I'm wanting to build a computer for Skyrim... advice wanted.

[Guest deleted1497950]

I have been running Skyrim on an i5 laptop and needless to say the experience has been very limiting. I would like to build a PC so that I can run lots and lots and lots of mods (as many as I want, which is a lot) along with enb. With the following setup, what would be the weak link? What would be overkill? Thanks.

 

CPU Intel i7 4790K

CPU cooler Corsair H 100i 77.0 CFM

Motherboard MSI H97I AC Mini ITX LGA 1150

2x4 Gigs DDR3-2133 memory (G.Skill Sniper series)

128 Gig (or maybe 256 Gig) Solid State Drive

EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Modular ATX power supply

For the GPU I'm considering either the GTX 970 or 980, or else the R9 270, 280, or 290.

 

I don't really have a strict budget, but I obviously want to get as much bang for my buck as possible which is why I might go with the 970 or an R9 over the 980 GPU.

 

Also, if I get a monitor that supports 2560x1440 resolution would you recommend using that resolution, or would that too severely limit my ability to run many, many mods.

Edited December 7, 2014 by 2chi2

[flatline115]

This right here should work for what you want:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jQCsMp

 

Although the resolution is not 2560x1440 (it is 1900x1200) this should run everything you want.

[FiftyTifty]

You won't need the i7; Skyrim only utilizes four threads. That's just a waste of money.

 

For a couple games, a single 128GB SSD will suffice. No point spending more for space you won't use.

[Boombro]

I5 cpus are more stable, still great and for less cash. A good speed is 3.5 for setup with many heavy script mods.

 

If you new in the building pc buizz, go for fans. Less cash for less troubles. And there are many of them that are great with almost no noise expect that nice purr we all love.

 

650 watt is gpu min requirement. And that is a big no no. Go for 800-850 watt.

 

Keep in mind that higher resolution> less fps. My sister has that size. Costs some cash and it heavy. A skyrim grass overhaul with 2k textures on ultra and boom it went down on fps. If you really want that heavy of a modded Skyrim, go for lower than that. She went for in game 1380 something and it looks smoking with 2k textures, ENB, and a mod that adds more grass and flowers everywhere on ultra on 60 fps.

 

 

For gpus they are all fine. But you don't need that much power, but more vram when we talk Skyrim. Go for 3 or 4 gba of it. AMD cards are getting better and cheaper, but need a little better cooling.

 

SDD is not really needed that much if you don't want to waste money.

 

Good cases are haf from cool master, and they are cheap and strong.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Boombro

[Novem99]

650 watt is gpu min requirement. And that is a big no no. Go for 800-850 watt.

 

 

Absolutely ridiculous. 650 watt will be more than enough as long as he won't buy a cheap Chinese power unit.

[Boombro]

 

650 watt is gpu min requirement. And that is a big no no. Go for 800-850 watt.

 

 

Absolutely ridiculous. 650 watt will be more than enough as long as he won't buy a cheap Chinese power unit.

 

Wait, doesn't the card says it the min? I have looked at some and they list it as the min. Oh well, it seems I was wrong anyway. Thanks for pointing that out.

[dayglo98]

How are i5's more stable ? Never heard that anywhere.

 

R9 270 is rubbish. I just bought a R9 280X coupled with my i5-2500k running at 4.2Ghz, with 90ish mods running and Tamriel Reloaded ENB/Climates of Tamriel/RLO/Hi-res textures/LOD/Lush Grass and Tress blablabla. (Running at 1080p mind you)

 

FPS is generally around 55 fps, sometimes going in the 40's. My gpu is constantly at 99% usage and around 2.2Gb of VRAM usage. You will need much more power (I guess) if you want to play at 1440p.

[Amyr]

Bang for Buck

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($235.98 @ Newegg)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($104.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($390.98 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1148.90

Bang for Buck SLI Edition

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($235.98 @ Newegg)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($104.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($390.98 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($390.98 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($108.00 @ Newegg)

Total: $1567.89

Like Throwing My $ Away SLI Edition

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($339.99 @ Newegg)

CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($139.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($221.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($173.98 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($231.98 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Classified ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($705.91 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Classified ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($705.91 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($217.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $2794.71

Edited December 9, 2014 by Amyr

[Boombro]

How are i5's more stable ? Never heard that anywhere.

 

R9 270 is rubbish. I just bought a R9 280X coupled with my i5-2500k running at 4.2Ghz, with 90ish mods running and Tamriel Reloaded ENB/Climates of Tamriel/RLO/Hi-res textures/LOD/Lush Grass and Tress blablabla. (Running at 1080p mind you)

 

FPS is generally around 55 fps, sometimes going in the 40's. My gpu is constantly at 99% usage and around 2.2Gb of VRAM usage. You will need much more power (I guess) if you want to play at 1440p.

That because not many games, and of course not Skyrim, will make use of hyper threading of I7 cpu. I5 is still strong and can keep up with the next gen of games ( they really don't need that much of a monster cpu.)

 

Wait, what r9 270 has to do with r9 280x?

 

I don't know your load order or how much you know about tweaking Skyrim, but do you have mods that add things to towns like jk or more npcs? They tend to take a lot of memory. Try lowering your grass size in the ini too. And try removing some textures or changing to 2k if you are 4k. You don't want to fry that gpu.

[postal001]

If you want to play at 2560x1440 resolution with your requirements, I would get the 980 (or 290x if you want to heat your room at the same time). Higher res will require quite a bit more gpu power than for 1080p.