OP here, I've decided that I'm going with getting a PC. I've been doing some research on PC parts and what I would need to build a PC, and this is what I've come up with. It's about $1000 for everything going in the case and $400 for the rest. Does this look good for a PC that can run Skyrim on max settings and will last me a while? I've made sure to keep it upgradeable for the future so I can add a second video card in crossfire, more ram, a ssd, and possibly water cooling for overclocking when it begins to get to slow. Here are the parts I'm planning on getting. Feel free to leave any suggestions, as I'm very new to PC gaming, and this would be my first time building a computer. Thanks for all the comments guys. TES has a great community here on the forums.

HAF 922 case
AMD Phenom II 1090t (six core) and a Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler
HIS Radeon HD 6870
2 X 4GB Corsair DDR3 RAM @ 1600MHz
2 WD 750gb 7200rpm hard drives in RAID0
ASUS M4A88TD-V motherboard
775w Thermaltake PSU
LG Blu-ray reader DVD burner
24" Monitor
Microsoft Keyboard and Razer Mouse
2.1 Channel speaker system
Windows 7

Its worth it to switch, just buy it first on 360, play it for a few hundred hours, and while you're doing that, buy an alienware laptop/desktop (whichever one you like best...) [with money I'm assuming you would be saving with whatever money making scheme you have in place] ) and then you can play skyrim on highest settings, and loads of mods...
@above or you could do that >_>....

The biggest plus in PC gaming is the controls imo.. but I guess if you're gonna play console style anyway

All the cool people play on PC. So you know...

Edit: Just saw your build. Looks good (it'll definitely run Skyrim well), but if you're building it mostly for Skyrim, I suggest you wait until at least a few months before its release date. You'll get better hardware for the same (or less) money by then.

If you're going for 8GB of memory, be sure to get a 64-bit version of Windows 7, too.

Mods earn PC about 100000 pts.

Nothing extra earns console any points at all.

PC.

Truer words have never been spoken
But seriously, the PC community is fantastic.

Also, my $1300 rig that I spoiled myself with:
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
Mobo: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula
CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 BE @ 3.2GHz (OC'd at one point, but it was causing some issues I haven't resolved yet)
GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD6870
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600 (you can get 4GB for like $50)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake SpinQ VT
PSU: Antec Truepower New 750W
HDD1: WD Caviar Black 1TB SATAIII 6GB/s
HDD2: WD Caviar Black 1TB SATAII 3GB/s

And I'll tell you what, it's a pretty beastly machine.

Just saw your build, looks good! I'll tell you what, the HAF cases are amazing. Though, I suggest you take a look at the HAF 912. It's the same size as the 922 but comes with some cooler stuff.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233&Tpk=HAF%20912

Might I make a suggestion? Since you're already spending ~$1400, it would make sense to just go ahead and get yourself an SSD.

And you're building this yourself right?

I love mods...without them, the Elder Scrolls games would be BORING.

I would, but a 100gb SSD costs about the same as a 2TB HDD right now, and I'm going to need at least 1TB of space. This means that I would have to get a SSD for the OS to boot on and to put a few games on, but I'd have to put everything else on a HDD. Also, I've done some research, and 2 HDDs in RAID0 are pretty close to the speed of a low-mid quality SSD. I think I'm going to wait a few years, and by then SSDs should be much much cheaper and have close to the capacity of current HDDs. Thanks for the suggestion though. And yes, I'm building it myself.

Get for PC..

PC Advantages:

- Better Graphics
- Mods

Console Advantages:

- Connectivity to services like Xbox Live or PSN
- Cheaper price (for the console itself, games for consoles can occasionally be $10 more expensive on release)
- No DRM

Neither is really better than the other (though the PC version has much more potential), it's just a matter of to each his own. Fortunately for me, I live in a household where someone will probably get the 360 version, I plan on getting the PC version, and I will try both to see which I prefer. I'm usually a PC gamer, but I actually liked the 360 version of Fallout 3 more than the PC (stupid Games for Windows Live...)

I'll stick to XBOX360. Maybe when videocard prices drop a little then I'll get me one and get Skyrim on PC. I currently have an Nvidia 9400GT and it runs Oblivion smoothly and I'm pretty sure it can run Skyrim too but I'll stick to the 360 version.

If you like user-created mods then go for the PC version. Me I've been playing Oblivion again for 3 months on my PC and the content in it is more than enough for me. Also Todd said they're trying to bring user created mods to the consoles because it is possible, it's just a matter of PSN and XBL servers to support them. Most likely there won't be any user created mods on consoles but who knows?

Also using the 360 controller on your PC is not the same as the triggers don't work. At least they don't work on my Vista PC.

I think you should go for the 1050 instead of the 1090 CPU, and then spend that extra bit of money on a 6950 GPU, and then you can flash it to a 6970.
Also, this doesn't matter too much, but you might want to think about going with a slightly more expensive corsair PSU... they have been very reliable for me, I always use them in customers custom builds and they have good customer support. And go with Logitech on the mouse.

Consoles are inferior, scientific fact

i have one word that can solve this issue for ya: MODS

even if you dont want the endless supply of extra content that will hit the community, through mods you will gain better graphics and fixes to things that beth never gets around to fixing.

Both.

XBox because of ease of controls + achievements.

PC just for modding and cheats(if the console is in).

If you want a 6970 you should just spend the money for it instead of taking the risk of screwing up your GPU and having to dump another 300+ on a new one, the lower units are often ones that didn't make the cut and have defects and reactivating disabled parts which are (usually) disabled for a good reason can have consequences, it can work yes but the risk/reward isn't worth it when you could just spend the extra dough without having to worry. I second the corsair recommendation though or a seasonic they are both reliable brands.

Well I suppose there is a little risk, but according to this poll http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2142567 32 people flashed 46 out of 48 6950's successfully, and not necessarily with the 6970's bio's... and the two that weren't successful didn't necessarily break the card.

Good call to go with PC for this one. I love my PS3 and 360 but Bethesda's games are always better on the PC.

PC no question about it.


Mods, better graphics, etc.

Yeah but that's the thing a high success rate doesn't mean it will work. Of course it's entirely up to the OP I personally would rather pay a little extra and have peace of mind knowing I won't have to get another new one in the case that something does go wrong.

edit: I believe I remember hearing that the more recent 6950 cards can't be unlocked anymore but that may have been a different card I'm not sure, I'll look it up.

Looks good. Remember to get windows 7 64 bit, and I recommend this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049.

PC of course. There's no logical reason to play the game on console. And yes, I'm typing that with a straight face.

Go with the xbox 360. :biggrin:

Fixed that for you