To start off, I appologize about the perhaps not so accurate prizes - But im going out of Danish prices (Wich tends to be a tad high, caused by us paying alot in taxes) But i'll try and convert to US for the sake of it beeing a bit more easy to take it into consideration.

If i where you I would try and get the GPU/CPU second hand, theres alot of cash to be saved by it. And people throw away hardware, when new comes out - You can get a good cpu like a E8400 (dual core) or Q9550 (quad core - Though its not really getting used by any game yet) for little to no money. Im talking in the area of 70 to 100 dollar.

Those would still hold out quite some time, one doesnt have to change major hardware unless something drastical happens (Im running a close to 5year old machine, with no issues on High/Multiple graphic mods)

A good GPU like the 260/2 is a tad hard to get ones hands on here in Denmark, since its a really good card, that still push out pixels great. (I Go the Nvidia way, for the ease of Drivers) It would perhaps be in the 50 to 90 dollar area and below by now.

With those two, all you would need is a solid Motherboard (I would recomend a p5e, cheap and stable) and a batch of RAM, wich is genneraly trown after you for less than 50 dollar for 8gb of a good manufacture.

Thats like 250 to 300 Dollar for a pretty good start - the money would at the moment be spent on the OS (250 Dollar for a win7 in Denmark) and a harddrive, theres been some issues in given contries (Like eathquakes) so the prices have rissen quite a bit.

I appologize if this info is of no use to you. I'm just trying to open a door, to perhaps saving some cash - Since with the last few years of Gaming on a pc, havent really evolved any bit (New games like RAGE and such really doesnt take a huge machine to play, I wont comment on why though )

EDIT; Sorry about the poor spelling

But if youre settled on using 1500 dollar ? All I can recomend is, get a good PSU mate. (one capable of delivering the amps needed, not talking about watt) With that budget we're talking a whole different ballgame. (wish I had that money to burn atm - what a machine one could build )

never buy a new PC for 1 game. its never worth it.
never buy a new PC at the end a console lifecycle ( we are in one now) when new console come out parts will be cheaper and a large jump in game requirements will come out

basically, wait until the nextbox or PS4.

Actually its the best time to do it only if you can go over $1k no way in hell a PS4 or 720 will have an equivilant my current rig not even close. So I don't even have to worry about upgrading to play games till next next gen.

OP you could try what I am doing. I am playing Skyrim on a console for the next year or a bit more, then dropping the 1000 to 1500 septims on a PC, at which point I will get even more machine for that price than I would now, and by then there should start to be some great mods out. Best of both worlds.

Hard cold truths about 'gaming' laptops.

They lack sufficient cooling for the kinds of stress you can create. Heat reduces stability and shortens lifespan.

You have to take what they give you; if the graphic solution is crap, you either contend with crap, don't play the games that won't run on it, or toss it and buy another gaming laptop.....and play russian roulette all over again.

Battery life will be pathetic to non existant. The only way to get decent playing times is on the cord, which kind of defeats the whole 'portable computing' concept.

You blow a component in a desktop, unless it is something customized like Dell or HP does, then you get an industry standard part, replace said part, and you are up and running again. Blow same in a laptop and odds are you'll find it considerably cheaper to junk what you have and buy a new one, not get the old one fixed.

Any topic that asks people to defend their gaming platform is guaranteed to get a lot of replies.

Whether it's worth it depends entirely on how much cash you have to throw around. If the money is just going to gather dust then you may as well use it to make one of your hobbies more beautiful. If you're kinda scraping by then it's a complete waste of money.

Frankly? Bethesda Games are best played on PC.

As much for the community fixes as well as the mods.

i didnt say just any old laptop off the shelves I said an asus gaming laptop. I favor them since I can move around with it and its just as powerful if not more when you consider it was built for gaming and designed around all the hardware. Desktops sit in one place and they are clumsy, a big misconception is they are better for being more powerful. How much power do you need really. a quad speed processor with 8GB ram and it looks cool, and I haven't broken mine yet. They are very good quality manufactures. I'll never buy a desktop. Upgrade! lol. Your better just to piece it and buy new since everything is built around the hardware.

My PC makes the Xbox graphics look like PS2...

actually, when new consoles come out they are more powerful or about as powerful as current PC specs, consoles look " bad" because as PC hardware almost doubles yearly console stays the same for at least 7 years.
look at the 360, its like 9 years old right? that means a PC with the latest hardware is approximately 432 times more powerful ( assuming the very very latest hardware and such) its hard to believe but processing power is exponential
even IF consoles are weaker then PC when next gen hits, very few games will be made for PC to begin with; look at just about every major title to be released in the last 3 years... probably 95% are console games ported to PC, minor if any graphical upgrades.

the exception is battlefield 3, which looks amazing on console, but freaking beautiful on PC. also heard witcher 2 was great looking, its being ported to 360, see how that goes.
a side note almost every TES game would be a PC disgrace without the modding community on it i mean face it, it looks only slightly better then 360 even on max settings.

my $1000 dollar laptop runs it just fine. it has a nvidia 580 (mobile) and skyrim isnt a demanding game at all. i certainly dont max out my CPU/GPU on my desktop. now BF3 on the other hand.

as i posted in another thread i have my laptop which i can hook up to my tv just like a console and a wireless xbox controller and it plays every game i have with top settings except BF3 but even med/high settings on that game look far better than the xbox version i rented. since i got my laptop i dont even play my xbox anymore except for forza and a couple of other exclusive titles. games look alot better on an HDTV with antialiasing and AF filtering and real 1080 resolution not the fake console upscaling.

i should not that i will be adding a SSD to my laptop since currently it has two HDD in raid which makes me as nervous as hell which would add more to the cost. but if you dont have any problems with raid then its a no brainer even cost wise. hell ive probably saved a couple hundred dollars on STEAM sales and ive even gotten games that i used to love and forgot about for a couple bucks.

...and where, pray tell, do I find a 580m in a $1000 laptop?

As a PC only gamer I still can't say for sure, really.

For me I have been a PC gamer for 20 years, I'm used to its issues and proclivities, I don't really want to play on anything else. For someone used to the ease of use of console games though, that's quite a money investment to make into a much different world. The graphics are indeed much better and mouse aim is sooooo much better once you get used to it. That said, the game is completely function on the Xbox and designed for that platform. So... it really depends on what $1,000 means to you (and don't pay more than that).

Also I wouldn't do it for one game, like a lot of people have said. If you do it, do it as more of a "I am going to be a PC gamer now" thing and buy a lot of games for the PC. Otherwise it's kind of pointless.

I'm sure it's been said already that Skyrim doesn't require any major upgrades.

That said, I love PC gaming rather than my consoles for a few reasons....a couple are

Cleaner graphics. I'm not a graphics [censored] or anything, but when you have clean textures and high resolutions it makes it that much more immersive

KB/M is another. I svck at games, but I still love them. I've only been truly good or great at 2 games,,,WOW and Tribes 2. KB/M gives me some forgiveness that a controller wouldn't since it's more precise.

Dude, I got super kickin' rad set up form Alienware! Only set my parents back about 4500!!! Not bad, it plays Skyrim at medium-high settings! SWEEET!!!!

I spent $1500 on 3 monitors and a really nice rig. 2gb graphics with eyefimity so I can use all three like it's just a wider fov. I am playing on ultra and have zero issues. Btw, that $1500 included the rig and 3 monitors. Newegg.com go now.

It's really up tp you. If on the long run you are going to buy more PC games and enjoy playing with a Mouse + KB (even thought most games out there have controller support, some don't) I say go for it. If you are going to buy it solely for Skyrim, even thought theres's support for mods and other nifty features, you are eventually going to get bored of it. It's your call.

$60 for an RPG of this magnitude isn't bad, especially in this day and age.

Neverwinter Nights was $70 when it came out. $70.00!

You could build a PC capable of easily maxing this game on around $1200 easily, that's just an estimate based on an English nprice of around ￡800. This game isn't even remotely made to stress PCs, you could max the game by spending a lot less tbh.

That sound's a bit steep for a gaming PC which is the average price for an off the shelf model (probably more if custom).

You can actually build a PC yourself a lot cheaper and in most cases depending on the part's a lot more powerful. A friend of mine built his PC a while ago with these spec's - 8GB RAM, 6 core AMD proc, HD5770 GFX card and a 1TB HDD (aswell as the disc drives, quality motherboard,case, cooling fans etc) all for the lovely price of ￡520! i asked a few custom PC shop's in my city for quote's using the same spec's and the price's ranged from ￡1200 - ￡1500...

It's actually not as hard as it look's to build a PC, check youtube for vid's in most case's it's simple 'plug 'n play'

True, if you go AMD you can save a lot of money,but they're not as good as intel; also a 5770 isn't a card anyone should be buying now, not with games starting to explore DX11 more commonly, and the new generation of GPUs coming out next year.

You dont need 1500 pc to play skyrim on ultra but if you want to get that then at least it'll last for a while. You can get a PC easily capable of running Skyrim on ultra + plenty of mods with less than a thousand. Far less I'd say.

Graphics are hardly the main thing with PC though. Mods add hundreds or thousands of hours of replayability and you have the customization PC offers.

You can get a pc that can run any game on high for as low as $500. Ironically cheaper than the $599 USD pricetag the PS3 originally shipped out with.

My wife and I are both gamers - although she's mainly into the Sims - but that's cool. I've been playing games since Mid-1982, and never had a console of any kind. Mainly because we used our computers for work-related stuff (checking work email when on vacation, powerpoint briefings, Word, Excel, etc.)

But, we get new computers every 4-5 years. Since my computer is on 6 am to 11 pm, and gaming most of that time, I do tend to wear one out. But I would never switch platforms because of the limitations of consoles. So, I think console -------> PC is a great deal. For 1500 you can get a very nice computer, especially if you can build it yourself - probably save some change, too. Remembering some of the mods for Oblivion were just outstanding.

Another nice thing, the big MMO currently plays on almost every computer. Blizzard has kept the system requirements pretty low, thus enabling a large segment of players to get into WoW. I just finished 8 months in Rift - same there. Very nice graphics and very playable on most computers. Too bad other gaming companies can't do that - would cut down on the problem issues some games/patches have (yeah I'm looking at you Bethesda lol.)

You could build a cheaper system than this but this one isn't to bad and the parts are good. I think the system below would do great with Skyrim on ultra settings provided the CPU was overclocked.

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT - OEM DVD 80.00
HAF 922 case: 90.00
Intel i7 2600k CPU 320.00
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=120-SB-E682-KR&family=Motherboard%20Family&series=Intel%20Z68%20Series%20Family&sw=5: 160.00
Corsair H80 CPU cooler: 80.00
Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB DDR3 Desktop Memory Kit RAM: 60.00 or 97.00 for 16GB kit.
Corsair CMPSU-600G 600-Watt Gaming Series GS600 Power Supply - ATX, 600W, 80 Plus, Blue LED, 140mm Fan Power supply: 70.00
EVGA 012-P3-1570-AR GeForce GTX 570 Video Card - 1280MB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, Dual DVI, Mini HDMI, SLI, DirectX 11: 350.00

If you want a less expensive motherboard then consider ASROCK or MSI.

Here is a good range of GPU's to choose from (other brands MSI, XFX, Asus)

http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?family=GeForce+500+Series+Family

EDIT: You can save money by going with an i5 instead of i7 but i can't bring myself to look at them, not because they aren't good but because I like i7's. You can save even more money with AMD based computers but the i5's are better in my opinion.