New laptop that will run SSE

[varkonasnorse]

Hello fellow gamers. I'm afraid it's time to retire the ole desktop PC. It's 10 years old and is starting to show it's age. I currently run Skyrim LE on it but would like to play SE. I'm looking at getting a laptop so I can take it with me on camping trips and play Skyrim while the wife is sleeping and I'm bored to death. :sleep: I am seeing some terrific deals on i5 series as opposed to i7 which is a bit pricey for me. Anyway, I would like to hear from you guys who use the i5 to play SE, how it performs, is it graphically adequate, etc. I want to chose something that will play the game smoothly without hiccups and lag time with a minimum of crashes do to system inadequecies. Performance is an issue, but battery life is not so critical. I don't want something I constantly have to blow air on the keep it cool either. I need to try to keep the price down below say $800 but still have excellent graphics and fast (or decent) processing. Thanks in advance. :laugh:

Edited February 26, 2021 by varkonasnorse

[nt5raham]

I think we'd all like what you are asking for! :) Performance, price, cooling - all of these things work together on a trade-off basis. No matter how much you pay for a laptop, performance and cooling are going to be directly related. Laptops survive the heat by cutting back on performance. Period. This alone is going to be a big change from most desktops. The more you can do to keep it cool when gaming, the better the performance will be. If you don't want to use a cooling pad or other cooling method, then choose to have less performance.

 

In general, SSE is not going to require much more horsepower than LE. The performance hit comes with the mods more than the base game (ENB, city embellishments, tree and landscape improvements, body physics, etc.). If you are playing a vanilla game then an i5 with onboard graphics should work nicely (I'm basing that off of an older desktop I've got, similarly equipped).

 

If you start adding mods, the rules change. I'm running a heavily modded game. I've got a 9th gen i7 with 2080 graphics in a gaming laptop, and it is a real hot rod compared to the i5 desktop with onboard graphics I mentioned. But it struggles to keep up with what my other, still lesser desktop eats for breakfast (7th gen i7, 2070 graphics). But I can't fit either of my desktops in the saddle bag of my motorcycle! Laptops simply cost more and perform less, and heat is a major issue in this truth. It's the price we pay for portability.

 

Be prepared to juggle mods vs. performance to achieve a suitable balance. Ditto with heat vs. performance. Stay conservative with mods, and if you're not using a cooling pad then game with your laptop on a hard, flat surface to ensure airflow (not a blanket or cushion) and you've got thousands of hours of happy gaming ahead of you with an i5 laptop! :)

[varkonasnorse]

Thanks for your input nt5raham. I ended up buying an i5 machine with 12 gb of installed mem and a decent graphics setup. Couldn't keep the price down though ($1200), and am pleased with it so far, but then I don't have a lot of mods yet. I am taking it slow because I have learned that if you don't pick and choose mods carefully your PC can quickly turn into an expensive doorstop. :sick: It performs well and gets warm but not hot so far. I realize the harder it works the warmer it will get, so I have an external fan setup for cooling.

 

So I am using Vortex and I really like it, especially how it shows conflicts and suggests how to resolve them. I have only had one crash, and that was because I was logged into Steam and it did an update or something. No crashes since. I think I'm ok here, but..you know.. time will tell. :laugh:

Edited March 28, 2021 by varkonasnorse

[nt5raham]

Congrats! I'm glad you found a solution that fits for you! It sounds like you are well on your way to lots of portable adventuring. :)

 

I use Vortex as well, with over 1,600 mods in my largest profile. Vortex is a very powerful and user-friendly manager once you learn a bit about how it operates. A word of caution regarding your statement about Vortex showing conflicts and how to resolve them: YOU ARE SEEING ONLY HALF (or less than half) OF THE STORY.

 

 

 

• When it comes to conflicts, the conflicts detected by Vortex are "mod" conflicts (textures .dds, meshes .nif, plugins .esp, etc.) which are literally file name conflicts. If Vortex detects that two mods are both trying to write the same exact file name, it will warn you and make a suggestion based on the date and time of the file, giving preference to the newer file (makes sense most of the time, since the newer file should be the most up to date).
• The suggestion that Vortex makes has nothing to do with the actual texture or mesh or plugin content itself. For example, a follower mod author may put the mod up on March 1st, and then on March 5th upload an optional patch, "Optional eye color for those that want blue eyes instead of brown." It may contain a texture file with custom eye colors, Gertrude_Eyes.dds. Vortex will look at the date of the original (March 1st) compared to the date of the patch (March 5th) and correctly suggest loading the eye patch after the main mod, and Gertrude will have beautiful blue eyes in the game.
• HOWEVER, if the mod author then uploads version 2 of the main mod with fixes to the follower's armor and weapons on March 20th, and in the process he also tweaks the color of the original brown eyes, then when Vortex checks the dates it will suggest that you load the main mod (March 20th) after the eye patch (March 5th). The result will be that the eye patch is overwritten and becomes ineffective, and Gertrude still has brown eyes in game. The correct answer in that scenario is to do the opposite of what Vortex suggests. This is with "mod" conflicts with the same file name.

And here comes "the rest of the story."

• When you install mods, there are going to be hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of conflicts between the plugins, where two or more plugins are trying to modify the same FormID. Many of these conflicts are intentional and are not harmful at all. Others can have devastating results. Vortex will not detect these at all. It doesn't have a clue.
• For example, when you install a "Follower House" mod in the woods outside of Riften, the mod is going to remove all of the trees to clear the lot so you don't have trees growing through your roof. The trees may have been put there by Skyrim.esm, and Follower_House.esp removes them (two different file names, so Vortex does not care).
• Other trees around the house may be left as-is so you don't have a barren lawn, so only trees that interfered with the house itself were removed. There may be a tree that is close to the house, and only slightly interferes (a single branch that goes "through" the outer wall), and the house mod may simply adjust the position (move it over 5 feet or rotate it 90 degrees) so that the branch no longer clips the house.
• Then you also install a "Thicker Forests" mod that makes the trees more lush and beautiful than the vanilla trees. It is going to overwrite trees all over Skyrim, including those outside of Riften, because it overwrites the basic "tree" descriptions as defined in Skyrim.esm..
• The problem comes with the tree close to the house that the house mod author simply moved a little. The new tree pattern introduced by the Thicker Forests mod has changed the branch positions, added more branches, etc. You now have a big fat bough running right through your Follower House!
• You already have the Follower House plugin loading after the Thicker Forests plugin (Vortex/LOOT will normally sort the plugins this way automatically), so you can't fix this with load order changes.
• Vortex will not detect this problem, nor will it provide a method to fix it. You have to use something like xEdit (SSE Edit) to correct the problem..

These types of "conflicts" happen all of the time. Some are visible, like my example of the tree and house, so they are obvious. But conflicts can also happen with scripts, dialogue, factions, NPC characteristics, etc., and they are not visible until they break your quest, cause CTD, or whatever. Or, they may never show up at all depending upon how you play (if you never do that particular quest, you'd never know).

 

My point is not to "scare" you or be a doom-sayer, but to provide a word of caution so you are not lulled into a false sense of security about what Vortex is doing with conflicts. Vortex certainly helps, but it is not a complete solution. :)

 

 

[varkonasnorse]

Congrats! I'm glad you found a solution that fits for you! It sounds like you are well on your way to lots of portable adventuring. :smile:

 

I use Vortex as well, with over 1,600 mods in my largest profile. Vortex is a very powerful and user-friendly manager once you learn a bit about how it operates. A word of caution regarding your statement about Vortex showing conflicts and how to resolve them: YOU ARE SEEING ONLY HALF (or less than half) OF THE STORY.

 

 

 

• When it comes to conflicts, the conflicts detected by Vortex are "mod" conflicts (textures .dds, meshes .nif, plugins .esp, etc.) which are literally file name conflicts. If Vortex detects that two mods are both trying to write the same exact file name, it will warn you and make a suggestion based on the date and time of the file, giving preference to the newer file (makes sense most of the time, since the newer file should be the most up to date).
• The suggestion that Vortex makes has nothing to do with the actual texture or mesh or plugin content itself. For example, a follower mod author may put the mod up on March 1st, and then on March 5th upload an optional patch, "Optional eye color for those that want blue eyes instead of brown." It may contain a texture file with custom eye colors, Gertrude_Eyes.dds. Vortex will look at the date of the original (March 1st) compared to the date of the patch (March 5th) and correctly suggest loading the eye patch after the main mod, and Gertrude will have beautiful blue eyes in the game.
• HOWEVER, if the mod author then uploads version 2 of the main mod with fixes to the follower's armor and weapons on March 20th, and in the process he also tweaks the color of the original brown eyes, then when Vortex checks the dates it will suggest that you load the main mod (March 20th) after the eye patch (March 5th). The result will be that the eye patch is overwritten and becomes ineffective, and Gertrude still has brown eyes in game. The correct answer in that scenario is to do the opposite of what Vortex suggests. This is with "mod" conflicts with the same file name.

And here comes "the rest of the story."

• When you install mods, there are going to be hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of conflicts between the plugins, where two or more plugins are trying to modify the same FormID. Many of these conflicts are intentional and are not harmful at all. Others can have devastating results. Vortex will not detect these at all. It doesn't have a clue.
• For example, when you install a "Follower House" mod in the woods outside of Riften, the mod is going to remove all of the trees to clear the lot so you don't have trees growing through your roof. The trees may have been put there by Skyrim.esm, and Follower_House.esp removes them (two different file names, so Vortex does not care).
• Other trees around the house may be left as-is so you don't have a barren lawn, so only trees that interfered with the house itself were removed. There may be a tree that is close to the house, and only slightly interferes (a single branch that goes "through" the outer wall), and the house mod may simply adjust the position (move it over 5 feet or rotate it 90 degrees) so that the branch no longer clips the house.
• Then you also install a "Thicker Forests" mod that makes the trees more lush and beautiful than the vanilla trees. It is going to overwrite trees all over Skyrim, including those outside of Riften, because it overwrites the basic "tree" descriptions as defined in Skyrim.esm..
• The problem comes with the tree close to the house that the house mod author simply moved a little. The new tree pattern introduced by the Thicker Forests mod has changed the branch positions, added more branches, etc. You now have a big fat bough running right through your Follower House!
• You already have the Follower House plugin loading after the Thicker Forests plugin (Vortex/LOOT will normally sort the plugins this way automatically), so you can't fix this with load order changes.
• Vortex will not detect this problem, nor will it provide a method to fix it. You have to use something like xEdit (SSE Edit) to correct the problem..

These types of "conflicts" happen all of the time. Some are visible, like my example of the tree and house, so they are obvious. But conflicts can also happen with scripts, dialogue, factions, NPC characteristics, etc., and they are not visible until they break your quest, cause CTD, or whatever. Or, they may never show up at all depending upon how you play (if you never do that particular quest, you'd never know).

 

My point is not to "scare" you or be a doom-sayer, but to provide a word of caution so you are not lulled into a false sense of security about what Vortex is doing with conflicts. Vortex certainly helps, but it is not a complete solution. :smile:

 

 

Ok, ya, I get it. That is good information to know. I realize that Vortex has its limitations and has to accommodate a dozen or more different games, but is is better than NMM was and I think better than MO (I'm gonna be hollared at for sayin' that), but still it brings things to your attention that you may normally miss with the other platforms. I'm printing your spoiler as we speak. That info is gold to a dope like me. :ohmy: