Here are my recommendations:

CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz

Graphics Card: Either aATI Radeon HD 4850 512mb($150-$180) orATI Radeon HD 4870 512mb($250-$280)

Memory (Ram):Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) XMS2 DDR2 800($64 after mail-in-rebate)

Case:Cooler Master CM 690($84)

Motherboard:MSI P43 Neo3-F LGA 775 Intel motherboard($74 after mail in rebate)

Power Supply: checknewegg.comfor brands and prices


Hope this helps. If you have any qustions, feel free to ask. With the 4870 card, all of this would be around $700 or so (this is not including monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, OS, etc).

Well, it appears that these links didn't work (thanks to Google Chrome). Just copy the names of each part and paste them into the search bar on Newegg.com .

4Gb of Ram is not necessary. It makes me laugh when people say that you need 4Gb to run Vista 64-bit for gaming. The benchmarks clearly show that that you don't need more then 2Gb..Tapout_076

Actually, 4GB is a good choice. Upcoming games like Far Cry 2 require 2GB for recommended specs, so having 4 will ensure that you'll be completely safe. I just upgraded from 2GB to 4GB, and I can clearly see the difference. Windows starts up in like 15 seconds (helps that I have a high-end Core 2 Duo).

But to answer the original question of having 2 x 2gb or 4 x 1gb, I would assume that either is fine, but having 2 x 2gb will save you some ram slots for the future.

yes go to start type in msconfig, and turn off alot of that bs on startup, and install it (after you restart of course) and if you want to turn that crap back on after your finished.

Lach0121

I just tried to create an image of the Oblivion disc on my HDD with ImgBurn, but it failed at 94%. It stated that the disc had a read error. So now I'm thinking that the problem is that the disc itself is corrupted somehow, or that it is so scratched it just doesn't run. But again, it is strange that my brother can still use it to play the game. Anyway, thanks for the help guys.

Link, any luck?

machine_B

Hmmmm--is ur OS new too? When i tried running WinXP--64bit version / there were all sorts of issues like that. I even called Bethesda and they couldnt help. When i upgraded to Vista Ultimate x64 / No worries. It should run fine on XP pro though?

Further--Bethesda also said that Quadcore CPUs can create a conflict with the games programming for whatever reason??

Xtraflo

I've had this with a couple of disks, where when I've goe to my compuer the disk keeps making a noise but doesn't spin and the whole screen freezes - taking the CD out snaps it out of it. Oblivion gave me a lot of greif rregrind that, I think due to its securom stuff on it as I had an error about it once; just try restarting your comp and running the installation before anything else on your PC, and it takes a long time to install too so give it time once it gets goingmachine_B