I've created this thread to help give some brief explinations on the parts of the computer for upgrading purposes and for a better general understanding of how your computer works together. This may become more in depth as i think of things so hang in there.

Central Processing Unit (or CPU):
This is the brain of the computer, the component that does all the math and number crunching. Obviously the better this component is the better your computer will be. There are two main companies that make Processors. Those being AMD and Intel. Intel is an older and larger company than AMD but don't let that be the decision maker for you.

Dual core CPUs are a new breed of CPU. These are theoretically speaking two single cores on one processor. You may think this means double the power but that would be incorrect. The CPU can still only run as fast as it's fastest core, which are generally slower than single cores. It's like horses. If you've got a horse that can run 25mph and you add another horse that can run 25mph it doesn't mean you will be moving at 50mph. It simply means you now have two horses that can share the load making it easier for each horse to pull, and if necessary, pull more. Most would point out that at this point there is little reason to buy a dual core CPU unless you are a very heavy multitasker, because a single core CPU will perform better in most applications until applications come out that support dual core technology. This may be seen within a year. Dual Core processors are now on par and better than single core processors. Intel has revamped thier dual core technology and AMD dual cores have always been good chips. Another simple yet important part of the CPU is the cache. In general the higher the cache the better the CPU can run. This is something that may be overlooked by the novice, but if you see two chips that appear to be the same in speed then look at cache to determinate which chip is better. Cache is like memory that's on the actual CPU, it's faster by several thousand times than RAM so you can see why it's important.

Another important thing to mention are sockets. Sockets are the "ports" that the processors sit on a motherboard. Older sockets work with older CPUs, and vice versa. Only certain chips/processors will fit into certain sockets. The following is a list of AMD and Intel Sockets:

AMD:
Socket A
Socket 754
Socket 940
Socket 939

Intel:
Socket 478
Socket 604
Socket LGA-775

Make sure you check with the chip and your motherboard on which socket you have/need.

Motherboard:
This is the component that nearly everything in the computer attaches to. Think of this as a chassy/frame on a car. It's the building blocks, the thing that needs to be compatible with everything else in the system. Today motherboards are generally split into 3 or 4 different types. However you will only need to worry about two of these. The motherboards will only be compatible with an AMD or Intel CPU. The four types of Motherboard that are generally used are AMD desktop, Intel Desktop, AMD server, and Intel Server. Server boards are different than Desktop boards and you won't need to worry about them if you're here to read about your desktop PC. Now AMD and Intel are both respectable chip manufacturers so theres really no way to go "wrong". Picking out a motherboard can depend on many things. Are you carrying over any old hardware to the new PC? What kind of CPU are you going to be using? How many PCI slots will you need? Will you be using new PCI-Express graphics (explained later) or AGP, or even PCI? etc. Looking for a motherboard may be the most complicated process in selecting parts for a computer. A list of reputable motherboard manufacturers follows:

Asus
Abit
Foxconn
MSI
DFI
Intel
Gigabyte
(List is incomplete)

Graphics cards:
Graphics cards are like miniature computers that help take some of the load off of the rest of your computer by rendering the display seen on your screen. In essence the graphics card is a miniature motherboard, ram, and CPU all in one. Most, if not all, newer games will need one of these. There are two types of graphics systems. Integrated and Stand-Alone. Integrated graphics is a graphics card literally built into your motherboard. These are lower performing chips and use up the CPU and memory in a system. These are the two main reasons these are not used for games. Stand-Alone cards are graphics cards that fit into a motherboard by means of a slot. Whether this slot is PCI, AGP, or PCIe. These are the preferred cards for most gamers. These cards however are an extra expense, ranging from $50-$800. This is often the reason most people don't have the latest graphics card. Stand-Alone cards are produced by two major companies, nVidia and ATI. Some people prefer one company, some prefer the other, and some prefer to choose cards based upon how well they perform. Lately these two have been having a back and forth battle for superiority and are creating cards like mad, which is only good for us, the consumer. Below are some reputable companies that make video cards with ATI and nVidia chipsets:

nVidia:
eVGA
PNY
MSI

ATI:
HIS
PowerColor
Sapphire
ATI

Memory (ram):
Memory is an often overlooked but important part of a system. Generally speaking the more memory your computer has the more smoothly it will run. Memory or RAM has the job of keeping track of recently used commands that the CPU has processed. In this way the CPU can simply refer to the ram (as it's faster) instead of the harddrive making things run much quicker. There are currently three types of ram, one of which is completely outdated. SDram, DDR ram, and DDR2 ram. SDram is rarely used except in old systems and may be hard to find and replace, or add more. DDR ram is generally used in only AMD based computers, though some older Intel computers use this type of ram as well. DDR2 ram is used in most newer computers and is as of right now only compatible with Intel, or should i say, Intel is the only one compatible with DDR2 AMD2 processors are now compatable with DDR2 RAM. Memory comes in different speeds and sizes. Generally speaking the highest DDR ram you will need is DDR400 (PC3200) and the highest DDR2 is yet to be determined but the highest commercially used is DDR2-667 though there is even DDR2-1000. The amount is also very important. Most brand name systems will come with a standard 512MB which is hardy enough to run windows and solitaire at the same time these days. Most would tell you that 1GB (or 2x 512MB) should be enough for most games and applications. Others however will tell you that it's probably a good idea to go ahead and get 2GB (or 2x 1GB or 4x 512MB). Remember the more memory you have the more stable your computer will run, up to a point. It can only become so smooth, 2GBs seems to be all you will be needing for a while so it would be ill advised to go past that mark at this time. Some reputable manufacturers are listed below:

OCZ
Kingston
Corsair
Muskin
Crucial
G Skill
Geil
PQI
Patriot
(This list is incomplete)

Power Supply Units (PSU):
Power Supply Units or PSUs are also generally overlooked these days. A good PSU will make sure your computer has the energy it needs and that it will run stable and safely. Generally speaking the more you invest in a PSU the more power is available and it's more stable/safe as well. However spending more than $120 may be a tad ridiculous. Most good PSUs will range from $50 and $120. Depending on your system you may need a PSU that provides more power than most. If you are unsure of the power you need it's good to be safe and get something around the 500-550W area. Most people will say that a PSU at or better than 450W will be sufficient, and this is a good rule, as of today, to go by. Below are a list of reputable PSU manufacturers:

Coolermaster
Thermaltake
Tagan
Seasonic
PC Power and Cooling
Enermax
Antec
(This list is incomplete)

Hard drives:
Most harddrives will work with most any system. There are two major different kinds of harddrives, PATA (Parallel ATA 100, 133), and SATA (Serial ATA 150, 3.0Gb/s). Each type has a different type of connector and will need to be compatible with your motherboard. Most older computers have PATA (or just ATA) hard drives but newer ones now come with SATA (or Serial ATA) harddrives. The faster the read write time the faster the hard drive can load and save files. This read and write time can be seen in the type of harddrive, i.e. 100Mb/s, 133Mb/s, 150Mb/s, and 3Gb/s. Speed of rotation is also important in a harddrive. Speeds range from 5000rpm to 12000rpm. The higher the speed the more expensive the harddrive, but also the faster the harddrive is. Generally 5000rpm hard drives are found in laptops, 7200 rpm are the norm for most desktop PCs, and 10,000 and 12,000 rpm are found in servers or more high end desktop PCs. Any harddrive should work fine for running a game and each one will have little effect on the performance of a game. So long as it's at least a 7200 rpm HD and is compatible with your motherboard you should be all right. Another important thing to consider is the cache of each hard drive. The more cache the smooth loads and saves will be on a computer can even speed up these processes. The higher the cache the better. 8MB is usually seen as a good medium for todays harddrives. The last thing and easiest to understand is the size of a hard drive. The more space it has the more room you have to install and store things on your computer. a 40GB hard drive has half the space of an 80GB. To help you understand how much space you will be needing, most games today take upwards of 5GB each to install on a machine. Again, a list of reputable manufacturers follows:

WesternDigital (WD)
Seagate
Samsung

Cases:
Cases are a fairly simple concept. Find one that provides decent cooling and one that is compatible with the size of your Motherboard. Generally speaking you will want air to flow from the bottom/front of your case to the upper/back This helps to move air through your computer and keep your components cool. Look for cases with the ability to have a fan in each of those two areas. This was not mentioned in the motherboard section, but this seems to be a more fitting area: Most desktop gaming PCs will have an ATX type motherboard which will need a mid to full tower case. However, some people own Mini ATX motherboards and should look for mini to mid tower cases. Some decent brand names for cases are below:

Thermaltake
CoolerMaster
Antec
Aspire
Asus
Lian Li
Aerocool

Information and Links

Provided below are more links to the various topics above to help cover the things i didn't have time to:

Ram
Graphics Card
CPU
Motherboard
Hard drive
How does a computer work?- A great site that helps to explain computers and it's components.
How PCs Work-Another great site on how computers work.
Buying a new PSU and not sure how much power you need? Try this.
More information on Power supplies can be found here.


Here are a few sites for simple troubleshooting help:
Games: How to troubleshoot Setup problems in Microsoft games
How to Troubleshoot CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Read Issues
Games: How to perform a clean boot to prevent background programs from interfering with play
Motherboard, Graphics cards, and memory troubleshooting articles can be found here.
Nightmare2013's Codec Reset Utility and DXDIAG Interpritation Guide.


For finding out what all components your computer consists of use Everest Home Edition, found here.
For keeping spyware off of your computer use spybot search and destroy, found here.
For finding ad ware and taking it off of your computer use adaware SE, found here.
For a browser that helps protect better than Internet Explorer get Firefox

For those confused about any Internet or computer related acronyms and abbreviations check out this and this.

For buying new parts go to these recommended sites:
US-Newegg, Tiger Direct (US)
Canada- TigerDirect (CA), NCIX, PC Canada, Canada Computers
Britain-Overclockers (don't let the name scare you)
Australia-ShopBot

If your looking for sites with reputable reviews and other interesting PC articles try these:
Tom's Hardware
Anand Tech
The Inquirer

-Updates will be added-


-Oth

Morrowind specifically is a very CPU intensive game. This means that the game will rely on how fast/powerful your CPU is. It's also graphically reliant like any other game but just not nearly as much as the CPU. So if you're looking to upgrade to be able to play morrowind theres a few things you'll want to check.

Firstly check your CPU out. You can download Everest Home Edition if you don't know what your CPU is, or if you don't want to download that, go to Start->control panel->double click on the "system" icon. At the bottom it should tell you in general what your processor is and what speed it is running, as well as how much avaliable system ram you computer has. To get smooth performance without any hickups your going to want an Intel CPU that runs around 2Ghz or an AMD that runs around 1.5Ghz. Those CPU's should provide good enough perfomance in that you won't have to look at the CPU to be the cause of a laggy game.

One of the most common things seen around here for a laggy game experiance is the amount of ram a system has. Most older computers came with 128MB or 256MB. This is going to be a problem, especially if you have Windows XP installed as windows will use about 256MB all on it's own. You're going to want at least 512MB of ram. This should provide a smoother game without so many hickups. If at all possible however you should try to purchase 1GB (2x512 or 1x 1GB). That will provide enough ram for both morrowind and any other modern game you wish to play.

Thirdly you're going to want to make sure that your graphics card is capable of playing the game. There are a few ways to check if you're not computer literate. A simple one is to go to your desktop, right click and go down to properties. Click on the settings tab and then click the down arrow above all the pretty colors. If there is not an option for 32bit then i'm afraid you will need to either buy a new video card or steal one from a friend. The last option is generally not a good idea as this can involve a loss of a friend and possibly the court system. If that checks out then you're going to want to check whether the card is integrated or stand-alone. This is a simple test that involves looking at the back of your computer. Assuming we're dealing with a tower here (taller than it is wider) then look for the spot that the monitor connects to. If it is on the side that the mouse and keyboard also connect to your graphics are integrated. If it's closer to the bottom of the tower and in the wider section then it's going to be a stand-alone card (which is a good thing). Having integrated does not necessarily mean you won't be able to play morrowind, it's about a fifty percent chance. A couple of cheap cards that are capable of playing the game are the Radeon 9250 and the nVidia FX5200. Both should run the games on high or at least close to high settings.

Before asking for help with computer related issues, do us a favor and do two things first. If your computer seems to be running slow and you have no idea why, go to Start->run-> type msconfig and then click on the tab clear to the right. Uncheck everything there unless it appears to say somthing about your mouse or keyboard, then leave it and uncheck everything else. Restart and see if things don't run any better. If that fails, right after restart go to Start->Run-> and type DXDIAG and then save the information it gives you and post it in the begining post of your new thread and ask your question. This information will help others to help you by providing them with informaiton about your computer. This will in no way pose a threat to your computer from hackers, spam, spyware, etc.

-Oth

I figured I'd put this in these hardware forums as well to help those who come here for help as apposed to the Oblivion forums. I think those that come here will find it more useful right now than those who go the Oblivion Hardware forums. But if this is considered double posting and you think it needs removed, CCNA or any other mods, please feel free to do so.

-Oth

Time to change my color scheme... That dark blue doesn't go well at all with the Elder Scrolls Blue theme.

EDIT: You might consider adding something in there about the hardware as it pertains specifically to Morrowind. i.e., the CPU is most often the determining factor in the frame rate.

In all honesty I think it would benefit all if the forum moderators would add a section under "General" that could be used for hardware and software issues that are not specific to any of the games.

This would give us a forum to discuss currect and future trends, in both hardware, software and gaming ideaologies and also allow us to answer the numerous questions that are not TES related.

I know that the boards are for the TES games, but that will not stop 4.342 million posters for asking non-TES related questions.

Just a thought.

-Kreij

You know, i wsn't so sure about the blue either cause it's not real great on my black/gray(grey) theme. I was actually thinking about taking the time and looking to see if the colors worked alright in all the themes but i forgot about it. What color might work better?

I will add somthing in that second post so that the main one can still be a general guide for about anything and then make the second one more specific to morrowind and this hardware forum.


I was actually thinking it'd be simpler to combine the two (at least thats what i thought they would do once Oblivion was announced/released) but now i think they should be seperate as this forum is still calm and the oblivion forum is crazy and all the legitimate questions or problems would be pushed off the first page because of a bunch of "will my computer run oblivion and if so how well?" threads that've popped up.

-Oth

EDIT: ok the second post has been changed, help me review that and make sure everything checks out and then let me know if anything is wrong or if you have anymore ideas to add. It's good to try to get the general problems we have out of the way before they're posted. Maybe it'll help keep some of the more repetitive questions down

It's going to take most of a year for that to subside down. I am quite happy with the current status quo.

Great post Othilien, are you planning to update it, and add in recent developments.

Good info. Thanks.

However, I think CPU cache rates a heading of its own, as it is very crucial to cpu performance.

Looks great on Green.

Wow didn't know anyone was still looking at this. I am going to have to take some time to revamp it a bit for the new AMD, Intel, and add some more sections... Perhaps next weekend...

-Oth

The computer illiterates of the world (or at least me) thank you for this informative and helpful post!

ill give you the benefite of the doubt. tis a great article . . .

however, i will say, that one should not post, lest a query be made about the topic. :shrugs:

This one should. It's an excellent reference for us to point people to.

Same with my CODEC Reset Utility: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=266291

wow. i've been looking for this post all my newb/rd life. really - this information deserves it's own website.

Hhhhmmm, an interesting idea... wonder if we could get someone to host it?

Hm , I am writing a system information program that would go great with this. I will let everyone know when it is complete if you agree. So erm..... All who are in favor say "Aye!".

Shame on me , I almost forgot to mention:

For WinXP

Standalone (AKA None of that RTE(Runtime engine) bother that comes with certain programs)

Small (I estimate around 100KB @ release time)

No Installer

Glad it helped. I will try to update it as soon as possible but college life is keeping me pretty busy. i haven't spent a weekend at my house for over a month...

-Oth

Are you talking about an app that operates something like SiSoft Sandra or Everest Home Edition. It would display info about CPU, video card, etc? Whatever the case, I'd be interested in giving it a look when it's done.

Somewhat , Though this is not a benchmarker. To my knowledge Everest and Sandra are benchmarkers (With Diag utilities). I suppose you can say that. I cannot guarantee that it will display down-to-hair data on the CPU/VidCard/Etc. But close.

At this point I am not sure , I'm attempting an "allinone".

Also , I already have Stat saving to an HTML file , Next will be Plain Text , And a special gift to the forum community: BBCode .


Edit: Here is a small example , I removed the Setup Class GUID and software key for obvious reasons. I know it likely wouldn't hurt to show them but I am a paranoid person .

You can already see the advantages of this program , AKA DxDiag replacement.



Bah , One more edit , That above chunk O' info is but one device from ONE module.

Be aware that we use the dxdiag report for checking codecs too. There are several that create problems with morrowind (and Oblivion too for that matter). The most common "fixes" we get out of it though are page file info and driver versions for video and audio. Once in awhile we find someone with screwed up chipset drivers and people with both video a card installed and an active intergrated video chip.

Sandra and Everest are more for information than benchmarking. Although they both have a couple of minor benchmarking utilities, I don't find them terribly useful.

Everest in particular is handy for us sometimes when we need to determine the poster's mobo make and model when he/she doesn't know and we can't determine it from the dxdiag. With that we can make effective recommendations for upgrades if they're asking.

But a small, quick app that you seem to be describing could be handy also. Everest and Sandra are both rather tedious for people on dialup like myself.

I am on 56K as well , And one of my mottos , If that program can do it , I can.

So you see , If DxDiag can do it, I can (After much work I predict )

Edit: Also , this is not the first version of TSIP (<-The name of the program) , However it IS the first version with a GUI and more in-depth information; And I recall previous versions displaying PF info and a few others the community may find useful.


Lol , One more edit: Grabbing A/V Drivers is not terribly complicated, Nor the MoBo. All stored in the registry.

Another note on graphics cards, whatever read MB memory the graphics card says it has, it probably sends the information out differently. If you have a 256 MB graphics card you still may fail the test for running Oblivion as it will read at 128 MB for the tests and also perform as such. Safest way is to grab a 512 MB, which won't read lower then 256 MB, and thus perfom passibly at the worst.

Well there is a difference between the bit transfer rate and the actual amount of memory. The memory may be 256, but the card may only have a 128-bit transfer rate making the actual read and load times slower. Generally speaking you're going to want to get a card with a transfer rate that's the same as the memory size, but somtimes it doesn't matter so much. In the case with 128-bit transfer speed and 256, you're of course going to want it as high as you can get it.

-Oth

i found this VERY useful. oh and by the way...>.>...Calvin and Hobbes ROCKS!

Actually working on getting that done before I leave for Basic this month. I'll be setting up a blog at http://jared.godby.org and will also post this information on a seperate page. Hopefully when I get back (in 4 or 5 months) I can update it all (after doing alot of catching up reading of course).

I've set it up, but apparently, I have no skills (whatsoever) in html or website design and creation so I'm going to need someones help. If someone could convert that fisrt post to html for me, with all the spacing and colorings it'd be greatly appreciated. As of right now this is it (which looks like crap because I've only copied and pasted it from my post in this thread. Again, any help is greatly appreciated.

-Oth

Ok so I've got a couple of weeks before I ship to knox for training, is there any modifications or additions that someone has in mind that I should add? I've got the time right now (no school) so I'd be able to do so. Just let me know if there's anymore information, links, or improvements I should make.

-Oth

All I can suggest is adding a link to your initial post for nightmare's page (I know he posted it later on, but I think it deserves a spot in the initial post). I'm thinking more of his dxdiag interpretation guide rather than just the codec reset.

Well I've returned from Knox and am now a Cavalry Scout. I guess I've got 4 months of catching up to do. Am also going to have to get Shivering Isle now apparently.

-Oth

Welcome back Oth! Are you airborne or riding in some Hummer iteration? I liked Shivering Isles a lot so, yeah, run out and buy it.

Riding in a HMMWV or more commonly refered to as Humvee (or hummer with most civilians ). I'll be heading back to my house monday (I'm at my parents visiting right now) so I'll pick it up on the way there. Hope it's a good game. Now I've just got to read up on fallout, and get used to the new forum design. I leave for 4 months and they change EVERYTHING on me...

...They can't get rid of me that easily.

-Oth

Ha!!! They knew you were gone, and wanted to make it interesting for you when you came back.......

Nice to see you back! Are you Reserve? Or "real" army?

National Guard, which is the "real" army

-Oth

Hey,

I want to buy a new computer but im not sure what I need. I saw that you could help me with this.
I'll be buying it from this site (it's in dutch and in euro's but i think it's easy enough to understand):
http://www.gistron.com/

Now what I'm looking for... a computer that can run oblivion at about maximum with all settings. I know I could just take the best of the best but I'd like to know what's about the minimum in price for the max in performance. I'll be keeping my monitor, its max resolution is 1280 x 1024 so that's not too high. Does the operating system matter, XP or vista?

Thanks

Bob

I run Morrowind on a notebook with an nVidia GeForce Go V(Something or another), 1.80GHz AMD Sempron 3300+, and 512MB memory. That's not really high end, and I can run it at 1024x768, with a decent draw distance and still get a good 24FPS on the common Balmora FPS testing spot.

Umm, for me that link doesn't go to a system, just a page of parts. I'd go with XP for now. Gamers are having a lot of problems with Vista and I'd wait until it's sorted out some, like after the first service pack.

Ah sorry, I think I misinterpreted this:

When buying full systems, post your budget (in your Country's currency), post the Country you're from if not from US, and the site you'll be buying your computer from, so forum regulars here can advise you on what is best to buy etc.

They do have systems though, when you follow the link look for "systemen" (systems) on the left. They don't have that many systems to choose from but, might a part not be good enough, they can be configured differently.

http://www.gistron.com/

I should have mentioned this in my last post, sorry. This thread was setup more for general information to help folks understand how their PC works. Create a separate topic and I'll move these last few post into it and we can go from there.

Thanks, really useful guide! (Trying to figure out all the techy stuff associated with buying a new pc feels kinda like wading through treacle at times, this however was really easy to read & understandable ~ thanks for taking the time to put this together! )

Good god, this thing is still alive!

Yep, and as long as someone posts once in a while it'll stay this way.

Good to see you Oth.

Good to see you're still here holding down the fort Yasgur

I'll be more active when fallout finally comes out. I haven't played morrowind or oblivion for a long time. For some reason oblivion just didn't hold my attention. That and university takes up a lot of time

I'll try to stop in every now and again to say hello

-Oth

If this has already been answered, I'm sorry. I'm going to be replacing my CPU and video card in the next few months (after my tax rebate comes in) and I was wondering what a good combination would be? I have, I believe, a SocketA (or was it Socket7? I always get those mixed up) AMD CPU (I'll have to check later to be sure) and an AGP slot for the video card, so no PCI Express cards please. Any recommendations? For the record, I would prefer not to replace my motherboard because I only want to spend ~$300-400 if I can get away with it, yet still have increased performance for mods like MGE and the like.

Best to start a new thread for questions. Also make sure you tell us what CPU and Graphics card you already have. However, My first recommendation would be to just save you money and look at getting a new computer down the road. You can find pretty good PCs for a little more than $600

Thank you, Othilien, for this wonderful guide. Although I can make my way around the periphery of a computer, if I had to go spelunking I would be utterly lost. Your guide is so helpful and simple to use that even I understand it. I have been wanting to upgrade my video card (or get a new pc, not sure which yet), and now I have a clue how to begin.

I kind of wanted to upgrade to be able to play Oblivion, but I don't know if I will buy it or not. I am still toying with Morrowind, and find myself periodically getting bored with it. What I really want to upgrade for is FALLOUT 3 (HUGE fan of the series :) and I am certain my little graphics controller would cower in fear (although it handles Morrowind without any problem... go figure)

When the time (read *money*) comes, I will refer to your guide to hold my hand as I either rework my pc or purchase a new one. Please forgive me for prattling. All I really wanted to do is say thank you. So...

Thank you very much for this excellent guide.

centime
Not Usually This Verbose :)

The OP needs to be updated to include socket-types AM2 and AM2+

A lot of things need to be updated, but this feller is in University and is much too busy reading lately. If any of my friends around here (read: mods) want to add some stuff to the original or if you guys want to write some stuff up and want it added, post it in here and I'll check every so often and update as needed.

The guide is old, but it's still a decent starting point (I think) for those who really don't have any clue about the computer.

-Oth