Ok, so I've had Skyrim on Xbox from DAY ONE when it released and have LOVED it. I have well over 1,000 hours into 3 characters. I had no bugs till they started patching everyone else's bugs...but that's not the point...I wanted to be able to fix bugs myself and see Skyrim in all its glory with the best graphics so I just ordered a gaming laptop the other day so i can record videos with my Elgato and Xbox (my current pc is a crap Acer Aspire that comes in at a pitiful 1.3GHz...not able to do much) and so i can play the like 30 or so games I have on Steam and play a bunch of my old games like Empire At War, TFU2, and so on. Anyways...I want to know what is required to run the best graphics...? Let me explain. I have a good laptop now, so its not the settings or components of the pc im worried about. It will run high settings for the most demanding game with ease and without even breaking a sweat. But my main question (finally) is do i need the Skyrim High Res Texture Pack from Steam? Or should I just download the texture mods that are on Steam from the community hub? or do i need the High Res Pack to be able to run the mods? I am just starting out with this and figure it would be easiest to just ask the community (you guys) what you think or how its supposed to be. I want to see what is pretty much my favorite game in its full glory at the very best it can be. Can you guys say how I should go about this? Thanks everyone.

Given you're on a laptop, I would say get the High-res DLC first and see how your computer handles it. The texture mods out there can have really crazy (or standard to some people) resolutions that can really put a strain on your system.

Oh, dude. I'm not worried about what my laptop can handle. I think with my cooling mat and the components in it I should be able to run some hefty mods. But thank you for the advice. I will try that first to see how it plays. XD

Well...first I will play the game on high settings and take a few screenshots, then use the High Res DLC and take the same screenshots to compare. Then I'll go from there. I mainly want the graphics to looks really good and add some new quests and weapons and so on. I liked the "Moonlight Path To Elsweyr" (i believe that is what it is called) mod. So stuff like that. Oh and should I do the High Res DLC from Steam? Or Nexus? I JUST read from someone that the one on Steam gives them problems but they didn't know how to uninstall it to download the better, less buggy, nicer one from Nexus.

If it's the actual DLC, get them from Steam like the other ones (Dawnguard, Dragonborn, Hearthfire).
On the Nexus, there's a Patch mod for them (get that!), and a downscaled version of the DLC textures ("Optimized", i.e. somewhere in between vanilla and the DLC). If your computer balks at the High Res DLC, you might try that one. And there's other, completely independent high resolution mods on the Nexus, but they haven't anything to do with Bethesda's DLC. Matter of taste whether to use them.
You can switch the DLC off simply by un-checking the ESPs in the launcher.

Yeah its the actual DLC. I got everything from Steam today. Just waiting for my PC to arrive to login to Steam on it (Steam is coming factory installed already) and download it all. And the CK. I did finally find the patch mod for the High Res. Does it really make a big difference? I know how to not use the DLCs (but thanks for posting that anyways just in case). I don't think my computer will have problems with the High Res, but if it does I think I'll try to make a retexture mod myself thats just slightly under the High Res version. (But I don't think I'll have any problems.) Thank you both for your answers! I truly appreciate it.

Factory-installed Steam? Wow.

The patch (along with others) fixed several issues with the game and its DLCs, it is entirely optional but it makes the game closer to what it should be.

There are other good mods for landscape textures and still keeps the original style like http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/2146/, Ruin Clutter and http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/35507/.

For equipments, High-res DLC is enough for me, but you can get http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24909/ and the author's other mods for different taste.

If Steam comes factory installed, then it will be installed in the Program Fils directory. You'll have to uninstall it and install it somewhere else, like C:\Games.

Otherwise your mods won't work.

Why not? Even with administer privilege?

I've heard this said a few times now and I'm curious about it. I've had Steam installed in Program Files from day 1 and I've never had any problem running mods. Could someone explain in detail what the potential issues are?

Use http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11/? and http://www.skyrimgems.com/ if you want a data base of mods and tweaks that enhance skyrim's visuals and gameplay.

I've run mods perfectly well with Steam/Skyrim in Program Files, just supplying an admin password now and then. What specific issues are there, with which mods? The only trouble I had was with third-party modding tools like NifSkope, GIMP, Blender and the like - and nothing that was too much trouble.

Moving Steam outside Program Files may be a useful convenience, but "mods won't work"? Really?

Yeah, factory installed. I know everyone's gonna get on me for this so I will just say it now. My new PC is an Alienware, and its one of the options when deciding what you want on it so I chose the 2 pre-installed software options I could choose besides Word and games from a list: Skype and Steam. Yes, I know Alienware is overpriced, but I don't have the time or the know-how to build my own PC and I needed it portable to take to work. So I got a laptop. But a friend of mine has a year or two old one of what I am getting with worse specs and his runs Skyrim easily on high settings and some High Res Texture Mods. But he doesn't have a cell phone and he doesn't have the net at home (we met at college) so I cannot ask him advice on what to download for Skyrim.

Thank you for your suggestions! I will look into them!

I have not heard this yet, but due to just now jumping into this I don't expect to have heard of it. What is the reasoning behind why it wouldn't work?

You can turn off UAC, but I'd suggest against it

To move steam though you just need to move the files and then run the exe, no need to uninstall the whole thing.

Here are the official instructions: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

Yeah I won't be turning off the UAC. Funny thing...I just learned what that is now. I have a basic understanding of the older programming language C++ but don't know tons of terms outside of that even something as simple as the UAC. Its going to be slow going if I want to do my own mods, but I learn reasonably fast. And thankfully I already have known for years about just moving the program without uninstalling. Thank you for being helpful

Thanks for the link.

From what I have seen this doesn't affect anything but I am also running Windows 8 on my new PC.