I've had Oblivion forever now and have only been able to play it on the lowest settings. Even then my computer lagged like heck. Well for Christmas my parents are helping out with getting me a new computer. With their help I know have about a $1,000 to toy with. Now, I can get my tech-savy friend to help me see what parts I need. However, with the holidays it would take him a while to help me out. Not only that but I'd have to wait for him to come over to see what parts I need and then wait again for him to help me install the parts. I was going to ask if this Aurora Alienware desktop would be a good investment. I want to be able to play Oblivion with high graphics, and with such mods as deadly reflexes, revwd, FCOM, the whole 9 yards. So here's the link. I know it's Christmas so it might take a while to get a response, but I would appreciate any guidance that you guys could offer.

Thanks,
Daniel

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-aurora/pd?refid=alienware-aurora&~ck=mn

No, stay far away from Alienware/Dell, they are way overpriced. As always, building it yourself is cheaper/and more customizable. If you do build it yourself, what else besides the tower is needed? OS install disk, monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse can all bring the price way up.

I already have all of that, I just need the tower itself.

For your budget, definitely build it yourself. Avoid Alienware/Dell like the plague for gaming PCs...it's just too overpriced. If you want a suggestion for just the tower, here you go:

CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119215
CPU+MOBO Combo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.572739
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277
PSU+HDD Combo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.569066
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593...or...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150517&cm_re=radeon_6970-_-14-150-517-_-Product
DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Should be under $1K

One final question. Should I opt to get two of the same graphics cards? I've heard that if you use two of the same kind it can be more powerful than using 1 better graphics card. And should I buy multiple 4 gigs of ram? cause ive seen on reviews and my friend has told me he uses more. I think he told me he uses 12 gigs of ram so would I have to order 3 of those from that 3rd link?

CrossfireX really isnt that great, I used it for a year and it made way too much heat. With the 6970 you can max any game out there fine. As for the RAM, 4GB should be enough, you really dont need more unless you are video/photo editing.

It's consistent running a single powerful video card. Dual-card technology like Crossfire and SLI are not worth it to me at all. In many cases, you can get better performance with two slightly lesser cards, but in other cases you won't see much of a difference....not every games scales SLI/Crossfire well. Then there's the added heat, the need for a beefier power supply, and the extra noise. There's more to this second investment than just the card itself and it's just not worth it IMO.

As for 12GB of RAM...a lot of that is really unnecessary and is just for brag rights. 4GB is still quite enough. Perhaps more is useful if you're running some sort of CAD software, while video/photo-editing and crunching some other useless numbers.

8GB of RAM doesn't hurt. 12 is simply overkill for the vast majority of users.

Also, HD6970 ftw. Just one. It will keep up with any game you throw at it, and then some. Depending on the resolution you tend to game at, and settings you might enable (plus texture overhauls, or whatever, in some cases), the 2GB of VRAM really is quite nice to have, too.

Oblivion has a history of preferring ATI (now AMD) - and I can only assume that's still the case, to some extent. Per dollar, I mean, natch.