Do I need Steam? : V

» Tue May 29, 2012 10:53 pm

Okay, this is probably a stupid question. My PC specs are fine for Skyrim
on high resolution, but I don't have enough RAM to download Steam. Do I
need Steam to play Skyrim/download mods?
-Thanks, sorry for the newbieness

» Tue May 29, 2012 11:07 pm

Yes, you need Steam. And Steam use a lot less resources than the game itself, so if you can't run Steam, you won't be able to run the game for sure.

» Tue May 29, 2012 7:14 pm

Ok, i'm a bit confused about RAM. If I have Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB, how is that?

» Tue May 29, 2012 4:00 pm

It's fine for Skyrim and Steam.

» Wed May 30, 2012 3:36 am

4GB Is good, it's pretty much the standard for gaming and probably will be for some time.

» Tue May 29, 2012 4:29 pm

Okay, thanks so much for the quick reply. Just one last thing: should I worry about mods being too big for my computer?

» Tue May 29, 2012 9:00 pm

Okay, thanks so much for the quick reply. Just one last thing: should I worry about mods being too big for my computer?

post specs please, GPU and CPU. Also hard drive size? if you have 50 or so gigs free you will be fine for many and any mods (as far as space goes)

» Wed May 30, 2012 3:35 am

Mods don't hurt anything, just be careful on what your installing and that you really want it. Just be careful is all

» Wed May 30, 2012 1:17 am

hard drive (Local Disk): 191 GB free of 285 GB
and my computer's telling me I shouldn't do anything with the recovery disk...

uh, not sure what CPU is, but there's this:
Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU

» Tue May 29, 2012 8:32 pm

That's just the brand of the CPU you should be able to find out the CPU by right clicking on My Computer and hit properties it will tell you your exact CPU name & speed there.

» Wed May 30, 2012 3:48 am

Okay, how's this?

T6400 @ 2.00GHz

» Wed May 30, 2012 6:07 am

Just a hint - FryFroFella, there is nothing wrong with not knowing anything about your computer (you are in good company)...but in light of that, you really shouldn't be thinking about running mods. Many things can go wrong, particularly with installation and when the game is updated, and without basic computer knowledge you'll just be in for alot of frustration. I'd recommend only thinking about getting the game out of the box running...though from what we may glean from your cpu, I'm skeptical

» Tue May 29, 2012 6:13 pm

That sounds bad. What things should I look out for? Whats a CPU and how does it affect the game?

» Tue May 29, 2012 11:00 pm

What's a CPU? Dude...google.

» Wed May 30, 2012 2:42 am

Alright, I googled up, and it seems like a 2.00GHz is fine for gaming?

» Tue May 29, 2012 7:30 pm

Alright, I googled up, and it seems like a 2.00GHz is fine for gaming?

For a dual core 2.0GHz is really pushing it... but what's your GPU, RAM(I see you have 4GB but I don't suppose you know if it's DDR3 and what frequency it runs at?), and Operating System?

» Wed May 30, 2012 3:18 am

Best advice I can give overlay off comms off everything off play with it offline.

» Tue May 29, 2012 9:10 pm

Best advice I can give overlay off comms off everything off play with it offline.

and set steam.exe to low priority

» Tue May 29, 2012 3:00 pm

and set steam.exe to low priority

and this if you are running XP or maybe Vista(skipped it like a smart person would) but 7 doesn't require that it should do it automatically
Not like I am praising 7 it has it's far share of derp as well

» Tue May 29, 2012 5:03 pm

Best advice I can give overlay off comms off everything off play with it offline.

Excuse me PC ignorance, but I don't know any of this jargon, what does that mean?

» Tue May 29, 2012 10:17 pm

Excuse me PC ignorance, but I don't know any of this jargon, what does that mean?

Open up Steam Settings and disable the In-Game Community and then right click your Status and switch it from Online/Away/Busy to Offline.
To set it to low priority open up task manager, click processes, find Steam.exe, right click, Priority -> Low.

Can you tell us your GPU (Graphics Card) and Operating System(Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7/64bit or 32bit)?

» Tue May 29, 2012 7:31 pm

Windows Vista (Home Premium) 64bit
4.00 GB RAM
T6400 @ 2.00 GHz
hard drive (Local Disk): 191 GB free of 285 GB
and my computer's telling me I shouldn't do anything with the recovery disk...
Intel? Core?2 Duo CPU

Okay, that's everything under my system properties. I can't find anything about a graphics card, but there's this Windows rating system (1 through 5.9) and my gaming graphics is 4.6.

» Wed May 30, 2012 4:13 am

iirc the T6400 was a mobile chip... are you using a laptop? it's quite important that we establish what graphics card you have, go to Device Manager in Control Panel and tell us what it says under "Display Adapters". if it is a laptop and you're using intel mobility all hope is lost.

» Tue May 29, 2012 2:56 pm

It is a laptop, and under display adapters it says "NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS".

» Wed May 30, 2012 3:38 am

Right, you will need steam first off. You "should" be able to run skyrim, but not well, and certainly not on high graphics settings, DO NOT install the HD texture pack! your laptop wasn't bad about 2-3 years back, but now it's hardware is a little dated.

Oh, and don't worry about the newbiness! we all start somewhere... and that's why forums like this exist!