Okay,heres the deal. My laptop has been shakey at best for the last 4 or 5 months now and I really want to invest my money in a good desktop pc. What I want is a something that can run Skyrim.Easy enough right? My price range is preferably no more than $800-$1000. Yes, I know that building my own is cheaper but I'd rather just buy a pre-built for a bit more and not have to rely on my lack of computer knowledge.

You guys and gals helped me find my current laptop ,which I have loved, so I figure there is no better place to ask.

Buying a pre-built one that can run skyrim under $600 is quite challenging.

Look, in all honestly, don't bother getting a gaming PC if your budget is less than around $900. You CAN build a decent PC for less than that, but it's just not worth it as you're sacrificing quality, future-proofed components for cheap and cheerful, i.e. you can build something that might run new games now, but that will be utterly useless in 6-9 months time.

If your budget is $600, save up another $300. That extra 50% in budget will net you a solid mobo and PSU. the foundations of an excellent, future-proofed PC. Seriously, don't scrimp on those components. You can scrimp on the case somewhat, if you don't plan on overclocking or having three-way SLI and five HDDs. You can get a decent, mid-range CPU for relatively cheap. RAM is piddly cheap, so you can get 8GB easily enough. A decent 1TB HDD such as a Spinpoint or Caviar Black is affordable.

Just get a decent motherboard, a quality PSU, and you'll be set for years, able to upgrade your PC as needs be. But $900 is a sweet spot; $600 just isn't going to cut it, unless you ONLY want to play Skyrim, and don't care about playing games released in 6 months time.

I'm going to completely ignore your post and tell you to build one

In all seriousness though, it requires next to no computing knowledge if you can get someone to come up with the parts for you (Just watch the newegg videos on building it...they literally take you through exactly what you need to know). Try the community tech thread (I think there is still one going).

Also, you might want to save up a little money first. A PC is something you'll probably use for a while so you're better off spending big to begin with rather than buying cheap then spending even more later.
EDIT: I think EvilFish hit the nail on the head with his money theory. Although I'm not too sure about US prices I'd almost say a little more than $900 is the sweet spot.

Hmmm, thats a shame. I certianly have the monmey to invest in a top of the line PC I just dont want to spend that much money. Maybe I'll wait until after Chritmas and my birthday.

So how about you guys just give me some suggestions on the $800- $1000 price range.

ha this is where i'm at, i love skyrim and would love to play it on PC as well as a couple of other PC only games but i just can't justify spending $1000 and then having to upgrade it next year or next time a new game comes out.

also i heard that if you want to run skyrim on high settings, fully modded (textures, etc.) without it crapping out then the minimum PC build price is $1000