I'm trying to decide between using my laptop or buying a console. My specs are:

Intel i5 2.4ghz
8gb ram
Nvidia GeForce GT 330M


I don't know much about my graphics card and I'm having trouble finding out about it online.. Based on what I've read on this forum so far, I assume I'll be able to run Skyrim, but are my specs good enough that the game will look better and run smoother on my laptop than on a console?

Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.4GHz (3.8 GHz Turbo Boost)
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 @ 6Gb/s Motherboard
Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Corsair 4Gb (2x2) DDR3 SDRAM

Maxed out with inevitable graphic overhaul mod?

The GT 330m will likely run Skyrim on pretty low settings, and you haven't specified which i5 you have, they'll all run Skyrim anyway though.

Intel? Core?i5-2500k Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
Windows home 7 64bit.

I'm planing on buying this, I am sure enough that it surpasses anything a console can do, but just checking.

I really only want to play games which are also coming out on consoles, could I drop a few things?

Im geting a new PC. and Im wondering if theres anyone that can tell me what I should get. I haven't been gaming on the PC for 5 years on this 10 year old computer of mine. I just want to have two games on it Bioshock Infinite and Skyrim.

Well are you able to build a PC? What budget are you looking at? What else is needed besides the actual tower? Keyboard/mouse, speakers, monitor, and OS disc all bring the price up.

The reason I want a new PC is because I dont own this one anyway, its my fathers. I want to have my own, and the reason I want to play skyrim on the PC is because Im assuming you have the freedom to modify your game more so than on a console. I dont know how to build a pc I have heard about places like new egg.com, but theres a lot of details that I need to know, like system requirements. Im not sure yet, what would be the apropiate price.

I wish I was gettign Skyrim for PC :'( But xbox is the second best thing

Well Newegg.com is a great place, same with Directron.com, and sometimes Tigerdirect.com has some good deals. Well for $750-$800 you could build a pretty nice PC that will max a lot of games out there, excluding monitor though. It really isnt that difficult to build, its a lot like Legos.

Do you think Skyrim would run with the same sytem requirments as bioshock infinite and visa versa? So far im only interested in these two games for the pc.

Although Legos don't require you to contort your hands nearly as much.

That's the major shortcoming with my main board right now, the SATA ports are in a very odd position and it takes a lot of effort to plug things into them.

In terms of component importance, for a gaming PC, the order would be GPU, CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, Power Supply, Main Board, Disc Drive. Get the best GPU and CPU you can find, RAM is important, but you can go a bit lower than high-performance on it if you want, same with the Hard Drive (just make sure you get one with enough space to store all the assets). Main Board is only a picky-choosy item if you're going for SLI, but otherwise, a mid-range MoBo will do just fine (just look for a decent Northbridge chipset). As for the disc drive, PC games practically never use it anymore outside of installation and disc-checks, so no need to go all-out on a fancy one if you don't want to.

you can be pretty rough with the components hell RAM sometimes needs a good amount of pressure to put it in.

But ya some motherboards are very tedious where they put their ports for some reason. My ASrock extreme 4 has all 8 of its ports on the right hand side of the mother board and I cannot see anything without taking my 580 out which again does not take much steadiness in the hands.

Everything on the mobo these days is labeled the things that are not are either blatant such as a GPU or RAM or the cords to them have a very noticeable male/female connector. The hardest part of putting a rig together is the LED's pretty much.. 5 cords 6 pins each one has a colored wire one for + one for - which pin is positive and negative is labeled as very small print on the board next to each pin.

Well we dont know the official requirements for either of the games yet, but most modern PCs with good GPU's and CPU/RAM combo's should run the game fine. Assuming you build it yourself you can get a good deal between $700-800.


http://gizmodo.com/5822125/black-lego-pc-mod-has-loftier-tasks-than-just-playing-doom/gallery/1

one more thing is that every time I post something then I see your response. THIS IS FRUSTRATING

yep or very similar I would say Skyrim will have the exact requires Fallout new vegas has

I think it'd be cheaper to buy an xbox 360.

That said, will we be able to Mod for the 360?

you think wrong.

and no

1. Are you here in the states?

2. What is your budget?

3. Are you dead set on getting a pre-built?

I live in California, im will to pay 800, or so and I dont mind building it my self, Im careful when it comes to new things.

Right now, the available CPU power per dollar is a tremendous bargain, but it is also HUGE overkill for almost everything that ordinary people use PCs for. Fast dual core CPUs are about as much as any game needsa or uses particularly well, but we can get six cores, and eought cores for very reasonable costs. I suggest a quad-core as a compromise, in case you have to hold onto the PC a few years, and game developers start actually using more than two cores.

Graphics (at the mid-level particularly) has been a real bargain also for a couple of years (although at the very pinnacle, the high end cards are more expensive than they have ever been). You want a card with at least a 256 bit memory system so that you can actually manipulate a full GB of VRAM on a normal basis, without any hangups (there are both Low End and Medium cards with that much RAM attached that can never access it all while in a game, because of narrow memory system bandwidth). You want either a Geforce 560 Ti or a Radeon HD 6870 (and of the two, I believe that you get more performance per dollar for the Radeon).

The BRAND of your power supply is the most important item. Get a Corsair 550 or 600 watt, maybe a 650. You want Windows 7, 64 bit, and six to eight GBs of quality system RAM. You won't need more than four for quite awhile, but as long as the cost is so reasonable, and it is, be prepared in case you end up having to keep the machine more than a couple of years.

Can anyone rate my system?

Machine name: STACEY-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.110408-1633)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 09/10/09 16:12:49 Ver: 06.03
Processor: AMD Athlon™ II X4 630 Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3840MB RAM
Page File: 1483MB used, 6192MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode


Card name: ATI Radeon HD 4200
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x9710)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9710&SUBSYS_83A21043&REV_00
Display Memory: 1916 MB
Dedicated Memory: 252 MB
Shared Memory: 1663 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (59Hz)