Computer noob here looking to buy a sick gaming rig for Skyrim, need help.

[aarakai]

Hey guys! Just wanted to start this off by saying I'm very computer illiterate, so if you don't mind explain things very simply!

 

I've tried to play skyrim before on PC using mods, I found this to be INSANELY more fun and somehow even more endless than console. However, my computer wasn't able to run it on a high resolution, at high settings at a high framerate.

 

I recently just became employed after graduating college, and my first purchase is definitely to be a powerful gaming computer.

 

​I want to be able to mod skyrim, gta, fallout ect. with full graphic ENB's running on SUPER ULTRA. Actually I want to be totally overkill so that its not even close to slowing my PC down.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on what specs I should look towards purchasing/ prices? I've been told it's much better to build your own PC (or at least have someone who knows how) vs. buying a prebuilt.

 

Any suggestions would be super appreciated! Thanks guys!

[Georgiegril]

You don't need to have a monster computer to run Skyrim--it is limited by its 32-bit game engine. Look around in these forums and you will find plenty of people complaining that the game is lagging, or freezing, crashing at 3.1 GB memory, despite their massive rig.

 

At the top of this board is a pinned thread about specs related to Skyrim which you may find useful.

 

My own 2 cents-- since you have the cash, get at least an Intel Core i7 --you may not need it for Skyrim (though it helps), but down the line it will probably be the required CPU (see this article, about Bethesda's projected Specs for Wolfenstien) They come in various speeds, anything over 3.0 would be my suggestion. Also, the best GPU you can afford. Back in the day I got a 9800 GT, which was close to the top of the line. It is now old, and terribly outdated, but I can still run a pretty and smooth Skyrim (just not all the HD stuff.) GPUs are expensive, but if you can get a 780 with at least 4 GB VRAM now, it should carry you a good while. Having a good power supply and cooling system are also important. (I am referencing Geforce video cards because that is what I prefer, someone else may tell you passionately to get Radeon. It does seem to me that Skyrim likes Geforce cards a bit better, but ultimately this is a personal choice.) You definitely want to look into who manufactures your components, regardless. Some companies are known for having good customer service, others not so much. Checking out sites like Tom's Hardware or Anandtech or Techspot may help.

 

Unless you are skilled in building computers (or want to jump in and learn) I would definitely recommend getting a "custom-built" computer-- you can get these from many quality manufacturers on their websites. This is a way to get the warranty and support of a retail machine but with the specific components that are right for what you will use your computer for. You will pay a bit more, but in return you will be paying for what you actually want and need.A retail computer at a big box store is created for the average user, not a gamer. I personally would not have a friend or local guy who works out of his house build a computer for me unless I was very familiar with his work and very impressed.

 

Well, those are my thoughts at the moment. Congratulations on your graduation and new job!

[notmyhome]

Also think about the monitor. Best graphics, RAM and CPU aren't of much use when your display is crap. Can't offer you much help on that section, sorry.

[aarakai]

Thanks a ton guys. I appreciate it.

 

If anyone else has anymore input I would appreciate it.

 

I figure that I might as well get a good enough gaming PC to last a while at least, I know there will be more games releasing in the coming year or so that will require a higher end pc than one bought ya know 10 years ago, so I'm sorta wanting to factor that into my purchase.

[BCbrad]

If you want a clean package machine have a look at the Asus Republic of Gamers Series. Great machines, these poeple don't mess around. Personally, I am a laptop guy... spend alot of the time working on the road. If you want desktop these guys can set you up with a monster. I run the Asus G750J with 150+ mods on ultra.

 

http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/Desktops_Products/

 

Have a look, good luck and congrats. When using mods, read the comments and when you ctd, its not because you have a crappy computer its because they are incompatible. In two years I have done 4 or 5 fresh installs! To much of a hurry to play.

[DanielDuncan]

Research research research. I do not suggest though going and buying the best of the best of the best there is. Not right way anyway. I say this because you will find, with experience only, that the best of the best of the best is not needed for any game that is currently in existence at this very moment, it just isn't necessary. There are specific groups of applications that require top notch computers and gaming is not one of them. Something game engines or game creation software, editing tools like tools that allow you to create and render objects for use in movies, clips or games, these types of applications do sometimes require top notch hardware, the raw rendering process can be quite heavy on a PC. But for gaming? Any game? Even a super heavily modded Skyrim? Nope. it just isn't necessary.

 

There are somethings that will help though.

 

Large amounts of RAM will allow you to run many applications at once. Personally, I will not go below 8gigs, this should be enough for like the next 2, 3 and maybe 4 years, for gaming purposes anyway. RAM will also make loading easier. Think of RAM like a briefcase, you got to work everyday and when you leave your house you put your documents in your briefcase and then travel to your job. Now without the briefcase, you would have to leave work and return home every time you needed one of your documents and this is just not efficient. This is the job the RAM does, when your game is loading, any loading, it is loading what it is loading into your RAM so that your computer can work seamlessly without having to hop back into the car and drive back home every time It needs to fetch an object.

 

A good graphics driver, okay, this is where you should splurge a bit. Graphics drivers, the bigger they are the better they are. Get one with lots of virtual RAM, this will help you specifically in Skyrim actually. I would recommend nothing lower than 1gig virtual RAM on a graphics card that is used to play Skyrim. The way I understand it is that the virtual RAm is what allows higher resolution textures to be used. That is layman's terms though, like really, I only understand the tip of the iceberg on how this works, I just know that the more virtual RAM you have, the better modded Skyrim experience you will have. I have a Graphics card that has only 1 gig RAM, my game runs mostly smooth. I get crashes still though but only when accessing the inventory/menu/system menu, openeing chests, etc. I do not think my crashes are related to my rig though, I think they have something to do with the MCM mod.

 

Next is the processor, the CPU, like someone suggested above, i suggest getting the best one there is. I am running an i5 right now, but if I could afford to I would upgrade to the newest one right now, this helps in every aspect of computer use, not just games.

 

If you are going to cheap out, do so on the mother board, the hard drive, the floppy drive(disc drive) and the power supply.

 

For modded games, especially games that are heavily modded, like SimCity 4 and Skyrim, both can take in excess of 20gigs each of data, you may want to get a solid state hard drive for them. This will increase your read speeds and thus decrease your loading times as the data will transfer from your hard drive to your RAM faster. This is just loading times stuff though. You can go cheap on that. AS a side note, if you get a solid state hard drive, NEVER and I repeat for severity sake, NEVER EVER defragment this drive. Defragmenting a solid state hard disc drive significantly shortens its lifespan every time you do it, seriously, do not ignore that warning.

 

The mother board, this thing just allows all the components to talk to each other, that is what a mother board does, that is the only thing a mother board does. I am the CPU, I want to talk to the RAM, I do so through the motherboard. I will never get the best motherboard there is, I also will never get the cheapest motherboard there is. I will always, as a personal preference get a motherboard that has "award BIOS" on it though. I just prefer it because it is familiar to me, that is all.

 

The power supply. Just because the wattage is high does NOT mean it is better. Just get what you need and nothing more here. If you find yourself paying in excess of 80-100 bucks for a power supply, you messed up. It is not necessary to have excess power. I personally go with corsair products whenever I can, they just seem to last longer.

 

Floppy disc drive.... Does anyone actually use these things anymore? yeah, you can go cheapo on this to the extreme. Just get the cheapest thing they have, some no name piece of....you get the point. The only reason I have a floppy drive at is because occasionally I format my PC and to run my more than 10 year old game of SimCity4, the game I could repurchase off of steam now, but I am cheap, the point is though, other than re-installing windows, it just is not essential....these days, so be cheap on the floppy drive.

 

I can make a couple other suggestions too, but these may be personal preference.

 

Get a corded mouse and one with extra buttons but beware, gaming mice tend to die for some reason. Right now I am using a generic hp mouse that came with my very first computer over 8 years ago. No extra buttons or added weights or anything and at this moment it is the longest living working mouse I have, it is also the most heavily abused mouse I have ever had. What I am trying to say here is that "gaming mice" are fragile and I think(conspiracy theory here) that gaming mouses makers actually make their mice fragile and easily broken to get people to keep buying them. Look, I have some bad luck, but nobody has luck THAT bad. All I want a is a solid mouse with only 2 extra buttons that will last as long as this HP mouse has lasted and through the same stuff(punishment) this HP mouse has seen, is that too much to ask? Millions upon millions of clicks more than any gaming mouse I ever owned, that is sad, no really, that makes gaming mice look like s***. Some word processor mouse has been dropped more and has had millions more clicks than gaming mice and it still operates like brand new, that is shameful on gaming mouse makers.

 

Fans, they are cheap so get a bunch of them, even extras. I have never liquid cooled anything in my PC, I question if it even matters. I have never had a problem with keeping my rig cool and I do not run air conditioning during the 100 degree summers. Just keep your fans clean, they do get all caked with dust and if you smoke(I do) or own pets(I dot hat too)you need to stay extra vigilant with cleaning your fans or they break fast. Pets and smoking are BAD for fans. You have never seen pet dander before until your fans get caked with cigarette tar and then the pet dander sticks to that, that stuff is gross, let me tell you... Just keep it clean, your PC will love you for a long time for it.

 

Keyboard, I would spend a good deal of money on a keyboard. Don't get a compact keyboard, get one with large keys with lots of space in between them. This style of kkeyboard seems to wok great for gaming as the keys never get stuck unless you do something stupid like spill your soda on it or something. Like I said I smoke so my keyboard actually doubles as an ash tray, seriosuly, I blew into my keys the other day and I could swear it started snowing ash here, it was crazy. I am using an old Logitech G11, I will use this thing until it dies, IF it ever dies, this thing is a trooper for real. This keyboard, the computer case itself and the monitor are the only surviving original parts of my PC.

 

Monitors, just get one with a good refresh rate, you don;t have to go top of the line here, look at the top of the line, see its price, turn away and buy the next guy down. A Samsung monitor will likely be sitting there in that second down spot. By the way, gaming on three monitors is awesome. This can require up to three graphics cards though, one for each monitor. I once ran two monitors on one graphics card. That graphics card worked so darn hard, it still works today, but it was working really hard to push two displays.

 

Graphics cards. This is another personal preference. I choose Nvidia. It just seems to me that they are all over their updates, they stay current at all times. It is rare when a game releases and Nvidia still needs to patch their driver for it. I see all the time though ATI always needing to patch their drivers for top games long after the game releases leaving players in the lurch, that is bogus in my opinion. Also game manufacturers often time must patch their games after the release of the game to make the ATI cards work with their games. Skyrim actually had ATI issues on release day, as a good example. On release day for most games, there is an ATI issue thread, tsk tsk tsk, it is like the guys at ATI do not communicate with developers or something during development. So I roll with Nvidia as my personal preference.

 

Lastly, I can go to walmart, but a PC there for like 200 dollars already pre-packaged with all the stuff one needs to get set-up already inside one convenient box. I can then stop at the computer hardware store on my way home and pick up a graphics card, a power supply to power the graphics card, and maybe a mother board, maybe, only if it does not have a slot for the graphics card and take it home and put the graphics card in and replace the power supply and instantly I have a gaming rig. yes, I have done that for a few people. None of the was dissatisfied with their computers, they had issues with the bloatware on them but I took care of that for them when they complained. One needs not spend thousands of dollars to play games. All of the computers I outfitted like this ran Skyrim just fine, even after a some mods were installed. One of them was a bit choppy but that guy installed a whole bunch of other crap ware applications on his PC that was just not necessary and it was really dragging his system down, I tried to explain it to him but he was dense and I could not touch his logic or lack thereof and I gave up on him. In his case, Problem In Chair, Not In Computer(P.I.C.N.I.C.)

 

Right now hardware is exceeding software by leaps and bounds. This is because nowadays game makers are catering to the console people. the consoles have weak hardware compared to even a computer 2 or 3 years old. So to have a gaming rig one needs not spend a fortune. Not right now anyway. If one day the pendulum swings back towards the PC, then you should expect to have to spend large amounts of money on hardware but until them, relax a bit with the money spending, you don't need to go on a spree or anything.