The Geforce 9500 GT is the same design as the 8600 GT, a year newer, and on a thinner die wafer, so it's now four years old, which in gaming terms is VERY old, and in Geforce terms, is already getting shorted badly when driver updates concentrate on the new Geforces, and ignore the old ones. It's not any better than the HD 2600 Pro was, which is named as the minimum for DA2, but since the Geforce minimum is a 7900 GS, that makes Bioware's choice of a 2600 Pro questionable.

Either the 2600 Pro is correct and the Geforce choice should be the 7800 GS, or the 7900 GS is correct, and the Radeon should be a 2600 XT. Yes, I know that the Geforce 7n00s are FIVE years old, and the HD 2n00s are also four years old. But if a 7900 GS is "accurate", then technically an 8600 GT is slightly below that minimum, as is the 9500 GT.

You're sooo right...

Buying pre-made PC's is nearly always a bad idea, it always fails in some way or another. It's much better to take the time and effort to learn about PC architecture and components (it's not SO difficult after all), select your best price/quality components according to your budget and mount it yourself. Or take them to any decent computer shop and get them mounted for 50 bucks.

I agree Alienware is way overpriced. Building one yourself is always a better plan. My Sig Rig should handle it fine, though I plan on upgrading to a Bulldozer class CPU when it comes out. (Not for Skyrim, this is my video encoding machine/server/Gaming PC all in one)

No real difference between dd3 and ddr2 in performance. The motherboard decide that ram you have to use anyway. 2 * 2GB ram modules is enough for games and office use. 2*4GB if you are a power user. do not buy 4*1GB or 4*2GB as you has to throw away ram to upgrade.

Most motherboards only support 16GB ram or 4*4GB, The exception is Intel i7 series with 6 ram slots who support 6*4GB.

Can someone tell me how good these specs are please...intel core i5 processor, 4GB memory, 500GB hard drive

What a joke, its amazing people buy that stuff. I guess if your rich it does not matter but for the everyone else you would be a fool to pay for that.

Whoa how powerful is that? It says "Conquer and destroy any competition with the most powerful graphics in the universe". Is it really the most powerful pc?

for gaming purposes, the video card is what makes all the difference.

will you be doing other tasks on this computer as well, like photoshop, creative suite, etc., or is it mainly for gaming?

Mainly gaming.

Most probably? No.

There's always something that can be improved. And anyways, the most powerful PC you can build is even cheaper than that Alienware crap, if you take the time to select the components yourself.



Hard drive capacity doesn't matter in terms of performance (unless we're talking about being HDD's (which is your case) or SSD's), and you lack saying the i5 model / speed and your graphics card in order to properly advice you.

Sorry I don't have the exact specs but I remember the CPU is around 2.3 ghz and all it said for graphics was "intel graphics card".

Edit: here's are the specs... http://m.bestbuy.com/m/b/product/specification.jsp?skuId=1272996&pid=1218246222297&scr=&id=

2.53 ghz i5 intel processor with turbo boost 2.8 ghz? Not sure what "turbo boost" is.
And the graphics chip it just says Mobile Intel HD

Yes they do like everybody who makes high performance computers for sale, it's top of the line so they charges a lot, they also have the added cost that top of the line components cost a lot and become cheaper fast, so if they build a pc and it's not sold fast they lose money.


Skyrim has long load times? I have not noticed any load time at all. :whistling:
I only have a 256gb SSD

Its most likely skyrim will actualy run better on a given pc then fallout new vegas did because the engine simply is that much better.. You might have to turn down some eyecandy to get a frame rate you like but unless the integrated nvidia chip is rather poor it should run the game at mid texture detail with mid settings in most areas.

stilol even if it cant run it as well as you wish unless your computer is total poo it should be able to take an add in vid card. You should only start thinking about that tho AFTER the game comes out and you know how bad/good your current system runs it.

Also note if your gona get a new computer in 1-2 years dont bother upgrading this one as whatever you get 1-2 years from now will be more then good enough to run the game mid settings.

I was able to dig up the specs... http://m.bestbuy.com...222297&scr=&id=

2.53 ghz i5 intel processor with turbo boost 2.8 ghz? Not sure what "turbo boost" is.
And the graphics chip it just says Mobile Intel HD

I no nothing about the processor or that graphics chip.

You need a ATI or Nvidea graphic chip to run games, the integrated graphic from Intel will not let you play Oblivion or later games. Not even sure if you can play Morrowind on integrated graphic.

"Turbo Boost" is a nifty feature that overclocks a single core and downclocks the others to give heavy single threaded applications a speed boost while maintaining constant power draw and heat output. It's cool, but as the Core i range is already very, very fast, many tasks don't get the chance to benefit from it. Games, however, can, if they're not made for multithreading.

The CPU is....well, OK, but you definitely must buy a nice GPU in order to run Skyrim.

I'm going to be buying this pre-made rig from Newegg soon.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229226

$999.99 US
CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 2067
Phenom II X6 1055T(2.8GHz)
8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
1TB (1 x 1TB) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM HDD
24X DVD±R/±RW Dual Layer Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
PSU: 700W dual gpu ready
Expansion:
4 x SATA 3(2 available)
2 x PCI Express x16 - (1 available,this will allow a dual gpu crossfire config)
2 x PCI Express x1
3 x PCI - allowing for sound card and tv tuner card
(Already own dual Dell 19" WS monitors)

That PC will destroy anything for the next 3-5 years and can be upgraded considerably.

What would I need to do to this PC in order to play Skyrim do you think ?

__________________________________________________________________________
Operating System
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2

CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHz 60 °C
Yorkfield 45nm Technology

RAM
4.0GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-5-5-17)

otherboard
Packard Bell BV MCP73PVT-PM (CPU 1)

Graphics
Acer X193W (1280x1024@60Hz)
256MB GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i (Elitegroup)

Hard Drives
625GB Western Digital WDC WD64 00AAKS-22A7B SCSI Disk Device (ATA)

Optical Drives
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7203S SCSI CdRom Device

Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio
__________________________________________________________________________

This is mostly Greek to me, so, in Lay mans terms, if ya'll would be so kind :yes:

1) Doesn't your CPU support 64-bit OS?

2) The graphics card is a bit...weak. I suggest you upgrading. A Geforce GTX 560/570 has a good price/quality ratio.

All you need to do is upgrade your GPU.

Upgrade your OS to the 64bit version if possible - you're currently not getting all of that 4GB of RAM, and that'll be made worse once you upgrade the graphics card, which is all you really need to do.

It says I have 32 bit, as you can see, but I wouldn't know how to go about finding out if it does support 64 :violin:

Edit: And if I can how would I go about doing that ?





Thanks for the fast replies. As you can probably tell I don't play games on the PC all that much. Just decided I'd get Skyrim on it because of the obvious benifits of mods and such.

I'll do it for you: Yes, it supports it, so install a 64-bit enabled OS.

Look at ATi cards also, if you're low on budget. They also offer nice price/quality stuff. But don't get anything lesser than Radeon 5xxx series (best if it's 6xxx).