I've got an HAF 932.
Your main considerations are going to be :

Space. Its a big case & wont fit easily on a desk or under one for that matter,
Fans. You'll need a few fans to maintain good air circulation.
Noise. Cos of the way its built (ie to have 2x 28cm fans + 1x 13cm fan) theres a lot of the case thats open. So if you've got a loud GPU, you're gonna be hearing it.

But, having said that, I'd recommend it if you need the room inside a case.

Can somebody please tell me what needs upgrading among my specs? I've been asking the same question for weeks now.

Current Specs

OS: Windows XP 32-bit (just bought Windows 7, so problem solved.)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13 GHz
3.00 GB of RAM
GPU: NVidia GeForce 9400 GT
Storage: 1 terrabyte hard-drive (along with a backup drive)

I don't know how anyone likes motion blur, I hate it. It would make Skyrim unplayable if it had it. Makes me sick. I just played TW2 and there was a blur effect when sprinting, nothing as extreme as motion blur but I still did not like it and turned it off with an INI mod.

CPU: Intel quad Core i7 CPU 965 @ 3.20GHz
RAM: 6.00 GB DDR 3
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
OS: Windows 7 64bit
HDD: 320GB Velociraptor (I used to have a second drive in but it died, I need to do some upgrading in the HDD area.)
Monitor Dell 30" at 2560x1600

Could prob get a core 2 quad pretty cheap, and maybe a new video card. Im not an expert on nvidia cards so im not sure what a step up from that would be..

I play on my laptop mostly right now, but my desktop will probably be needed for Skyrim.

The only upgrade I'm thinking of right now is one of those logitech gaming keypads, so I can actually reach the quick keys.

I gotcha beat, I have the Corsair 800D. That's a 24"x24"x9" steel case. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/jasonsteele/Comp%20related/IMG_0419.jpg?t=1295313160 and lives under my window rather than my desk.

Anyone thinking of upgrading specifically for Skyrim now should hold off. SB was just released and it's trouncing the I7 in many cases. AMD has something coming this summer. (Fall?) It's worth waiting to see what it's all about and what it does to the SB (all CPU) prices. GPU cost should be down to.

Edit: spelling/wording

I'm certain we don't know what the new engine will need so you'll just have to wait to be able to know what you need to upgrade. Though I'm also pretty sure your GPU could definitely use an upgrade. The recommended requirements for Oblivion also says you need 3.0 GHz so you should upgrade your CPU as well, I think your RAM should be fine (not sure). Exactly how much money are you willing to spend?

Well, I always supposed that the CPU and GPU were on the priority-upgrade list; everyone's talking about GTX-whaddyacallit's and I think someone even told me once that my current CPU was horrendous by today's standards. (Probably not that bad, since the frame-drop was only really bad with anti-aliasing and whatnot.)

This is why I really need to get a job this summer. I'm seventeen and I've only got around a thousand dollars in the bank, and most of that's going towards either fixing our old car in the back of the driveway or getting someone else's old car.

i7 950
ATI 5850
6Gb DDR3 ram
2 TB HD
win7 64 bit
22 inch LCD

I wont be upgrading

My gaming rig is in the corner and broken. I've removed everything and starting over. My laptop won't cut it, as it has overheating problems and I'm going to have to rip this apart once I get my gaming rig put together.

Desktop:
Core i7 980x Extreme @ 4.0Ghz
60GB of Corsair DDR3 @ 2000Mhz
Two Geforce GTX 580 in Sli.
160GB SSD
1TB HDD.

Laptop:
Intel Core i7 740Qxm @ 1.7Ghz
8GB of DDR3. 1600Mhz
Geforce GTX 460m

Okay, you guys ready for this?

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.2 ghz

2GB DDR SDRAM

GeForce 7800GT w/ 256MB 256-bit GDDR3

One 80GB IDE drive and one 500GB SATA drive

all connected to a Cooler Master 400W power supply and stuffed into an Antec Super Lanboy

Yeah, beat that.



Definitly building a new one next fall.

My current computer is dead. I'm borrowing a friend's laptop for now...

But I am going to be buying a 3,000 dollar Alienware laptop soon enough and for what? Only to play Skyrim of course!

Siggy. Will likely use it to play Oblivion as-is, instead of my planned upgrade. Wants bike moar :wub:

A word of adive: With Alienware, you're paying for the name. You can get a much better gaming laptop for significantly cheaper. Check out Powernotebooks.com

You can get a used/refurb Envy 15 that should be able to handle Skyrim at 1920x1080
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=HP+ENVY+15+-%22envy+14%22&_sacat=0&_odkw=HP+ENVY+15&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

Not sure what spec my processor is but I know it's 6 core AMD - hoping that Skyrim actually makes use of multi cores

Have an MSI mboard which has an overclocking switch - which I've never used and the GPU is a MSI 5770 which is also supposed to be overclocked - again i haven't done anything to it

Suspect that it will do fine with Skyrim and whatever mods become available that I end up adding

Save yourself some money and get yourself an asus laptop. Alienware is usually all fluff, no substance. And for 3k you can build yourself a beast desktop and a good asus laptop to boot. And a laptop JUST for gaming? I don't pretend to know your situation, but if you can, i'd go with what i've already suggested.


Asus Rampage Formula
Intel Q9450 (will try to clock it up to 3.4-3.5 ghz)
4gb of OCZ platinum Ram at 800Mhz (will probably add another 4 gigs if I think it'll help the game run any smoother)
Sapphire HD 5970 (if i see that skyrim can actually use good hardware this time around and can utilize crossfire, i'll put in another 5970)
right now got a 500gb Barracuda, but will probably bump up the total to around 2tb plus a SSD for the main drive. Or maybe a hybrid drive.

c'est ca.

Radeon 6850 1GB DDR5
3.2Ghz Phenom II Quad Core
275GB HDD
4GB DDR2 RAM
W7 64-bit

I really hope I'm able to run Skyrim on max settings with no lag. I could run Fallout 3 and NV maxed without dropping below 50 FPS, even with my old 4870.

Hopefully Bethesda's new engine is highly optimized.

Core 2 Duo (2.8 GHz)

2 GB DDR2

GeForce 9600 GT (512MB)

Win XP 32-bit

WD Caviar 250GB HDD

Built this computer back in '09, and all the components were right at the knee of the price vs performance curve. Runs games pretty well!

If I were to upgrade anything, I will probably only have enough money to buy more RAM (max out my 32-bit OS limit at least).

I'm going to wait on buying a 64-bit OS until I can afford much more RAM on top of the OS. Unless more games start supporting Linux. Then I can just go back to Dual booting Windows and Ubuntu (instead of running Ubuntu in a virtual machine like I do now).

If the requirements for Skyrim are high enough to where I think I'll have issues running it on Medium-High settings, I'll probably just do what I did with Oblivion and Morrowind. Get them for the console, and then buy them on PC later when the price of the hardware to run it has gone down significantly, and there is a library of mods already developed!

Macbook Pro 2010 15 inch
Core i7 @ 2.67 2 cores 4 threads
4 GB ddr3
Gt 330m
500 GB HDD + 1 TB WD external
Bootcamped Windows 7 64 Bit
I'll probably buy Skyrim on 360 for my first playthrough. I know this computer won't be able to run the game on the higher graphical settings or really handle any graphically intensive mods. My dream (extremely lame in nature) is to build my own rig, but I can't justify spending that kind of money solely for video games when my laptop handles everything else so well. I have the money for it but I really can't condone that sort of prioritization.

CPU - AMD Phenom II Quad 965 3.4Ghz
GPU - Radeon 5850 1gig DDR5
4 gigs DDR3 Ripjaws
Corsair 750w PSU and H50 CPU cooler
Windows 7 64bit
Generic nothing-special Asus mobo lol

I'm fully expecting to be able to destroy Skyrim's system requirements. I'd be surprised if I couldn't run it with high settings. (If not then there's always the option of getting another 5850 and putting it in crossfire )

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 2.8 (overclocks to around 3.0) GHz dual core processor: Yeah, its pretty old now, but I don't have the cash to get a new one, we'll see why in a bit
GPU - Currently an Nvidia XFX Geforce 9800 GT: Soon to be replaced by my brand spanking new (and yet to be delivered) Nvidia Sparkle Geforce 460.
2 Gigs of DDR2
Windows XP

Currently suffering from a nasty problem, though, that required me to basically gut my computer both software and hardware wise in an attempt to fix it. I think its a hardware problem. The issue is that, when under load, my computer bluescreens/crashes. I think its most likely an overheating issue related to my CPU (my thermal paste is practically all dried up. Gonna buy some more tomorrow). Hopefully I can fix this without spending any more money than I already have (about 200 dollars).

intel core I7 2600k
ASUS P8P67 Deluxe P67 3PCI-E16 Motherboard
8 Gigs of G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3
1 ocz vertex 2 extended sandforce 120gb SSD
1 WD caviar black 1TB sata 3 HD
Corsair TX850W 850W PSU
2 X xfx radeon 6950's
running on windows 7 pro 64 bit