Elysarian

Most obvious starting point for me (being as you wiped your computer) would be to make sure all your drivers - especially graphics are up to date, I'd probably check the sound driver too. Best bet is to go direct to the manufacturer's website (either amd.com or nvidia.com if you use one of the main gaming graphics cards in your computer) as the drivers supplied with windows - as well as the ones on Microsoft update are usually very out of date.

I'd say $1500 or less I have to work in UK prices but the conversion is usually straight for computer equipment (i.e. £1 == $1 US) The other posters who've pointed out that your upgrade options are limited are completely correct - the 775 board you have in there is pretty much maxed out with a C2Q in it (and is obsolete as far as Intel are concerned). The above is not to say that an upgrade is out of the question though - you could easily keep your existing case, RAM, PSU and HDD (plus any other bits that aren't soldered onto the motherboard!), just upgrading the RAM, CPU, Mobo and OS to something more current. There are two options I would consider: a recent (i.e. Ivy Bridge Socket 1155) Intel Core i5 processor with an SLI/crossfire capable motherboard (options there for future upgrade to Core i7 and dual gfx cards should the need arise) + additional RAM (can't see how your RAM is configured in your current system so you may have to replace the lot if it's in 1GB sticks) AMD FX processor (opinion is divided on these, they tend to be a little behind the Intels in pure performace but can save a little money) with an equivalent SLI/crossfire motherboard + RAM as for the Intel I personally went for the second option and will be upgrading my gfx from my current GTX460 later this year, got the added bonus of SATA3 and USB3 ports on the new board for any future upgrades. The operating system "upgrade" (you will have to do a clean install!) - some retailers will sell you an OEM (cheaper) version of windows as long as you order it at the same time as your hardware - you may even still be able to get Win7 from some too. Beyond this my only advice would be on gfx cards: if you go nVidia avoid anything that has a second digit lower than a 6 for gaming! (example: GTX640 is worse than a GTX560 despite being a newer card) Can't advise you on AMD/ATI gfx as I fell out with those years ago! (they may have improved since but once bitten, twice shy when it comes to crap drivers and poor AA performance) EDIT: As for building it yourself - not that hard really... the only tool you need is a crosshead screwdriver, it's not physically possible to plug anything in the wrong way around or in the wrong hole nowadays and itwill be cheaper than a complete new rig :)

Also, this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb613473%28v=vs.85%29.aspx The snippet in there that caught my attention is this: The article doesn't make it clear if that refers only to IA64 arch but I have a feeling it's global. Doesn't help people running 32-bit OS's though - they're still limited to 2-3GB ;) I recall reading somewhere that the memory managment routines for windows 8 have been rewritten so it is possible that this is the reason I don't get CTD's (running Win8 here with 16GB RAM)

Sounds more like a hardware issue to me - the same drivers are used for both the cards you've posted and I'm certain there's not enough difference between the cards to blame this purely on software... I'd be more inclined to blame the card here, have you checked the GPU temps while running Skyrim? - could be as simple as a badly seated cooler, lack of thermal compound or a bad fan.

I can't actually find a meshes folder in windows 8 :confused: (I'm still running a "clean" version of Skyrim with just Dawnguard and the official Hi-res gfx)...

I don't have this issue myself... could be a driver issue? or hardware? - what's your specs (preferably with driver versions)?

This is the problem with PC games, there's so much variety in hardware and software combinations (not to mention driver versions!) that it's impossible for game companies to test every permutation out there, there will always be someone with something that will clash. The reason you don't get crashes as much (they do happen sometimes with some games) with consoles is simply that there is only one platform that's fixed by Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft - the only variation that may occur is the console's OS version (in the case of PS3 and Xbox, but every game I've owned for PS3 checks you have the minimum version before it'll even let you install. 99% of the "my skyrim crashes" threads I see on this forum are from posters with a lot of Mods, I run Vanilla with just DG and the official hi-res textures... runs completely stable now and I've recently upgraded everything in my PC aside from the GFX card and HDD without reinstalling (Windows 8 apparently doesn't spit out its dummy and go off to sit in a corner swearing at you when you do this like earlier versions did - otherwise known as a bluescreen because the kernel doesn't match your hardware anymore)

Why would you want to kill him? Once you defeat him in the Soul Cairn you earn his respect and can summon him as an ally - I found this especially useful recently when I got jumped by 3 Elder dragons out in the middle of nowhere (Only "mod" I run at the moment is Dawnguard)... I summoned Durnevhiir and Odaviing to help out but it was still a close call! I like my Dova friends, just wish I could get Parthunaax to fight with me too! :)

A lot of download sites spam you with other downloads these days (sometimes hard to tell where your actual download is!)... I've been avoiding Cnet for a while now as they seem to insist on forcing a download manager on me. As for the Win 7 question, my brother runs Core Temp just fine on Win7 x64, I'm on Win8 Pro x64 and I've run it on my lappy which is on Win7 32-bit. That's all with sticking with the drivers I've chosen to install, not ones "offered" by the download sites - one point is to make sure your chipset drivers are up to date (go direct to your Mobo manufacturer for these, info for that can be found by running CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com and going to the Mainboard tab)

Exactly what I was going to suggest :) It works flawlessly under Windows 8 if you (like me) are mad enough to enjoy Microsoft's (beta) software (you'd think I'd have remembered the rule about waiting for service packs by now... after being around windows since 3.1)

I seem to recall mention on another thread that the particle effects that are used for fire and other similar things are switched off at low settings - not sure offhand what you'd need to tweak to put them back on but looking at the settings in the game launcher it's likely to be an ini tweak... You will very likely get framerate issues when casting though if you do switch this on :(

You have a very good point (apologies if I stated the obvious in my last post)... I'm really not sure why you're having this problem, I've just checked my game and I have a bunch of saves in there (including quite a few autosaves) with no issues whatsoever...

Instead of deleting them why not just move them out to another folder? Might make things a little awkward if you want to go back to an earlier save point but it would solve your issues.

The only quest that wasn't glitched that I used a console command to remove from my diary... I couldn't bring myself to kill him either for many of the reasons other posters have mentioned so he still live peacefully atop the Throat of the World in my Skyrim :)

you need to have absorbed one dragon soul per shout to unlock too (the additional words of most shouts need a soul each too).