Let's build a Computer!

[Deathgod881]

windows 8 has some compatibility issues or so i have heard also its a pain in the neck to use as well. At least thats what people on mmo-champion told me in the forums

[PunisherX100]

I am in the process of building a gaming rig. Deciding whether to put Win 7 or 8 on the SSD.

What do you guys recommend?

[mikegray]

Couple remarks:

 

- All things being equal, Windows 8 might actually be the better bet. You probably want a long-term solution, and W8 will be supported longer than W7 will be. I've run Skyrim just fine on my wife's (under-powered) W8 laptop - with all kinds of mods. No problem at all. Maybe some minuscule FPS drop, but you might eventually get some slight performance benefits due to newer drivers. I think it boots a little faster, too.

That said, I don't particularly like it. It came pre-installed on my wife's laptop, but I won't upgrade any of the 5 other PCs in my family. I'm not aware of anything that will currently translate into better real-world gaming performance, and it confuses the heck out of me. I've been running MS PCs since DOS 3.1, and W8 seems (to me at least) to stand more in the tradition of ME/Vista than 95/2000/XP.

 

- On GPUs: If you can fit a GTX Titan into your budget, by all means! That thing has 6gb VRAM (twice what a Radeon 7970 has), and VRAM is a central issue in Skyrim graphics modding. As far as I know, running two GPUs in SLI/crossfire does NOT double your VRAM, so the Titan is really the only way there is to get that kind of headroom.

 

- One thing, though: What kind of screen do you already have? Blowing that much crunching power into a 1920 x 1080 screen would be a crying shame! Your pleasure/price ratio would be a LOT better by sticking to a reasonable CPU (= i5) and an ... umm ... budget (?) GPU like the Radeon 7970 - and upgrading your screen to at least 2560 x 1440. I have a Dell u2711 screen, and going back to plain HD on my kids PCs is painful! Don't use an F1 engine to power a lawn mower ...