Hey guys, I am going to buy and build a new PC, hopefully by December. I have done a lot of research and these are my choices so far. I chose the motherboard and GPU so I will eventually be able to use SLI technology and I wanted a quad core, also so it won't be outdated next year. Please tell me what you think of this, and also I really want to know how well this will run Oblivion with Better Cities, FCOM, and RAEVWD as I will probably still be playing Oblivion for years to come. Thanks, guys!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146060

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182188

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130236

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103894&Tpk=amd%20phenom%202%20x4%20970

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125331&cm_re=nvidia_geforce_gtx_470-_-14-125-331-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284&cm_re=tb_hdd-_-22-136-284-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145323&cm_re=corsair_dominator_ddr3-_-20-145-323-_-Product

From now until December, there will probably be tons of deal changes. Should wait til the actual week or within of couple days to ask about part suggestions. The build you have looks alright, but do pay attention to combo deals that newegg may offer for each part...they'll save you quite a bit of cash, which can either be saved or used for something better. Examples:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.524423

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.514365

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&cm_re=samsung_1_tb-_-22-152-185-_-Product

just to name a few....


Also, this game is VERY hit-or-miss with SLI and Crossfire. I feel you'd be better off going with a cheaper motherboard and a more powerful single video card. This way you can get a cheaper power supply too. I'm not a fan of SLI or Crossfire at all...not all games support the techs so performance increases are not guaranteed...and when there is an increase, the performance gain can vary from 0-95%. Then there's the added heat and power consumption.

With a powerful single video card setup, performance expectation is hardly ever questioned.

What video card would you recommend?

Nvidia will be pretty much one generation behind AMD when the 6900 series video cards come out, which should be by end of November, which works out for you. Oblivion has always favored AMD/ATI cards, so I suggest going that route. If anything, I'd wait for those cards to come out at least to see how the prices will change for everything else because prices will drop. The Radeon 6970 is rumored to be 10% faster than the GTX 480, but with lower power consumption. The Radeon 6950 will probably be faster than the GTX 470 and again, consume less power.

For frame of reference, the GTX 470 would already max out this game, but those mods would affect any machine to be honest....stability of performance is not guaranteed when intensive mods are brought into the picture with this game.

This is almost like playing the stock market, but there's a "best bang for the buck" point when a card's retail price has dropped below what its performance commands, due to a newer version hitting the market, and nobody wanting the older one. If it still does what you need, you get a bargain. If you don't buy it, it disappears off the market as stocks run out.

However, you're never at the leading edge with that strategy, and you have to have your mind set on buying that "best card" as soon as the price drops, without being distracted onto the (better but much more expensive) one thatreplaces it. Almost as complex a game as Oblivion.

alright guys, thanks for the help. I'll probably change out the motherboard and gpu and go with a radeon HD card depending on which one sounds the best price-wise and performance wise at the time. But I have one question. I was looking at the Radeon HDs and some of their sockets are a 2.1 PCIe. Will that fit on a 2.0 PCIe MOBO or do I need a 2.1 PCIe on the MOBO?

2.1 is backward compatible and will run on any PCI-e version including 1.0 (though you may lose a bit of performance going that far backward) !

Okay cool. Thanks. And I actually do have one more question about SLI and Crossfire. If a MOBO has two PCIe slots but it says SLI compatible, does that also mean it can use crossfire too. I guess what I mean is do SLI and crossfire depend on the MOBO or the GPUs used?

You'd want to make sure that the board specifically says it can support Crossfire.Don't go with the assumption that just because it supports one, it will support the other. It depends on the motherboard chipset.

Alright guys, thanks for all the suggestions and responses. You have been very helpful.