New to Skyrim, need a good setup...

[Pau1K311y]

Hi there,

 

Only just got round to buying Skyrim. I know it's probably a strange time to get round to it. If I've waited this long I suppose that I should just wait for GOTY. But I cracked anyway, and figured it would be the perfect opportunity to upgrade my pc and get my mods sorted, heavily. :biggrin:

 

So I have been doing some research and for my upgrade I opted for a Samsung 120GB SSD and GeForce GTX 660. And this is where I get stuck.

Since doing further research I have discovered that there's a bit more to it than I first realised - should have let the red mist settled and did my homework before running out and buying. From all I've read - and from the kind chap in Maplins, ta - it seems that the best setup would be to get 2 SSD's, one for my OS and one for my Steam app & games. Or do I put Steam on HDD and link them? Link? To what?? Never mind the load times, will any of it reduce that annoying microstutter???

 

See I am getting a bit confused. It's all been a lot to take in at once, so could somebody kindly point me in the direction of a helpful (made for idiots) guide to the best setup for Skyrim and how to best optimise it, in nice easy steps please.

1 or 2 SSD's? I suppose this is my main question at present as I think that this seems the cleanest ans simplest setup. Simple is goood.

 

And can somebody shed some light on Gamsave manager. I know I have filled one thread with a load brain fluff but not sure where exactly to start.

 

All advice kindly appreciated. Soon. I want to start strutting around killing things. And not just out of frustration...

[tewlons]

You don't need a fancy computer, mate. I'm running Skyrim on a 4 year old laptop and it looks absolutely amazing at astounding framerates. Most likely an unmodded game runs very smoothly on any computer you have. If you want it to be beautiful, run ENB (my preference is the Cinematic Lighting ENB, with custom modifications). I didn't like ENB at first because it dropped the framerate and didn't look good, until I discovered the Cinematic lighting ENB (which makes everything look absolutely amazing). Then with some tweaks I got it looking how I wanted and running very smoothly. Long story short.. you don't need to upgrade your PC. Just upgrade your Skyrim. There are so many mods that make it well worth the game purchase. Welcome to Skyrim!

[alsoran]

Hi

 

There are a lot of guides on google if you search "ssd and hdd setup" for example, I picked this one as an example that might help. http://www.overclock.net/t/664738/how-to-setup-ssd-boot-drive-with-secondary-hard-disc-optimization

 

I run 2 x 1TB drives as raid one (System and storage) and that seems to work nicely. 1 x SSD seems useful for good boot and load times but the disks come a little small to store the amount of games I have, 2 x SSD seems like overkill so I'm waiting till they get cheap enough in future so I can buy a 1TB SSD to store and run my games on, one day ... sigh

 

Processor, memory and Graphics card seem to have more influence on performance, What are your system specs?

[LithiumPower]

My brother has a 120 gb SSD divided into 2 partitions - one for windows which is around 50-60 gb and the rest for his more demanding games including Skyrim with mods. You can have multiple steam library folders now, just install Skyrim on the SSD (It's a big help!) and the rest of your less demanding games on the HDD.

 

660 GTX will serve you extremely well, with whatever ENB you want easily delivering ~40ish fps @ 1080p.

 

Enjoy!

[Pau1K311y]

Thanks for that. As I say I have read so much about what is the best setup - it's nice to hear about people really enjoying the experience without having to build a mega-machine!

 

My spec is:-

 

MSI 7681 Motherboard

Intel i5 2500k cpu

8GB RAM (though using W7 only 32 bit so 4 GB) - Corsair ddr3

and after installation:

120 GB Samsung SDD (and 2 TB HDD)

GeForce GTX 660 (from GTX 460)

 

I'm really excited about setting this up - I just want to get modding! That'll be another mission. :biggrin:

 

On that note...

I have heard of ENB but not really checked it out. Is this mod strictly for acceleration or something then? I thought that it was a simply a lighting mod and I have never tried one, though I have since seen the likes of Claralux and Project Reality and thought they were great (I am easily impressed though). To be honest I have only tested the water modding games such as Oblivion and New Vegas but since watching YouTube and seeing what's possible wanted to delve a bit more. That immersive 1st person rpg seems to be my thing, and Bethesda seem to do it so well. Wish there were more like that, though there might be but TES I seemed fall in love with. Pity I didn't mod Morrowind...

 

P.s. regarding ENB - sorry, I meant grahic acceleration, but I've now checked it out anyway and I get ya now. There are a lot aren't they? Hmm, which one to choose?

Edited March 18, 2013 by Pau1K311y

[ponyboy10]

FWIW, I have a 2-3 year old Dell XPS 17 (laptop) with a sandy bridge i7 and GT555m and Skryim runs very well, even on all ultra settings and using the HD pack. Sometimes I get some slight lag when there's a lot going on, but still playable -- and this is without bothering to turn down any settings yet.

 

I know it doesn't answer your SSD and other questions, but just wanted to give my experiences so far, especially if you're planning on doing a bunch of updates just for Skyrim.

Edited March 18, 2013 by ponyboy10

[Pau1K311y]

It's all good feedback. I hope to have a pretty smooth ride by many accounts,

[Brett41]

First up: The SSD. I use a 120Gb SSd on my PC ..but ONLY for the System (windows 7) disc. I do NOT install any games on the System disc. By leaving the SSD free for the OS I find that having games installed on HDD seperately has a few advantages.

1/ The game starts and runs smoothly.

2/ Any expansions/mods have PLENTY of disc space to install into

3/ All games that you install to HDD are not covered by/subject to DEP nagging. (Because they are not in your OS directories or on the System disc.)

 

Believe me, you will NEVER want to go back to a Non-SSD OS again!

 

 

As For

Graphics cards ram etc... That is entirely up to your wallet/budget and your own preferences. I happen to like Nvidia based cards, other prefer AMD cards or other brands. As long as the chosen card(s) meets the minimum system requirements (or handily exceeds them) its entirely up to you, and the same with Audio and RAM options. Good rule of thumb: the More grunt/size you can stick in there , the better in the long run.

[Pau1K311y]

Cool. Can anyone tell me how to place steam games in a different location? I think that I have read somewhere that you can do it via steam now via the beta version. Or are there any recommended easier ways to do this?

 

Also, I've heard that 3rd party backup/restore utilities are recommended. Can anyone actually recommend any I should try please?

Edited March 19, 2013 by Pau1K311y

[alsoran]

Hope this helps, a bit of research for you.

 

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7710-tdlc-0426

 

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/11/finally-an-in-built-way-to-choose-steam-install-locations/

 

steam also has a backup http://www.corsair.com/blog/how-to-backup-and-restore-your-games-with-steam/ or you could use some thing like Syncbackfree http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html