Building a Computer for Skyrim

[VItimmy]

Okay, bud. I have a 350 dollar desktop that I run on med quality with maybe idk 100 mods? I use SkyRe, UFO, Convenient Horses, Climates of Tamriel, Sands of Time, you name it. My game runs flawlessly. Occasionally I get the lag but very rarely. What you need is a solid cpu and a great video card. I have like minimal standards but I don't care that that much for graphics. 500 is PLENTY!

 

So if I were you, I would go on ebay and find a decent used computer with a good AMD or Intel CPU. Make sure it is quad core or higher and preferably recent. Buying a desktop online allows for a cheap computer that is already built and has room to build on top of (AND YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR AN OS). Get one that is bare so just has the processor, motherboard, a fan, a power source, an os etc. Don't get one with a video card already. Buy a good video card. This, to me, is the most important for performance besides a functioning cpu. Make sure the motherboard has pci express slots and go for the GTX 650 ooooommmmgggg what a great card!

 

I bought a Dell on ebay for 200 with an intel core2 quad got my video card and bam. I play Skyrim on desktop. Easy Peezy. Yeah, it's not glamorous but I'm not needy.

 

Now if you want to go the Gungho build-a-computer way to have a fantastic visual, fluid game, these guys above me are explaining pretty well. Go quad core cpu, motherboard with a lot of slots, crap case, solid power box, high ram on v-card, and some know how on setting it all up.

Im actually using a old gateway computer my brother threw out with a gtx 650 it has an amd 3 core processor , and I run skyrim on medium with about 200 mods right now. my biggest enemy is heat in this case but I sit my case beside the floor vent take the side panel off and I'm good to go with central air. so this build cost me 150$ for my gtx 650

[Lord Garon]

Goto Tom's Hardware. Check out the System Builder marathon series. Look at the Best CPU/GPU For The Money articles (Skyrim needs good IPC, not a lot of cores or simple high clock speeds), don't forget you need an OS, and remember that you WILL do other things than play Skyrim.

[fraquar]

I always thought that the whole point of building a system from scratch was to get the exact components you want in that rig - and if I had a $500-600 budget there is no way I could do that - I'd just by a prebuilt instead. I'd be skimping on something (a lot with that budget), and that totally defeats the point of building from scratch.

 

Rig I built last year the Case + PSU + Operating System alone ate up nearly 1/2 of that budget - and those three items were non-negotiable.

[Lord Garon]

I do it for a couple reasons; a custom build and saving money. A lot of pre-built gaming rigs are way over-priced and way over-hyped. And high end desktops are not always suitable for gaming. I built this machine to a purpose; a cheap rig for Skyrim. Skyrim needs IPC and uses two main threads, so I got a $50.00 Intel G2030. I'm not big on 4k resolution or multi-monitors, so I got a 2GB 7770 that was on-sale for $100.00. The mobo is a close-out Intel. 8GB of ram; 4 for Skyrim and a little extra for a ramdisk. Everything's stock and in a big, cheap case; no cooling concerns. Less than $400.00 using a couple old drives. I get 40-45FPS outdoors and 60 indoors at 1080p with a custom ENB and optimized textures, run 47 to 211 mods on five different Skyrim setups, and couldn't be happier with this rig. In most cases, you simply don't need what the manufacturers and marketers TELL you you need.

 

EDIT: I have to say that I would not recommend this build as a general gaming rig. The rigs I build for others are based on i5's (high end) or FX-6xxx's (low end). Was just giving an example of why someone might build a PC.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Lord Garon

[Deleted5770650User]

The best advice I can give here is to go read the reviews for your self and make up your own mind.

 

 

 

 

Don't get an 8 core CPU like wolfpack suggested, whatever you do. Skyrim uses 4 cores at most. Getting an 8 core CPU will drive the price up for absolutely no performance increase in Skyrim.

 

to be honest even consoles are going to 8 core AMD's so as far as future releases you can probbly be safe to say that fallout 4 and the next elderscrolls will run a minimun of 4 cores max of 8. i recomended the 8 core as to stay ahead of the game so to speak now no it wont make a diffrence in skyrim but any and all future released games in the next year or two it will. and BTW i didnt suggest it i stated that thats what i have bought for mine that is not a suggestion list its my current desktop. your right my system is Overkill for skyrim but hey skyrim is a hobby not a job what i do i need the extra RAM and cores at any given time i have over 200 programs running and doing their own thing even in background of games. my system eats 8GB Ram real quick i built it with 8 and it was choppy slow and lagging so i put in an extra 8 and it ran a whole lot better oh and in my personal experiance i have never had an intel processor last longer than a year and a half with out frying itself

 

 

He didn't ask for a PC to beat the next-gen consoles, he asked for a PC to play Skyrim as well as possible for as low of a price as possible. And in my personal experience, I've never had an AMD cpu that didn't perform .5Ghz beneath it's specs. Having said that, I use an AMD CPU because Quad-Core or Hexa-Core Phenom II and Quad Core FX processors are remarkably efficient for the price.

 

The next gen consoles will likely have 6 usable cores, considering they'll probably use one core for security and disable the other core for symmetry (for some reason), like the PS3 did. Technically, the PS3 had an Octa-Core CPU as well, so it's illogical to expect next-gen games to magically go to 8 cores.

 

 

Debating Intel VS AMD seems (anymore) to be a guaranteed way to start a flame war, along with politics and religion.

 

I have owned a few amd CPUs but every time I had one I found them to be slow and under performing.

The last time I tried an AMD I went from A Core2Duo E8500 to a AMD 1100T, from my experience they had at best the same performance level.

I know there are some really good I7s for about 300 now. There are a lot of people that think (does not matter the subject) that if you don't buy the most expensive version offered it is a waste of money. In reality the Phenom 2 X6 (6 core (Hexa-Core)) were not very efficient.

 

I might try to use an AMD CPU again someday in the future, but after getting burned by every last AMD it will be will take a lot to get me to try them again.