As I have been perusing this forum over the past week many of you seem to be huge PC enthusiasts. My question to you guys is, are mods really worth it? If so what is the best desktop I could get for under 1000 dollars. I am really on the edge here so this is your chance to convince me.

P.S. I am not looking to build a computer.

Uh..yea. You can add things that Bethesda were too foolish or lazy to add: Like spears and new levels and races and whatever the hell you can imagine! But I am still getting PS3 version cause I hate using keyboard and mouse.

Edited for safety.

I will be getting the Spear and Crossbow Mod...but noting else untill i finish the game adequately....I must complete the Vanilla Game experience before going SUPERMEGA with the Mods

Idk, i have it for the xbox and the pc... I still prefer xbox, mods are fun and add 100+ hours of gameplay but idk if its worth the expensive computer skyrim will require...

Is this the one?^^ lol

It depends.

Personally, I'd probably get Skyrim for the mods alone. I mean, look at Nehrim for Oblivion to see what can be done.

if you play other games like wow or u are looking at playing other games on the pc then u should buy 1


you can build a pc that will max skyrim for around $700

Absolutely 100% yes.

Go to TESnexus and just look around at Oblivion mods. There's just so much I don't even know where to begin.

Everything you dislike about the game, you can fix. Everything you like about the game, you can make better. You can also add in hundreds of extra hours of gameplay through modded quests and dungeons. There's beautiful and artistic armor and weapons.

I would never play a TES game on anything but the PC unless I had no other option.

It depends on how much SR matters to you. For example I don't play many other games so SR is very important to me, therefor I am willing to send a lot of money on it. I spend $350 bucks just to play OB(game and graphics card) I never played another game for any significant amount of type with that card, it basically was just for OB. So if your a so called "hardcoe" fan then pc is the way to go. On the other hand if SR is just one of many games your looking forward to, then just buy for whatever you already have. Only if you plan on spending hundreds of hours with the game will it makes sense to get the pc version for mods.

So bottom line mods are fantastic(and my fav part of Beth games) but if your not planing on spending a lot of time with SR it may not be worth the investment.

Lmao. Hehe. No. But mods are defintely worth it(TO stay in topic).

With mods you can change nearly anything, add things, remove things, make adjustments to the systems you use to play the game, make it prettier, grittier, easier, or harder.

I like mods and would be deeply disappointed if there wasn't a creation kit for this one.

I can only say that you're the only one who can decide if using a pc to play is an investment that you want to make.

I'll be getting the PS3 version, so mods aren't an option. I'd rather play vanilla anyone. It's Beth's 5+ years of love and labor.

@Werewolf&Vampire What's a Dragon-Dork?

100s of hours, I was planning on 1000s (not really, but really at least 300). Can you guys please comment further on a good desktop for under 1000. I probably could sacrifice some performance for price. Since when was it called "SR"?

A decent computer with 5 moddable games with a decent modding community is better than any given console and 50 games. Mod's havethe ability of improving one game by like 10X as much, and also adding several new games on to it.... and given the dubious quality and play time of games these days some of these "new games" created through mods are worth like 5X a retail game (The "new games" part refers to total conversions, big mission mods, huge quest mods, etc.)

So for me a gaming computer is a lot cheaper than consoles because, all I need is mods, free games, cheap old school games thatcan be modded, etc. and in no time you're beating consoles with their $60 games with 5 hours of play time. Ugh... didn't mean to get all really devoted fan-like, not trying to hate on consoles just tryng to express how great mods are.

$1000 is a bit much, I mean my computer cost like $ 600 in all andsome of the stuff for it I didn'teven want/need:
$250 for a lenova full desktop setup (basically case, RAM, 300MB, built in graphics card, keyboard+ mouse, etc.)
New flat screen monitor: I think itwas like $150-250 (didn't really need this, but my dad kept insisting that I needed a new one)
like $150 for a graphics card since built in ones svck. I think it's a Nvidia 540GTX or something like that.
The only other part of my computer is basically a 1 TB external harddrive that I've had for 2 years andthat costed like $100

It runs Oblivion, Dragon age II, Witcher II, Mass Effect II, Jaust Cause 2, etc. at either high or medium settings pretty well.

With $1000 you could probably get something a bit more technologically advanced than mine, but personally I always go for outdatedstuff because it's cheap and I don't really care about graphics. As long as it runs smooth andeverything doesn't look like playdoh I'm fine. Sorry I can't help you much with specifics on what exactlyto buy.

If I were in your shoes I'd take a look at tes nexus. Take a look at the top 100 mods and see if things like that interest you. It'd give you a good idea of the type of mods folks will release. Personally I'd have a hard time imagining going without thieves arsenal(Ever play the thief series? It basically adds that. Water arrows, vine arrows for climbing, black jacking foes) or some of the companion npcs(One based on baldurs gate adds voice acting/weapons/armors/locations).

Then there are the bigger overhauls like oscruo's oblivion overhaul. Basically a mod tweaks everything, new locations/quests/spells etc etc. *shrugs*

You can always get a controller for the PC and hook it up to your TV if you want that kind of experience too. I have a TV next to my computer but its lower resolution (1080p) than my monitor (2560x1600) so I always use my monitor for games anyway.

www.newegg.com

Build it yourself. It's cheaper. For $1000 you can get yourself a great PC that will play any game out maxed out (unless you're playing on a 2580x1800 montior, or an Eyefinity multi monitor setup). Quad Core CPU, Mid Range+ video card (I'd pick along the lines of the GTX 460 or above, or the ATI equivalent), a compatable motherboard, case, 4GB+ DDR3 RAM, 650W+ power supply, a hard drive, 20"+ monitor, a better CPU cooler if you wanted, more case fans, an SSD, etc.

For $900 I built:
Cooler Master CM690 ATX Mid Tower Case
Asus Mobo (M4A78T-E)
AMD PHenom II Quad Core 955 Black Edition CPU
EVGA GTX 460 1GB Superclocked GPU
Corsair TX650 v2 PSU
2x4GB DDR3 G.Skill Ripjaws 1666MHz RAM
1TB WD HDD
64GB Crucial SSD
20" Monitor (1600x900 resolution)

And I'm running everything I've tried so far at 60+ FPS (@ 1600x900 resolution) with maxed settings.

It's a bit of a price difference than just playing on a console but you get so much more. But, if all you're planning to use it for is Skyrim, I'd say stick to the console. IF you're going to buy a pricey gaming rig, I'd suggest making a full transition over to PC gaming (except for a few console exclusives perhaps).

I dropped $3,100 on my rig about a year ago. However this included an entire setup (tower, keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor, etc). I would say the system itself was around $2,300. But that's me not caring about money and just caring about the highest rated highest performance parts.

Even with this system I plan to build another for skyrim. It'll probably cost close to the same. I plan to SLI/Crossfire and run SSDs in a RAID array (probably needing a PCIe raid controller). I'll water cool it and hope it screams. Oh the money I will spend for certain games...

Anyway, on topic, mods are amaaazing. Especially those that further immersion, add armor and weapons, and new content. I just hope that there are more armor sets to chose from for male characters. Anyone that has been to tesnexus knows that it's just page after page of skimpy female outfits for our deprived fan base.

Oh yes... Mods are definitely worth it.

This is completely okay to do if you have the money to invest in it, but it's NOT something you HAVE to do. Especially if you want to save money. A system that ran you $2.3k a year ago, should last (much) more than one year, and you definitely wouldn't need to upgrade it for Skyrim considering it's tailored for console hardware (Tri core CPU, 512MB of RAM split between the CPU and GPU, and a GPU about the equivelent of a 7400 (I believe)) and the only thing it'll have more enhanced on PC is higher resolution textures, and higher screen resolutions.

Trust me, I agree. It makes no sense to build a new machine in place of one that is a year old. But, I still want to. I'll either sell this current system to a friend or keep it and use it as well. I do tend to multitask a bunch. I don't think there is an easy way to say this, especially in our economic times, but, money really isn't an issue with me. Stupid still? Yes. But thats OK.

That's completely cool. I worded myself a bit... off there. I only meant in terms of saving money. By all means, if people wnat to drop thousands of dollars each year to stay up to date, then go for it (I know I would if I could afford it). I was just trying to let the OP know that if you're just playing games, then you'll be fine with somethign around $650-$1k.

EDIT: I edited the previous post for clarification.

I myself plan on geting a Dell inspiron 15r core i5...i just want to match graphics with my 360 or ps3. I dont need the best of the best, so does anyone know if the intel 3000 hd graphics would work with those kind of setings?

a 2 grand 1 year old system should dominate Skyrim completely.

ON-TOPIC...
IMHO yeah mods are worth it, it's the difference of playing only the Dev's version & making and playing your own.

Even if you were looking for a new rig, 1000 dollars give you enough to build an incredible' one. Even with half of it you'd have for a rather good gaming PC.

And http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGdAFEgyY-c. Compare it to vanilla, and realize there are thousands of good mods out there