Ok my pc is getting really old so I need to buy a new or slightly used rig and or parts to build a rig. I don't want to go crazy and waste money, but I don't want a POS either. My budget is probably 600-1000 bucks.

Whats the stuff I need to look for? I'm a bit outdated on computer hardware and the latest stuff.... are SATA drives, and PCI express still top dog on HD's and GPU's or are there better things out now? Is Intel still 1000x better than AMD? Its been about 10 years since I bought a computer, lol... so forgive me for my limited knowledge on latest hardware. Dual core or Quad core? Is there something better?

And as far as OS does windows 7 handle oblivion and mods ok? I've heard of vista causing a little trouble, but I don't want vista anyway, I'd rather just go straight from XP to windows 7 if it can handle mods ok.

Windows 7 works just fine with the games and with mods. It uses RAM more intelligently than Vista did. Just heed the warnings about the UAC and installing outside of the default directory.

What works well for Oblivion hasn't changed much. The game won't use much of a second core, so the clockspeed matters more than the number of cores. VRAM is important for the mods: 1GB works well. Arthmoor has a 2GB card, but that is probably out of your price range. Don't worry about multi-card setups via SLI or Crossfire. Expensive and the boost in performance isn't commensurate with price. A good fast harddrive won't hurt, but don't waste money on an SSD (solid state drive) yet. I've been watching the prices, and they need to come down quite a bit to make it worth the while.

FO3 runs better than Oblivion. It will make good use of a dual core CPU. I don't know that it makes use of more cores.

Intel only kicks the pants of ATI at the top end of the price range. I am running an Athlon II X2 250 dual core CPU at 3.0GHz. it works great.

RAM is important for both games. I run 4GB. More could be better. Less will start to hurt you. 3GB minimum, but RAM is cheap, so get enough. I am running DDR2, because of money. DDR3 is worth it, though, if you can fit your budget.

Video cards - I think right now, you will find better bang for your buck with ATI cards. I use an HD RADEON 4870 1GB VRAM. I play both games at highest settings with many texture replacers and other visual enhancement mods. Works great and only $150 or so. With more money, you could certainly do better.

To compare, I bought my motherboard, the CPU, the 4GB RAM, a 500 GB HD 5200 rpm, the video card and a 600W power supply for a grand total of $450. I kept my old case, DVD/CD burner drive, LCD monitor 1280 X 1024.

gothemasticator

Thanks for the info. I have 2 gigs of DDR2 just laying around so I might use it to start with. Athlon stuff seems to be priced pretty cheap from what I've seen. So when I buy a motherboard just make sure it has a PCI express slot? Is that what the high end graphics cards use these days? I have an AGP 1950 right now.

I recently upgraded my system as well and spent right at $500 for the upgrade (kept my old OS, HDDs, Monitor,soundcard and speakers, and PSU - and replaced everything else including Case, mouse and keyboard as my old ones were wearing out)) - see my sig for the details of what I bought and it runs OB very well (the only things I would probably do different is getting a 5850 instead of the 5770 for another $150 +\- and getting 4GB of RAM instead of just 2 (but RAM prices were fluctuating quite a bit when I bought and I figured I'd add more when I change to win7 in a few months)) as it is a much better video card (but the 5770 does run everything fine at my current 1680x1050 resolution and a second 5770 will give as good if not better performance if\when I upgrade the monitor to something larger so it is still a good choice if you want to keep the budget down !)

Previous recommendations seconded. I'm running an AMD quad core with 4GB of RAM. ATI 4870. I get ridiculous frame rates.

Most motherboards use PCI-E (express). You want to make sure that whatever MB you go with you can upgrade to dual video cards. If you go with ATI make sure it can do dual ATIs. Same with nVidia.

At some point I will upgrade to 2 4870s.

Make sure to check out motherboard-cpu compatibility. You don't want to get in a fix where you save a little on a motherboard only to find out it doesn't support the cpu you settled on.

gothemasticator

Dear JDFan, if it is not too much trouble for you, could you please quickly check out this thread post of mine in the Hardware section of Oblivion forum:
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=1076586&view=findpost&p=15667086
I have a question about textures flickering with the ATI 5xxx cards, maybe you can say something on that since you have one. That would be very kind. Thank you!

Well, after putting donated computers together for a long time, I can tell you one thing. If you want performace in games or anything else, buy good graphics cards. Since this is in a oblivion forum, I would just like to state that an 8800gts was pretty much the first cards to tame oblivion (benchmark wise). Or go for a 260 or ATI equivalent (depends on your pref & mobo)
If I were you and upgrading, first, I would look at my mobo, because that rules and overclocks all. More bang for your buck (cpu,gpu wise), if you know what you're doing.
Second, I would look where to get the best RAM (New or used) Essential.
Third, PSU. Must handle the mobo and graphics easily by itself. (figure in if you will add another graphics card in the future... SLI etc.)
Fourth, cooling. Take the side of your case off and run a fan if needbe. And understand thermals if you do. Thermal paste is required.
Check System specs normally and benchmark.

The rest is free if you know where to look.
(other than paying the electric bill)

a oldie but goodie keyboard is essential (somehow in case of failure)

Extras Include a nice case, mouse, hard drives, disk drives, soundcards, surge protector, etc.....

EDIT: and I use XP Pro and the penguin of my own design. Have been for years...

Another important factor - a good CPU. This is essential if you're going to be running mods like MMM with it's increased spawns - the more stuff happening in-game, the more load on the CPU. Go for a decent dual-core (Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz or up) or a quad-core if you want to future-proof. Aside from Intel, I'd also recommend the AMD Phenom II (great price, great performance).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ImageGallery.aspx?CurImage=83-227-218-Z01&SCList=83-227-218-Z01%2c83-227-218-Z02%2c83-227-218-Z03%2c83-227-218-Z04%2c83-227-218-Z05%2c83-227-218-Z06%2c83-227-218-Z07%2c83-227-218-Z08%2c83-227-218-Z09&S7ImageFlag=2&Item=N82E16883227218&Depa=0&WaterMark=1&Description=iBUYPOWER%20Gamer%20Battle%20Gear%20D8%20Phenom%20II%20X2%20550%283.1GHz%29%204GB%20DDR3%20500GB%20NVIDIA%20GeForce%20GTS%20250%20Windows%207%20Home%20Premium%2064-bit, what do you guys think? Seems to cover everything you guys are talking about. Is that video card a good one? The rest looks great to me.

That'll do just fine. You'll get a lot of advice that amounts to "You can get a better rig for cheaper if you put it together yourself." It's true. But, you've found a pre-made rig (+OS, no less) that fits your specs, can be shipped to you and has a 1 year warranty. I say, go for it.

gothemasticator

I would move this thread to the hardware section. Some people there are professional 'rig builders'. They'll build the rig for you with the best options available for the lowest price. While the setup you linked to is certainly not bad I think you might get better value for money. The GTS250 for example is not really the best card, for 50$ more you can get a much better one.

Plain and simple, yes, you should consult a hardware forum about this, but if oblivion is your concern, remember it was designed for single CPU. But if your a graphics oriented person and are looking to the future, graphics and (Mobo+CPU) is the way to go. Spend only what you need too at the moment, if you are looking for the best, as that changes daily, and I am sure there is better around the corner soon. Spend wisely.

There are many ways to compare online. My advice is ask your local computer shop if you have one, but don't let them force you into buying anything upfront. just listen and learn(If they know what they are talking about). Then make a educated decision based on you're chunk 'o' gold.. errr septims.
And yes, I buy local, if at all possible.

Here are a few links
http://www.futuremark.com/
http://www.evga.com/
http://www.newegg.com/
http://www.maximumpc.com/

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-31-322.html

They are very knowledgeable and you can basicly name your price and get about 3-4 decent builds (I'm talkin a list of every part you need to buy)
I always run my new builds by them and usually end up saving between 100-200 dollars...I just reinvest to make a better pc but you get the idea.

I would STRONGLY recomend you go there! lol good Luck!

Looking at the system it is not bad for the $699 but there are a couple things that do stick out a bit :

1.) the MOBO is based on the older 770 chipset which is a bit slower performance than the newer 790 or 785 chipsets and does not offer some of the higher end components - ie. It has only a single PCI-e slot so no xfire setups which limits the upgrade options

2.) the PSU is a no name brand 700W unit - I've never really liked having a PSU that I do not know the Manufacturer of as even though it is rated plenty high to run the system It does not say whether it has active PFC etc. so I'd always worry about it burning out and taking the other components with it . ( Though IBuyPower is usually pretty reliable :shrug: )

3.) The DDR3 1600 Ram makes no mention of the Voltage and timings it is running at and there are some pretty slow DDR3 1600 modules out there running with high latencies that cause some lower performance - so would like to know what they are rated before buying !!

4.) the X2 550 is a good CPU and many of them are able to unlock the extra cores to make them even more attractive but for heavy gaming and future proofing I'd prefer at least a triple core and if budget allowed probably a quad core chip like the Phenom II X4 955 (they are only about $50 more and worth it for the extra performance !!)

5.) the GTS250 is also a decent video card but if buying right now I'd suggest a DX11 capable card since it will become more of a factor in the next couple years and cards like the 5770 or 5850 are better performers and also use alot less power for the performance so keep your system cooler.

If you'd like I'll look over Newegg and see what I can put together for you at that price with a few changes - just need to know a couple things - like can you put it together or know someone that could and what parts do you have right now that might be reuseable (ie. HDD , Mouse\keyboard, etc. )

You don't need to worry about what video slot you'll get as all motherboards these days use the PCI-E format. AGP is a thing of the past. As for what to get, it would probably be a good idead to go high-end at the moment. ATI recently released a DirectX 11 video card, I forget what the number is, and Nvidia is suppose to be releasing one sometime in March. So if you go for one of those then you don't have to worry about upgrading for awhile. ATI seems to be leading with video card technology these days so you might want to consider looking into one of their rigs.

That's really not necessary. Having dual video cards isn't as good as alot of people think. You spend twice the money and get maybe only a 60% improvement in performance. Then a year or so later, there's a single card that performs just as well. And alot of games don't even make use of the dual card features. I'm pretty sure Oblivion is one of them. As long as you get a good video card, a single one is more than good enough. Especially for this game.

I am going to second this notion here. If you REALLY want dual vid cards, you can always get the x2 version in ATI, or, whatever Nvidia is calling theirs now. And unless you play at resolutions at or ABOVE 1920X1280, or thereabouts, sli/crossfire will do you very little, if any, good at all. Just not worth the expense.

I will third the notion. Dual cards are simply not worth the effort and expenditure. As well as the cards themselves, you have to spend a little extra making sure you have a power supply and motherboard to support it. THEN you have to tweak drivers and games to get it running smoothly, and in the end there are some games that just flat out refuse to work with it.

I implore you to consider more than just video cards. A strong cpu is the lynchpin of a gaming system these days, and while Oblivion doesn't use multicore, the vast majority of games released in the past couple of years do. I have fluid performance on high option on every game I play since I bought a Q9550 quad core cpu. And this is with a GTS 250, a thoroughly average video card these days.

If you only think about playing Oblivion, a fast dual core like E8400 or higher will do fine. They are relatively cheap today. They also overclock well which can be useful, requires experimentation though with Oblivion. If you think of gaming beyond Oblivion, then a quad core or at least AMD triple core is what you should be getting. In any case Oblivion is most definitely a game that highly benefits from a fast clocked CPU. The video card should be good but definitely needs not be state of the art, for resolution of up to 1920 x 1200, that is.

Read these three articles it'll take prob 30-40 min but you will have a much greater understanding on what to buy and why

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/273518-31-homebuilt-buying-guide
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/257075-31-guide-choosing-parts
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/269162-31-recommended-builds-usage

Hope these help!