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Well, the complete workshop has been posted! I've revealed my secrets! Let me know if you found this usefull, that's always good to hear. Also don't hesitate to ask questions if things are unclear, English is not my native language as you know!

Going to the 1155 socket is not a downgrade.....the socket type is just what the CPUs are built for, just because a CPU uses a bigger socket with more contacts, doesn't means it is better. Basically, the best way to do it is pick a CPU, the second gen i7s are really powerful. Check its socket and find a good motherboard for it. In regards to the one you linked, the i7's on the 1155 socket have exactly the same speed, for around the same price. Anyone that builds computers will tell you, you cant 'future proof' your computer. Just because you go for the bigger socket type, that doesn't mean that in 4 years when you want to upgrade your CPU, that socket type is still being used. Personally, when I buy a computer I get the best power/price for me at that time regardless of socket type, if in the future I want to upgrade my CPU, I'll just get a new motherboard at the same time. That way I save money now, and will get anything new that was developed in the meantime on the new motherboard. No matter what you choose in parts, in a few months those will end up being outclassed....as is the market of computer parts. EDIT: Also, things like your power supply and case have extremely long lifecycles, put quality money in them, that way in 5 years time of something when you need to build another computer you already have a quality power supply and case.

Change your BSX flags from 33 to 35. Or Right Click in the Integer Data field of the BSX flags and click flags, then place a check beside "Enable Collision". That's just a GUI way of adding 2 to the current value. Other than that it looks good, if your still having problems after updating the BSX flags just let us know and we'll get it figured. WT

Hi Lonewolf_kai Let me chime in, too, with some agreements and some modest variations in opinion. I've been building my own PC's for more than 20 years and have several dozen behind me. And I've retained several at various stages of OS and speed, so that I could still play those older games that I enjoyed so much (even if new tech comes out that isn't backwards compatible). * I like two hard disks myself for better organization. One for the OS and one for data. But a single one is valid, too, when you're talking about a terabyte! That was an entire server farm's total at one point when I was a sysadmin. * yes, do confirm at the mobo manufactuer's website that the RAM you are choosing is completely compatible with the motherboard! * I missed where anyone answered why you need the silver paste. It ensures a good thermal contact between your CPU and the socket to keep your CPU from overheating. An overheated CPU is dead, dead, dead. If you don't find a reliable URL for how to apply it, PM me and I'll help point you to one. * I don't see where you have a CPU cooler in your list. If the CPU you settle on has one from the manufacturer, that is probably ok unless you ever get tempted to overclock your motherboard. I've never needed to do it myself. Just find a worthy recipient of the underpowered system and give it to a relative. But that'll be years away with your specs -- I usually get at least 3 years out my custom systems. * Don't forget a brand-name keyboard and mouse. You'll spend a lot of time using them -- get good ones, but probably not the expensive "gamer-style" versions. Overkill. * Don't forget a brand-name surge protector (not the $20 cheapie that looks like a gray, oversized candy bar). Many areas have crappy power with fluctuations and minor surges that you might not notice -- protect it. * I like Asus and MSI motherboards about equally well. * I've been building AMD systems, but Intel does a good job, too. And I agree with others that a quad-core will do everything you need. Even today, few enough games effectively use more than one core anyway. But that could change as more and more multi-core systems enter the market and the game vendors write to them for more performance. * The Windows 7 64-bit is currently a good choice for gamers. If you don't download and install all kinds of ersatz software, it is reliable and consistent. Resist the temptation to try out those "interesting" bits of software. And run anti-virus and anti-spam software, too. * Last, the 750watt PS is about right for the load you are putting on it and still has some headroom in case you later decide to double-up on video cards or add a second HD or an SSD. You are embarking on an adventure by building your own PC. It gives you self-confidence that if something goes wrong later or you want to improve some component, you'll be able to do so. You'll be better at troubleshooting those little oddities that are present in almost all computers -- whether from the factory or the kitchen table. Last tip, while building it and before opening up your components to look at them, be sure to put on an anti-static wrist-strap (get it from Newegg). You're putting a bunch of money into the parts -- several are very static sensitive. Have a great time building it. Old Grizz

I love ASUS boards and the Rampage line is certainly excellent. I'd give serious thought to going with an 1155 based board over a 1366 though. The 1366 socket is dead now, so there won't be any new processors coming out for it, whereas the 1155 may still have some longevity and the 2500k is by far the best bang for buck you'll get in a processor right now. I always try to grab a mobo that will give me the option of just replacing the CPU/Video when I next want to upgrade. That said it's been quite a few builds since I was able to upgrade my CPU without replacing the mobo, so maybe it's a moot point. If you are thinking 1155 the P8Z68 looks like a really good contender at a great price. For the PSU I think it's worth dropping a few extra bucks. My opinion may be skewed due to the bad power in my area, but around a 3rd of the computers that come through my shop are there to have the failed cheapy OEM PSU replaced. Because of that I always spend a little extra and stick to Antec or Corsair who make reliably excellent PSUs. Something like this one would certainly do the job. WT

Huh, sorry, didn't notice it didn't have USB3.0. Although honestly, not even sure what it's for. As far as I've seen USB drives are still 2.0. That Rampage board looks hot, nothing wrong with getting deals.

My personal choice at ASUS motherboards and AMD processors. For less than $400 you can get top of the line processor and motherboard.....

I'm no expert on hardware either, but here's my thoughts: Processor - I agree with the others that 6 core isn't required. At the top end, the performance gain/cost added ratio is quite terrible, so a more affordable 4 core might be a better idea. SSD - Mine is 90GB... I wish I had bought a bigger one. Once you have the OS, Skyrim, Oblivion and Morrowind and all your saves and modding files, you'll have filled most of it up already. I'd say go for at least 120 GB. Blue-Ray burner - I asked myself... how often do I watch DVD's on my computer? How often do I burn DVD's? After realising the answer was something like "once a year", I got the cheapest bargain basement model I could find. I tend do check out the system builder marathons at Tom's Hardware ($600, $1200, $2400(!)) to get a good starting point for my desired bang/buck level. For us gamers, their articles on Best Gaming CPU For The Money and Best Graphics Card For The Money are incredibly helpful.

Very much this. MoBo and CPU are not as important a consideration for a gaming PC, so get something powerful, but not overkill if you are looking to save a buck. My combination is This MoBo (I'm an MSI guy, myself, they've done me quite well) with an Intel Core i5-2500K with excellent results. Mid-range can go a long way here. Hey! That's my card! As said, good choice there, and EVGA has my seal of approval for their GPU products. Yup, more is better as far as hard drives are concerned. Keep your backup data on one and unplug it when you don't need it and you will never lose that data. Ever (unless you destroy the drive). Depends on how long you want the PSU to last, really. The more wattage, the longer the lifespan is the general rule. Still, you only need 500W for the GTX 560 Ti, so 750W is a good benchmark to aim for. ALWAYS check that your RAM selection is compatible with your board. It will save you tons of headaches down the road, and I am highly grateful that I did this building my own rig (changed my RAM selection to a package endorsed for my board and the memory base was rock-solid as a result). Why would you ever buy 32bit anymore? It's time has come, time to move on.

You're going to get many different opinions. The main thing to keep in mind is you don't need ALL the high end components. You need to determine what exactly you do on your computer and build with that in mind. That said, no casual gamer needs a six-core processor. Unless you're more hardcore than we thought. Save yourself the money, a quad-core is just fine. Same with the motherboard. ASUS is a good choice, but that's way over-powered. Suggest: This one Good price on the video card, nothing wrong with that. Why do you feel you need a regular HD and an SSD? Personally, I wouldn't get a 2TB HD. I'd get (and have) 2 or 3 1TB HD's. Quite enough storage space and separate HD's allow for better back-up management. 1100W PSU??! What are you running, a server farm? My 650w is quite powerful enough for my modest setup. No need to go over 750w, really. Awesome case. The link for the RAM goes to the PSU page. My advice here is to go to the ASUS homepage and look up the model of the MBo you decide on and look for RAM compatibility lists. I kick myself for buying random RAM that turns out isn't on my MBo's list and suffer memory blue screens at least once a week. I'd suggest at least 6G of RAM. And when you buy windows 7, use the 64bit for better performance.

Wow Kai, that`s some great looking gear. I think there`s a couple oportunities to shave the budget but I`m no expert so I`ll let the more experienced folks ring in here. Also...the RAM link shows your PSU instead. i`m totally sold on Asus gear so I really like your MoBo choice.

That link says "Your shopping cart is empty."

OK! Back again! Time to put all the fancy stuff on our weapon. Ornaments and engravings The blade I begin by adding those flowing lines onto the blade. How? Simple, I just paint them by hand. As I don't have a Wacom Tablet at the moment I'll just use my mouse. I just paint those lines as smooth as possible and after a few tries I end up with this: I set the layer fill to 0% and in Layer Style I give my flowing lines a stroke effect to get the double lines: In a new layer I paint the smaller flowing line: For the elven writing I use the Tengwar font that you can get right here: http://www.fontspace.com/category/tengwar To let the text follow the flow of the lines I create a path to write on. There are several tutorials on internet on how to do this in Photoshop CS, here's one of them: http://www.heathrowe.com/text-on-a-path-in-photoshop-cs/ Combined with the"Create Warp Text" tool and a bit of rotating I get the job done. Just play around a bit with the different tools to see what gives you the best result. <---- Create Warp Text tool To get everything on the other side of the blade I simply duplicate the corresponding layers, flip them vertically and move them to the correct position. The guard I use the same technique for the engravings in Sting's guard, only this time I also apply a gradient overlay, an outer bevel and drop shadow effect through layerstyles, making sure it matches the correct light angle, like I've shown you earlier on. So also make sure you uncheck "Use Global Light" again! I also set my layer fill to 0%, so I can make use of the texture of the layer underneath. Once again we duplicate the layers and flip them vertically to get them on the other side of the guard, I adjust the layerstyles so light and shadow comes from the opposite direction. The grip To get the fancy elven leaves on the grip I turn to handpainting again. I just use a bright red color, so I easily see what it is I'm doing. I make one stroke with two leaves attached to it, looking like this: I duplicate the layers several times and space them evenly with the grid enabled to make this very easy to do (View>Show>Grid). When I'm satisfied with how it looks I merge the layers, desaturate the image and make it darker. Of course we want those fancy elven thingies on the grip to have a metal look, like in our reference picture. To do so I copy a piece from our base metal texture and drop it in a new layer on top of the grip and the ornaments. In the layer with the ornaments I click with the magic wand tool in an empty area and with that selection loaded I go back to the layer with the copy of our base metal texture and press delete, now I have the metaltexture in the same shape as my elven leaves. I set the blendmode of the layer to “overlayâ€. Now our elven leaves on the grip look like this: We're almost finished. As I want to give the elven leaves some depth I give them a Pillow Emboss effect in Layer Style. And on a new layer I use a soft transparant black brush to add a little shadow on the part of the grip that's right underneath the guard. We're done! I hope you found this workshop usefull, have fun texturing and till next time!

Check out TESA's new blog article here! Modding Skyrim at The Enclave