgy as Wasteland Flora Overhaul), so I won't cast definitive opinions. But my impression of Nexus etiquette is that it's akin to a graveyard: don't say if it isn't nice, lest you join the residents.

Yet there is no law that requires you to quash the freedom of speech just because you own an establishment either. It's not a discussion on what the owner is in his right to do, but on how we would prefer this community to be treated. Yes, it is. You also have to actually be a jerk for it, not just say you don't like some books, and you'll normally get a warning or more than one before being kicked out. Well, anyway. Don't mean to split hairs on this. Let's just say in my opinion this site is being policed more like a corporate guestbook than a community forum, and in my opinion the latter would be more fit to the role of a central modders' resource. Your opinion can certainly differ, and I would be a hypocrite if I didn't respect it.

Then I could suggest a few things, as one old-school overclocker to hopefully another: Switch 2600K for 2500K. Cheaper and just as good. It even overclocks better. Hyperthreading is bad for games anyway. GTX570 is getting obsolete: HD7950 is out very soon, and it's fast. Don't pay extra for "cool" RAM. It has no effect on performance. Get Samsung DDR3-1333 4GB - it's high quality, affordable, and it overclocks very well, to 2133 MHz in 2-stick and 1600-1833 in 4-stick configs. Not that there is a difference. Monitor... 23"? Today the top pick is 40" displays, but you can use 32". Anything smaller just doesn't quite cut it immersion-wise. Seagate Momentus XT is weak. It's been tested, you can google it. The results are unimpressive, it's not even as fast as best laptop HDD, much less desktop units. Better to get a normal HDD and a SSD for the OS and most demanding games. You can easily get away with a cheaper mobo. Asrock P67 Pro3 or Extreme4 is made by the same company (Pegatron designs and makes both Asus and Asrock boards in fact they used to be known as Pegasus before they split), it's pretty much just as good, and will save you money for a better display. Rather than buy Hyper 212 and replace the fans, you can just buy Scythe Mugen 2 and keep its stock fan. Better still, get Thermalright Macho, the new one that comes with a fan, is you can find it. That heatsink blows almost everything out of the water, for just $70. Arctic Silver 5 is very old, and it's really obsolete. Today's choice is Arctic MX-4, which is as easy to apply, while being 6 degrees better than Arctic Silver 5, and just 4 degrees behind liquid metal. It's not really expensive, either, buy the smallest package, it's still enough for ~10 installs.

Windows 7 x64 SP1 consumes ~14.5 GB of space upon install. This is official. Your install is likely to grow, but 32 GB will be sufficient for it, if you never install games and large software on C:\ drive. If you do, 64 GB won't be remotely enough. Steam is an especially common offender. I can fit my Windows 7 into a less than 20 GB partition, but that's me, I know the tricks. Overall, if you aren't very good with optimization, 120-128 GB is your best bet size. 256 GB is pricey, 100 GB is the absolute minimum. However, check the deals on older SATA2 SSD! They work just as great as new SSD, and cost much less. Crucial C300 128GB is still as great as it ever was. And OCZ Vertex 2 100GB is almost as good, a powerhouse SSD for a buyer on a budget.

Most noise in modern cases comes from components inside. You can replace the fans, but GPU cooling systems, not so easily. Really serious money-no-object high-performance case choice mostly boils down to Antec P193 vs Xigmatek Elysium. Antec is quieter than anything else, it supports the best PSU money can buy, CP-1000, it's very heavy (50 lbs with the PSU), very solid (you can jump on it no worries), not very large, but rigid, well-ventilated and very well-dampened. Xigmatek is larger than anything else, it requires less cost-efficient PSU, it's not as heavy and not as solid (don't even think of stepping on it), and it's not really quiet for air-cooled systems, but it has space on top to mount a water cooling radiator. Both these cases cost a bit more than you intend, but both are worth it. HAF X... it's good, but it's a compromise. And a case is something that lasts, if you upgrade your PC a lot. If you're thinking of water cooling, prepare to shell out $600-$1,000 for a starter kit. There are sealed systems for the CPU only, as cheap as $100, but these suck. They don't cool the CPU as well as good air coolers do, are less reliable, and do nothing to help your GPUs, which are the pieces that really need water cooling. BTW, are you building a LGA2011 or LGA1155 rig? I'd suggest going with LGA1155. The few features it doesn't have don't actually affect performance, and you'll be able to upgrade it for Ivy Bridge much sooner than LGA2011 users will be able. And 1155 is so much cheaper that it's a no-brainer.

You say "private website" the way you'd say "private residence". But when I think of a place for every modder to post his work, I think of a public library, or wikipedia, not a family home. That's the discrepancy that misleads a lot of people. Honestly, I don't see much difference. Are you in military service? I've been there, with no way out, unless I wanted a dismissal. And even there, I had the option, if I really hated the computers we had to work with (which are far less user-friendly), of getting transferred elsewhere, where I wouldn't have to deal with computers. In civilian employ, the employer doesn't even have a say if you want to leave him, you can walk out at any time and never come back. So you're not forced to publish your mods at all - and you're not forced to work in a computer-related job, either. But if you want to do it, you have, at least, the right to have your opinion about the policies and the availability of choices.

Well, that's largely what I said: not everyone who agrees to abide by the rules actually likes them. I'd wager most people who read them don't. But you don't have to like body cavity searches to still grind your teeth and fly on airlines, it still beats walking from LA to NYC. Nexus is no different.

If you want a good gaming PC, build one yourself. If you can't, ask your friends if anyone can, get him some nice Xmas gift for the trouble. If you don't have any friends who can (really?), try getting a local/regional store to build it. Brand names either suck for gaming, or they charge eye-gouging prices. And components... they don't even tell you who made them. So if you think it's all fine inside, don't; people who took apart their Mac Pros have been utterly disappointed by how cheaply the motherboard (the only thing there that actually comes from Apple) is made. You can only guess how low most makers let themselves sink.

You don't just go ahead and fit 2-3 GPU. 1. SLI and CF only make sense if you use high-end or near-high-end GPU. 2. High-end GPU are insanely hot and require a lot of space to cool down. Good air-cooled GTX580 cards take 3 slots, and another one for airflow. That's 8 slots already. Plus one for the audio card (you aren't going to run a $3,000 rig with onboard "sound", are you?) And most new mobos only have 6 ATX slots, the top one is taken already. So you NEED a 10-PCI case to comfortably fit 2 air-cooled GPU already. For 3 GPU, there is no point doing that for 95% of the games. But if you do, you need water. That, or a very very spacious air-cooled case, and being able to take the noise. So if you do want 2 GPU, and potentially 3, the case for you is Xigmatek Elysium. Read on it, it's amazing, objectively, just the big case out there. And it's not as expensive as you'd expect from how good it is. Is noise a factor as well? If so, Antec P193 could serve you well. It's not that big, but it's quiet, and it doesn't collect dust. However there is only a side grate, not a window.