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Cost to play Skyrim/STEP


bitdman

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Well then my laptop is very much superior in terms of cost/performance. My rig is only slightly weaker than Aiyen's and it's a laptop that I paid $1400(USD)  (including the extra 240GB SSD) for +$275 for a 3 year Best Buy Accidental Damage plan so if you include the plan $1675 and convert Aiyen's price.

 

Aiyen's price (in USD): $2401.20

Mine in USD (total): $1675

Mine in USD (without Damage Plan):$1400

 

Yeah... wow

Also I paid $60 for the game and didn't need to purchase any more software as I still had licenses. But $800 is significant.

 

Never mind... I just realized it was torminator that said that... it's been a long day. Torminator wins in the price category.

Though my laptop does play Skyrim with an ENB amazingly well. ~35FPS with Aiyen's ENB maxed out.

 

If I were to put a new desktop together from the ground up I'd be looking @ around $1600-1800(1199.40-1349.33 Euro) for top of the line stuff. Now to just play Skyrim with STEP base I'd imagine you could build a machine for between $850-1000 if you picked your parts out wisely.

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Getting a new computer now then I would suggest.

 

Core i5/i7 or AMD equivalent.

A decent motherboard... do not waste money buying a piss cheap one that has less bandwidth or thermal solutions. Also is is just sad if the MB cannot last longer then the other components. Better to save money elsewhere imo.

At least 12Gb of DDR3 ram of at least 1600Mhz. Preferably from a quality brand... yes it does matter.

 

The best performance for the money GFX you can get at your location for either Nvidia or AMD.

 

And ofc. a decent gold certified power supply with all the amps on a single 12v rail. The certificate again depends on where you live. Where I live power is expensive.. and it really pays off in the long run. But I also build my machines to last roughly 5 years with a few parts perhaps getting changed during the period.

 

Also phazer11... you confuse me! :)

Also I guess I should give you my updated ENB for v.200 :P

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Getting a new computer now then I would suggest.

 

Core i5/i7 or AMD equivalent.

A decent motherboard... do not waste money buying a piss cheap one that has less bandwidth or thermal solutions. Also is is just sad if the MB cannot last longer then the other components. Better to save money elsewhere imo.

At least 12Gb of DDR3 ram of at least 1600Mhz. Preferably from a quality brand... yes it does matter.

 

The best performance for the money GFX you can get at your location for either Nvidia or AMD.

 

And ofc. a decent gold certified power supply with all the amps on a single 12v rail. The certificate again depends on where you live. Where I live power is expensive.. and it really pays off in the long run. But I also build my machines to last roughly 5 years with a few parts perhaps getting changed during the period.

 

Also phazer11... you confuse me! :)

Also I guess I should give you my updated ENB for v.200 :P

I confuse you... how? I've had an off and very busy Saturday so my brain is a little fried. I did mix you and Torminator up so I feel terrible lol. Yes you should give me the new one.

 

@OP What kind of computer are you looking for? Is it just a computer for Skyrim/STEP and maybe a media center or will you be looking for other games (I think I said that right as I said brain is >V<)

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I'm not looking to rebuild. I was just curious how the price, and quality of playing games compares to consoles. I know, I know, I know! 'there is no comparison'  But If someone was to watch you play Skyrim and askes you "how much would it cost to be able to play the game and have it look soooo much better than a console. What would you tell them? It's kinda like putting a price tag on a STEP install.

 

Maybe I'm thinking too much :P but thanks for the input so far, it's interesting! 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I live in Hong Kong, you could spend US$400 if you have your own monitor and get it looking amazing with an ENB. Easy. A LOT better then the console version. And I am not even taking into account all the mods you can install to improve the gameplay.

 

I say this, using a US$3330 monitor ... and probably another US$3000 for the the computer... but that $400 computer will surprisingly come close to what I can do with Skyrim... super bang for your buck!

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Echoing Aiyen's method.

 

Buy piecemeal from NewEgg and TigerDirect and build one yourself.

 

To save money, get a socket 1156 i5-760 processor. This is totally relevant for gaming and significantly cheaper than the latest gen Intel setups. I'd get a Gigabyte or Intel mobo (I use the Intel p55kg, which is cheap and dependable, but you might want to get something with latest generation SATA and PCIe).

 

You should be able to build a very respectable rig for $1,000-$1,500 (depending on your graphics card, probably your most costly single component ... I got a single-used AMD 7970 for $280 on eBay).

 

I personally would NEVER use a laptop for gaming unless I had a real monitor, mouse and keyboard to plug into ... even then, building yourself and upgrading are not practical with a laptop.

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Echoing Aiyen's method.

 

Buy piecemeal from NewEgg and TigerDirect and build one yourself.

 

To save money, get a socket 1156 i5-760 processor. This is totally relevant for gaming and significantly cheaper than the latest gen Intel setups. I'd get a Gigabyte or Intel mobo (I use the Intel p55kg, which is cheap and dependable, but you might want to get something with latest generation SATA and PCIe).

 

You should be able to build a very respectable rig for $1,000-$1,500 (depending on your graphics card, probably your most costly single component ... I got a single-used AMD 7970 for $280 on eBay).

 

I personally would NEVER use a laptop for gaming unless I had a real monitor, mouse and keyboard to plug into ... even then, building yourself and upgrading are not practical with a laptop.

I find it practical to play ad upgrade on a laptop... then again something invariably happens to my laptops after 1.5-2 years (BEST BUY's Accidental Damage plan it is a lifesaver). I try to fix them but usually it's beyond repair. Power surge took out the ac/dc charging port luckily the  hard drive was savable. I was using the same model laptop techangel (I think) is using (ASUS G75SW) before I got this beastly LT (with money enough to spare to buy a warranty from the accidental damge plan of my other one). That being said I know a few people that have had the same laptop for several years.

 

Zed if you're going to spend $1500 you can easily get a new generation i7 cpu, motherboard, case and stuff. Without looking for better prices anywhere other than newegg or doing any research (though the only thing I really don't know is how much the IMC on the Haswell chips can handle) here is a $1550 build. No monitor or HDD but I assume unless you're building your first pc you already have those.

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Why spend more on 3rd-gen+ i5/i7 when the Lynnfield will get you the same gaming bang for much less of the buck? Remember that the mobo price will also go way down with an out-of-production CPU (as long as there are supplies anyway).

 

It should not cost more than $1000 with top of the line SSD, case and accessories. It is the GPU that will kill you if you want a good experience. That costs about $450+ for the proper kind of power needed to run Skyrim at 60 FPS, unless you get something used.

 

Best Buy has a big markup too. Get your hardware on the internet ... and another good reason not to mess with a laptop ... short average lifespan (2 versus 5+ years) and ultimately much higher cost of maintenance.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know a lot of people are saying ~$1000 or more, but my system isn't even close to that and I run the newest STEP (plus even more) at 45-60fps. Mostly 1k textures outside and 2k inside, ENB (only a few things active), SweetFX, ugrids at 7.  

I built my system myself for less than ~$600, including monitor. I see you aren't actually trying to build one, so I will spare the details.  ;)

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I know a lot of people are saying ~$1000 or more, but my system isn't even close to that and I run the newest STEP (plus even more) at 45-60fps. Mostly 1k textures outside and 2k inside, ENB (only a few things active), SweetFX, ugrids at 7.  

I built my system myself for less than ~$600, including monitor. I see you aren't actually trying to build one, so I will spare the details.  ;)

My GPU almost cost that much! I can't do 1K textures though, I need more!
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I've tended to shy away from these subjects in recent times as they seem to get contentious, but most of us seem to be on the same page here. In terms of CPU, I think the demands for gaming plateaued a while back, and I'd say the last gen i5s could serve you well for some years. Given the very modest CPU specs of the new consoles, I think it unlikely we'll see too many games with higher CPU requirements for a long while.

 

A quality motherboard and 12 -16gb sounds good to me. Assuming a motherboard with 4 DIMM slots, you could happily get away with 2x4b at a reasonable price for now, with the option to upgrade at a later pay-cheque. A decent GPU with a generous amount of VRAM should also see you right for a couple of years too.

 

The exception is if you're looking to really push into hardcore territory. I have an Nvidia 670 4GB, and with the meanest ENBs I could already welcome some more horsepower. Some game designers (though likely not too many) will also design their engines with the potential to let PC enthusiasts go wild. Expect to see this from the likes of Crytek and CDProjekt, in which case the sky's the limit on GPU, but likely not much value in going crazy on the other components.

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I've tended to shy away from these subjects in recent times as they seem to get contentious, but most of us seem to be on the same page here. In terms of CPU, I think the demands for gaming plateaued a while back, and I'd say the last gen i5s could serve you well for some years. Given the very modest CPU specs of the new consoles, I think it unlikely we'll see too many games with higher CPU requirements for a long while.

 

A quality motherboard and 12 -16gb sounds good to me. Assuming a motherboard with 4 DIMM slots, you could happily get away with 2x4b at a reasonable price for now, with the option to upgrade at a later pay-cheque. A decent GPU with a generous amount of VRAM should also see you right for a couple of years too.

 

The exception is if you're looking to really push into hardcore territory. I have an Nvidia 670 4GB, and with the meanest ENBs I could already welcome some more horsepower. Some game designers (though likely not too many) will also design their engines with the potential to let PC enthusiasts go wild. Expect to see this from the likes of Crytek and CDProjekt, in which case the sky's the limit on GPU, but likely not much value in going crazy on the other components.

I completely agree.

 

Heck, I'm still running the i5 Sandy Bridge and nothing is pushing that yet (of course those are hard to find now). A decent i5 will suffice for anyone (for gaming). The only part needed to splurge on is the GPU. I'm using the 7970 and nothing is pushing it yet. The most demanding game coming out (with released specs) is Battlefield 4 and the 7970 is over the recommended. So that should last another year or so.

 

Personally, I would go with an i5 Ivy Bridge, then I would get either the 7970 or 780. While these technically aren't the top-of-the-line for AMD and nVidia, I personally avoid the cards that are technically more than one card packed into one. Either way, if you go top-of-the-line AMD or nVidia you'll be set for a few years and since you were pretty cheap elsewhere it shouldn't cause your PC to cost an extraordinary amount.

 

Note: Preferably go nVidia for now as AMD should be releasing the 8xxx series soonish.

 

Memory 2x4 is just fine, I would have a motherboard with four slots for later upgrade potential. However, 2x4 will probably last long enough until we see DDR4.

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