In the past year and a bit I actually played more the 360 version by a lot more since that is the newer system for me. I only got the 360 just before Christmas 2014. I can see myself abandoning the PC Version since I do not need mods. It is nice to have mods but I do not need them.

Each to his own. I would never abandon the PC version to go back to console. Apart from the gameplay changes that I could not live without, I honestly cannot stand the vanilla UI, HUD or map. There is also all the bugs fixed by USLEEP, and several other bug fixing mods (flora respawn fix being the most important to me personally), not to mention the fact that a decent PC can run the game in higher resolution and at twice the FPS of an Xbox, even heavily modded.

I can see how, sometimes, you just want to play without all the complications of mods and testing and whatever. You just want to start and go. That being said, I was very jealous of the bug-fixes that were available for PC players but not console players.

Regarding Gopher again, I also like watching his 'Let's Play' videos on YT, he lists all the mods he's using in each video, and talks about the issues or not that he may be having with one or another. His review videos are highly instructive too.

Cool - I didn't know he did 'Let's Play' videos. I just watched MxR but will check out Gopher's as well.

Oh goodness - the time-svck of gaming is making a serious return!

He has two different characters that he's done videos with, an Orc, who's not really very nice, LOL, and Richard, a librarian...but who grows from that. Very fun!! (I have to admit to liking Richard better, his story was more interesting to me, and watching him 'grow' into Skyrim was great!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNeKPdwpAnM&list=PLfNVI1wGaszwl_W-bmXZkXn0CFiV0QAKN

Be careful watching his Let's plays they are sometimes more addicting than playing the game. I wish he would play slower

I find it looks great on the Xbox 360 and it looks better than any ENB. Also having too high of an FPS causes a lot of issues with the game engine.

Quite often on the PC I played a good portion of the time with no mods including the unofficial patches, sometimes the bugs and glitches gives the game character. I got the 360 so it was easier for me to keep vanilla versions of the game and have the PC to play with a few mods when I feel like playing with mods.

You must be joking. How much skooma did you take?

The game runs great at 60 FPS. That's twice what the Xbox is capable of running, and the game looks great and runs great at 60 FPS. I never noticed just how laggy the Xbox runs the game until I played on PC and then tried going back to the Xbox. Xbox can run 30 FPS but it frequently drops below that and the game stutters a bit. Not that noticable until you've been playing on a good PC for a while and then try going back to an Xbox.

Quick update - got the machine assembled over the weekend thanks to a co-worker/friend who came over and walked me through the process. Then cleaned up and wedged the machine in among the existing electronics of the entertainment center. Don't worry - it's got lots and lots of air with minimal exposure to dust from the floor. The OS is installed and logged into the internet so all the driver updates are downloaded etc. However, ran into a surprise problem after shutting down and starting up. I think I can chase that down by tomorrow night. So, getting closer...

NOTE: Oh, and it's really hard to care about work right now...

I recently put a new PC together, and found that I had a surprising amount of trouble installing Windows 7 updates. If you're using a different Windows you probably won't have this issue, but I found that the updates just wouldn't install for ages, just hanging there and doing nothing. Also had no end of trouble installing Microsoft Net Framework. Damned thing took around three hours to finish installing. The funny thing is I've never had these issues before, and always found Windows Updates to be a breeze to install. Looking around the internet, I discovered that I was far from the only one with this issue; it seems to be a common problem lately.

now the real adventure begins

You think it's hard now, just wait until you start using mods. And if you think it's hard when you're using mods, just wait until you start making mods. Your social life will be a distant memory. Rumors will circulate about alien abduction. At annual family get-togethers your friends and relatives will turn to each other and ask, "Whatever happened to Kami12? I haven't seen him in ages."

Oh yeah...

I warned him about the dangers of overdosing on mods. Maybe we need to find Dr Drew before it is too late

What? You guys don't really think a mature, responsible, grounded, dependable, hard working advlt will simply drop everything to escape reality into a fantasy world of fun, excitement, thrills and adventure just because of some fancy electronics gizmo? Do you!?

... maybe ....

But seriously - the last time I really burrowed into Skyrim and neglected things was because of a lot of professional stress and unhappiness. Work and life are much more balanced now so, even though there's high potential for letting things get out of control, I think I'll be ok.

... maybe ...