Upgrading for Fallout 4

So last time I fully upgraded my system was back in 2011 when Skyrim came out (I've upgraded bits here and there since then), but with Fallout 4 on the horizon I feel that now would be a good time to gut and renew. Here is my current system...

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OS - Windows 10 64-bit

CPU - Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.3GHz (with a Corsair H80i liquid cooling module attached)

GPU - GTX 780 3gb

RAM - 8gb Corsair

Motherboard - Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3

HDD - Some rubbish 512gb hdd

PSU - 750W Corsair builder series

Case - NZXT Apollo

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I've already set my sights on getting a 1tb solid-state drive to replace my hard drive.

So, is there anything from this system I can salvage and put into a new system that you guys are so kindly going to help me construct? I don't really want to spend much over £800.

Thank you.

I don't see any reason to upgrade at all for Fallout 4.

Your PC seems to be around recommended level. I don't see any reason to upgrade for Fallout 4. The new SSD will always help on any PC, so just get that, and OC your CPU to around 4.0Ghz and you are done.

SSD will be a nice upgrade other then that you should be fine. As it was already mentioned.. overclocking your CPU will give you a performance boost.

@amcoops: You have an awesome cpu for easy overclocking. I have mine stable at 4.4 and that's with a cooler master hyper 212 plus. :)

Awesome guys thanks a lot. Like I say my system was built in 2011, I've upgraded my GPU, PSU and introduced the liquid cooling module since then. I was kind of worried that my system was bottlenecking my GPU which I bought in 2013 but if you guys don't think so I'll take your word for it.

I've never looked into overclocking to be honest but I was worried that my CPU wasn't quite cutting it so I'll do that. I have EVGA PrecisionX 16 installed, would I use that to overclock my CPU or use the motherboard software?

EDIT: New to solid-state drives, would this be sufficient?

Motherboard software should suffice on that board.. Furthermore if you want to upgrade your hard drive but don't want to spend that kind of money.. You can get a 2tb black drive and a 64gb ssd for half that cost.. What can you do with it? Since you have the Z68 chipset you should be able to use Intel's Rapid Storage technology.. Which basically would turn that 64gb ssd into a giant cache for your 2tb hard drive.. Basically making commonly loaded up programs (such as games, and boot up) reach 60 to 70% speeds of a SSD for half the price.. And it is all automated.. If your goal is just to play pc games on your pc, I honestly think the Intel Rapid storage tech is the more cost effective route.. But that is just me, it seems like I am the only one that even takes advantage of it on these forums to begin with.

Overclock your CPU through your mobo BIOS (you have to bump up the voltage).

Yes that SSD will be sufficient.

+1.

@amcoops: Also, do you really need 1TB SSD?

1TB of storage space is nice, but 1TB SSD is totally overkill.

You can grab 500GB SSD for windows/games and keep your 500GB HDD for other storage. And keep the rest $150-200 to your pocket. :P

Video games these days are far too big, 500GB is not what it used to be.

Encountering issues, as always when dealing with computers...

I'm looking to overclock my CPU, I was following this guide which looked pretty good at first, but then is goes on to say under "Starting off..." that the goal is to "Achieve the highest stable multiplier with lowest positive Turbo Boost voltage." It doesn't talk about the "cpu multiplier" at all during the explanation of everything and then acts like I should now exactly what it is. I've found out how the increase the core voltage but there's so much other stuff that comes into it, can anyone explain this guide to me?

I decided to create a recovery drive through Windows 10 because not only is it good to have one but it can help me migrate the OS to my SSD. So I clicked "create a recovery drive" with a 64GB usb stick in and ready, sorry..."We can't create a recovery drive" with an added "A problem occurred while creating the recovery drive". Well thanks, apparently Windows 10 can't create recovery drives, so where do I turn?

Thanks for your time.

@amcoops:

Just clone the drive to SSD. Use Samsung's Migration tool

The very basics for OC on the newer system (including Sandy bridge I believe) is to increase the multiplier and increase the voltage when needed. These two settings should be quite easy to find in your BIOS. They might even be on the same page. They are in mine. For an OC in the 4.2-4.4 range, this should be sufficient.

You could start with setting the multiplier at 42 and try to boot. If it doesn't boot into windows, unplug power cord and then remove the small battery on the mobo for 10-15 seconds I think, then put it back in. This reverts back to default settings. If you happen to come to a point where you can't boot at all, you will most likely need to increase the voltage a "lot". I'm guessing the voltage increases in increments of 0,005. Normally you only go up one at a time if you can boot, but fail a stress test. If you can't boot at all, I would increase it 0,015 at a time until you could boot.

Note this is how I would do it. It is far from the best method. Others here can probably give you some more input on smart things to do when OC'ing. Read into it if you want a higher OC than 4.4. You could probably get 4.7 or higher if you are a bit lucky, but it also requires more skill.

horgen:Thanks, but I can't find anything that remotely suggest CPU multiplier, here's what I have...

The first photo is the top of "OC Tweaker".

The second photo is the bottom of "OC Tweaker".

The third photo is under "CPU Configuration" under the "Advanced" tab.

Is it only me, or this is a locked i5 2500 non K version? :P

ps: You could probably o/c your CPU by selecting CPU ratio, but since your CPU is not a K version, it will only overclock to +400MHz multiplier which on i5 2500 is 38 (turbo can still go up to 4,1GHz with 1 core active).

ps2: I think your XMP is not enabled cause it is on auto and it uses 1,65V for 1333. Lol... (Unless this is the base frequency and you have 2666MHz RAM)

Hoping someone can clarify. Not to hijack the board, but I didn't think it was appropriate to make a new topic.

I just built my first pc and am unsure if I can sufficiently run fallout 4.

EVGA GTX 950 GPU

Intel I5 4590 haswell cpu

Ecs mobo with z97 chipset.

8 gb ram

Will this be sufficient? Thanks in advance.

Yes. Probably with settings set to high, according to what Bethesda said.

@Coseniath: thank you kind sir

@Coseniath: It's not the "K" version, I guess that's not good, I had no plans to overclock back when I bought it.

@amcoops: As I already typed, the non-K version can go only 400MHz more, cause it has a partially locked multiplier.

Even then having a Sandybridge i5 at 3,8GHz is not bad, you should run all games without having your CPU bottleneck the performance.

And with GTX780 I don't think that even an i5 2500 stock can bottleneck it. Its a good combination.

@Coseniath: I'll give that a go, thanks for the help coseniath. How will I know if it's pushing more GHz? Will it show up on the bios? Or on CPU z?

@amcoops: My apologies for the delay. I had work away from home. :P

From the bios you should be able to change the CPU multiplier for 400MHz more.

From the screens you posted I think you can see it from the CPU ratio.

I have an i5 2400 8 GB ram and gtx 970.Can I play the game in high-ultra settings?

@pankar94: I'd say high should be possible. Ultra probably not so much. But since nobody can tell for sure at this point, I would recommend to try it, before buying anything new (except you wanted to buy new hardware anyway).

I think I'll get 1 more titan, just to keep the minimums up.

@klunt_bumskrint: Why stop with 1? Pleb.

If you're gonna be playing @ 1080P then yes you should be able to squeeze high settings.