PC Choice

[FishFiend]

okay so I'm buying a new PC and i have got the specs of 2 that have caught my eye and while i am able to build the PCs i am unsure of which will run a heavily (i mean 100-200 mods) modded Skyrim better

 

my first is this

 

Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz 6MB Cache LGA1155 Ivy Bridge CPU

 

16GB DDR3 A-RAM 1333MHz PC-10600 CL9-9-9-24 (2x8GB)

 

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA1155, 4xDDR3, 2xPCIE, Int. Graphic, USB3.0, RAID

 

Gigabyte PCIE GTX560 1GB 256-bit DDR5, 2xDVI, Mini HDMI

 

1TB 1000GB Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EZRX SATA III 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache

 

120GB 2.5" Intel 330 Series MLC SATA III 6.0 Gb/s Solid State Disk (SSD)

 

800W Thermaltake TR2 Bronze Power Supply

 

$1213

 

or the other i'm looking at

 

AMD FX 8150 Eight Core Black Edition 3.60 GHz, Turbo Core up to 4.20 GHz, 8MB Cache, AM3 CPU

 

32GB DDR3 G.Skill 1333MHz F3-10666CL9Q-32GBXL CL9-9-9-24-2N (4x8GB)

 

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 AMD 4xDDR3, 4xPCIE, USB3.0, RAID

 

Gigabyte PCIE GTX560 1GB 256-bit DDR5, 2xDVI, Mini HDMI

 

1TB 1000GB Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EZRX SATA III 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache

 

120GB 2.5" Kingston SSDNOW V+ 200 SandForce2 SATA III 6.0 Gb/s Solid State Disk (SSD)

 

750W OCZ ZT Series 80+ Modular Cable Management Power Supply.

 

$1235

 

okay so im looking for someone to tell me which i should get i am very open to suggestions on what to change to help improve the performance

 

Thanks in advanced

 

-Fish

 

PS. i must have 2k textures and a lot of npcs (modding has gotten me addicted :P)

[Erkoum]

Hi

 

Both PC are good for running games in High/Ultra altough I recently bought myself Nvida GTX560Ti (after beeing several years of ATI fanboy) and I have to say I'm not pleased with Nvida drivers not at all.

Except this both computers are good altough I would prefer first one because 800w PSU and u really don' t need 32GB 16Gb is more than enough.

 

But that' s just my opinion.

[samadchaz]

GTX 560 is not enough wait for a 660 ti(mid august) or go for a 560Ti(Asus or TwinfrozrII)

[blove]

If you must have large textures be sure to get a video card with more than 1GB of memory.

[fms1]

If you must have large textures be sure to get a video card with more than 1GB of memory.

 

Definitely if you want to run 2K textures you need more than a 1GB video card, everything else will be more than enough to run Skyrim on Ultra.

[FMod]

Neither. If possible at all, neither. If not, the former is less bad.

 

You need a proper GPU - HD7850 is the best close to your price range. Maybe even HD7950 or GTX670.

Intel 330 isn't very good, you'll be better off with (cheaper!) Vertex 3, or, even better, Crucial M4

Both PSU aren't good, get Corsair TX650V2.

Use Samsung or Hynix RAM. 8GB is well enough, although 16GB is only slightly costlier.

[uberness23]

Echoing what others have said on the 560. If you want to run a heavily modded game you need a hefty amount of Vram 1GB wont be enough for the most demanding mods. To give you perspective, my Radeon 6990 still has trouble sometimes with certain configurations. A combination of incomplete multicore (my CPU barely ever sees more than 12% usage, and even then only across 1-2 cores) support, lack of 64 bit support (which is understandable), poor support for tri-fire/tri-sli, and the fact that hardware is always ahead of software means that even the best machines will simply crash out.

 

That being said, I'm very pleased with CrossFire support between 2 cards. Sli is supposedly good as well, although that I can't verify personally. If you really must have all the graphic mods with the best ENB and all that jazz, you're going to have to look at a 580 or better. Of course if you're not as much of a graphics Nazi as I am, a 580 may very well be overkill.

 

Additionally I would avoid the FX8150. I used to run a Phenom II 1100T that consistently BEAT an 8150 in both personal tests (Myself and a friend) and across numerous benchmarks, specifically in Skyrim. AMD (and I love them, but I'm a little disappointed in them lately) seems to have built a CPU that doesn't really have a niche on the current market. Also consider that 8 cores is waaaay overkill. Skyrim wont even touch 6. The Phenom II is till a very solid chip, and I got some of my best gaming sessions from it, although with Intel's 22nm Ivy's it's a tad dated.

 

EDIT: Get a different SSD. Intel is overpriced for the performance on that disk. Pretty much agree with FMod, although my little Mushkin Callisto 240GB has served me quite well.

[tanoman]

I'd go for the first one, Intel>Amd man, and if can OC that ivy even better, I'm guessin 4.8 or 5Ghz for sure. 16 Gb ram is great. Now, I'd recommend GTX 680 (since Physx it's awsome) although ati 7970 rocks too.

[Erkoum]

Echoing what others have said on the 560. If you want to run a heavily modded game you need a hefty amount of Vram 1GB wont be enough for the most demanding mods.

 

I can' t agree u here, if he takes GTX560ti it will run every game (at the moment) on the market in ULTRA with ease.

[fms1]

Echoing what others have said on the 560. If you want to run a heavily modded game you need a hefty amount of Vram 1GB wont be enough for the most demanding mods.

 

I can' t agree u here, if he takes GTX560ti it will run every game (at the moment) on the market in ULTRA with ease.

 

There are 1gb ver. and 2gb ver., the 1gb ver. may do that with vanilla games, but not with 2K textures.

 

EDIT: Monitor resolution matters a lot too.

Edited July 26, 2012 by fms1