Any tips you got for me? where to buy a PC, if I should build it - what parts to get.

I am a total noob in this field

Build your own!

How much are you willing to spend? The new Sandy Bridge Chips from Intel are released soon.

Get an Ati 5850 an I5 4gb of ram a big psu and a special heatsink. Learn how to apply arctic silver. Should cost about 1100

I'm a believer in being thrown in the deep end. Learning to build your own and what each part does in your PC is the best way to go if you ask me. PC gaming is slowing down in terms of what hardware you need though, and a smaller amount of cash will get you further than it used to. A lot of PC gaming is in the indie scene and 360 ports, which doesn't require you to be super up to date in hardware terms.

If you're willing to learn though, there's a lot to be gained, both in terms of PC exclusive games (abuse the Steam service and its sales) and the modding potential for games you might already know. Someone else will be able to guide you though the specifics, though I wish you good luck!!

I'd just like to welcome to you the world of PC gaming ^^.

Now first thing to remember, is don't get the newest of the newst, as it'll always be overpriced. Get last years top-notch stuff if you've got the cash, and always build your own rig, it'll save you lots of money

By the time Skyrim releases, there will be new hardware on the market. AMD and Intel are both phasing out current sockets in 2011 in favor of new ones. Nvidia and AMD are heating up the graphics war with new offerings next year, too. And we don't know what the system requirements are going to be yet! But I'd hazzard a guess that just about anything designed by Digital Storm would run it ....

My advise is this, if you have a console stick with it until elder scrolls comes out and save money, when the game comes out, check the system requirements and go for it

This, and check the internet for tips on how to build a computer, what you should know about them, etc. If you are a total noob, you need to learn more before you start building your own computer.

I'm a fond user of Gigabyte Motherboards and nVidia GPU's.

Make sure you pick up a high quality PSU, something from Corsair, Thermaltake, Antec or Silverstone. You could probably get a P55 Board and i7 760 cheap as now too.

I know I'll be waiting until I know what specs I'm going to need before buying anything.

As a side, I think it'd be really cool for Skyrim to bring more TES fans into PC gaming, kind of like how Morrowind on the Xbox brought in a whole new audience for TES.

I LOVE building my own PC, because it is always a real sense of achievement when I boot it up for the first time and it works. Not least because I know I've saved ￡300-400 by doing it myself. The most difficult part is choosing the right components and making sure before you buy that they are all compatible and will deliver all the functions that you want. Don't skimp on a good power supply for your new rig, that's my main piece of advice, I've run into problems in the past because of cheap PSUs. Other than that once you've got all the components it's simply a case of slotting them all together, it's really not that daunting. There are plenty of good articles online about building a PC which can be very useful if you've never done it before.

Idk, dude. I saw a good article on LifeHacker about it, but I don't know about the reliability of that site, and I'm a console gamer until I get a job.

Good luck, though.

Build your own. http://www.newegg.com/. Ask in Community Discussion, there are several computer-savvy users who frequently take an interest to help people pick out hardware for computer upgrades or even building a completely new computer. They have great advice, and will help you get what you need within whatever price-range you specify.

Building is cheaper, ecollegepc.com if you don't build and suggesting parts depends on your budget.

wait for system requirements to come out. until then do research on how to build, and what parts are good these days.

seriously it only takes a few hours of reading if you never did it before, you have until november so thats plenty of time

never get the new stuff I bought a geforce 9800 (yeh not that new, but im trying to prove a point) last year, it was 150$ I think, I saw one used on ebay for 30 dollars the other day

Building isn't that tough, but if you're nervous, lazy, or whatever - my bro went with http://www.gcworkshop.com/ about a year ago and had a great experience. As I recall we figured out that he wouldn't have saved that much money building it himself, buying parts from newegg. (note, I love newegg.)

Also, if you're having trouble deciding on parts I find www.tomshardware.com to be a good resource.

i learned the hard way how to build PCs through trial and error. these days however tehre are tons of youtube videos that show you how to build PCs step by step. i used them a couple of years ago when i had to do my first liquid cooling build for someone. just make sure you read the comments section first because not everyone that posts a video on youtube actually knows what they are doing.........i know what a shocker.

EDIT: double post...sorry.

This is great advice, among many others. Use newegg.com as they have excellent prices and are pretty easy to work with.

I'm a fan of Asus motherboards (never have had a problem and I've built many PCs with them), but I'll also use Gigabyte, MSI, and Tyan.
IMPORTANT: whichever motherboard you use, check with with the manufacturer for a QVL (qualified vendor list) for memory. THIS IS HUGELY IMPORTANT because many instability issues are a result of mismatched/incompatible memory.

As for memory, 6-8 GB is what I recommend nowadays for gaming rigs.

I swap between Intel and AMD - it just depends who's on top when I buy. Generally, you'll get much better prices going with AMD.

I personally prefer Nvidia but I'll swap between ATI (AMD) and Nvidia for the video cards. Don't listen to the fan-boys. Just do your research and go with whatever is on top when you're ready to buy.

SSD drives are phenomenal, but I only use them for the O/S drive and install a second regular hard drive for games/programs. Don't get googly-eyed over the size of the hard drive and go for speed instead. Higher spin speeds are generally better (10,000 RPM or greater). I personally like the Velociraptor series from Western Digital.

Finally, stay away from overclocking until you're more experienced or you have lots of money to burn.

Hope this helps!