So I moved recently and my roommate kept the desktop. I have a crappy Fujitsu Lifebook A6120 (it barely runs Morrowind), and I'm in the market for a new PC. My old machine could handle vanilla Oblivion pretty well, but I had a load of mods running and CTDs and stuttering were a constant source of frustration.

What should I look for in my next gaming rig? I'm on a pretty tight budget, but I have some older junk computers laying around from which I can salvage parts. I'd really only use the thing for Oblivion and other mod-friendly games (I'm rather attached to my 360). Remember that I'm not just running Oblivion, but pretty much every major mod there is, too. The next upgrade probably wouldn't be until TES V. Thanks for whatever advice you can give.

Mods with a lot of actors (overhauls) will stress your CPU, so make sure you get a good one. And then I don't mean a quad-core, I mean something with a high clockspeed: a dual core i5, core 2 duo, or a phenom if you need it a little cheaper.

A graphicscard with 1 GB of memory is also recommended if you want to run a texture replacer on a high resolution.

4 GB of memory shouldn't be a problem, as RAM is cheap these days. I'd recommend DDR3 if you budget allows it.

You may want to ask this also in the hardware forum, they could help you with the exact parts if you state your budget and location.

Cool, thanks. I'll post in the hardware forum too.

Keep in mind, that nowadays the biggest problem Oblivion faces in terms of performance ISN'T actually the hardware, but it's own engine.
Basically, you could build a rig with killer spec's, and I mean top-notch components, and it would still stutter, especially with mods.

Also, better hardware won't solve CTD problems stemming from mods. You gotta solve this by careful installation and good load order.

The engine doesn't work well with today's hardware, CPUs especially.

That's where questions like this belong.
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1074638&st=0&p=15630007&#entry15630007