Yeh you got a big fancy computer that can run pretty much any game without lag and other things. I come from a poor family so I aim for the lower choices and that sort.

Skyrim's system requirements list is not specific enough to tell you anything.

In the recommended:
"Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU" is totally vague, quad core isn't even a measure of how good the CPU is.
"DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon 4890 or higher)" a GTX 260 and HD4890 may be able to run the game, but probably not that well.

That actually isn't all that impressive. Just ask the people with six cores and 16GB of (mostly useless) RAM, and running two GPUs in SLI/XFire.

Also, I recommend a http://www.logitech.com/en-us/gaming/mice-keyboard-combos/devices/gaming-mouse-g300 if one plans to use the mouse instead of the 360 controller. Not the absolute cheapest, but has good software support, a fair amount of buttons, is comfortable, and has pretty light!!1

Can I be entirely honest here? I can't understand anything that anyone's saying. Go on. Laugh.
Could someone explain the basics of this thing, or at least point me in the right direction to learn?

Nobody's laughing, tell me what you're not understanding and I'll try to explain.

I'm not getting Skyrim for the computer anymore mainly because of Steam.

Well, pretty much all this computer building related jargon-

"i5 2500K Quad Core Sandy Bridge processor" - What the [censored] is that [censored]?
"50W power supply, 1.5 TB HDD, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 (460 at first)." - ?

Sorry if I sound like some redneck derp, I just don't know [censored] about computers!

Edit: Sorry, that was supposed to be in reply to SimpsonFly's comment.

Don't leave me hanging here bro! See the above post.

The i5 3.3Ghtz is simply the name of the CPU that I have. The CPU is basically what makes the computer work, with the clock speed (how fast it works) being the main factor in telling how good a CPU is. For instance, an old Intel Pentium 4 from back around 2004 would have had a clock speed of around maybe 2.5 Giga Hertz. Now, the Pentium 4 had one core, meaning that about 2.5GHz was all that it had, but modern CPUs generally have two or more cores, with each core having its own clock speed. A quad 3.4 Core CPU would have 4 cores running together, each with a clock speed of 3.4GHZ, adding up to a total speed of 13.6GHZ (It's not quite that simple, but will do for a basic explanation). The faster the clock speed, the faster the computer will run.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 is a GPU, or graphics card, it's what supplies the horsepower for actually displaying the graphics of a game. They are generally measured in how much Video RAM they have (Or VRAM), the more RAM, the more stuff that can be displayed at once without a performance drop (Again, somewhat oversimplified). The GPU also has a clock speed, which is how fast the GPU operates. Without at least a moderate clock speed all of the VRAM in the world would be useless.

The Power Supply is exactly that, it supplies the power that lets the PC run. They are measured in wattage. The more wattage a PSU has, the more it will be able to power.

HDD stand for "Hard Disk Drive" which is data storage. TB is a Terabyte, which is around 1,500 Gigibytes (Or GB). The more bytes you have the more data can be stored.

Ah, the topic has been moved to the Skyrim section, I see.

You gotta love and tolerate it
Hmm ok.
- the first thing is the processor, an important part of the computer that I know nothing about, it prcess things I guess, the more cores the more processes it can run at once, and the more powerful, the more demanding the process can be. Or something like that.
- Power supply is rather obvios, as it gives power to the PC, 1,5 TB HDD is the hard drive where you save everything, 1,5 TB is a nice amount of space (mine is 250GB or something) The GTX 560 is the graphics card, which I'm sure someone can explain in a better way than I can.

Cheers. Very useful. One thing that's pleasantly surprised me about this site is the amount of generally good-natured users. Thank you very much.
Where do you recommend I start with this stuff? The price isn't as horrifically high as I expected, it's worth a shot.

And this is the second time the topic's been moved too, those mods need to sort themselves out.

Where, as in site to buy it from?
I wouldn't know, I think there are sites that help you find the cheapest place to buy it from.
I could recommend a few sites, but as I am norwegian and you seem to be from the UK (you wanted the price in ￡ so I assume you are from the UK) I wouldn't know.
Sorry.

It's quite alright me old chum. Cheers for all the help.

If you lived in the US I would recommend Newegg, as they're probably the best place to get computer parts, but unfortunately you are not, so I don't really have anything that I could tell you except maybe to try Amazon.

I suppose it wouldn't be impossible to order from them, postage may be an issue though. Thanks for all the help anyway. May you stumble upon a chamber full of voracious virgins, friend.

Actually it would, Newegg doesn't ship internationally. Sorry.

Unless you're talking about Amazon, which should be perfectly possible.

Look http://pcpartpicker.com/ for which UK stores have the best price on a given part. In the upper right you can change your country so that prices and stores are accurate.

Damn


Cheers.

Hi,

Try www.novatech.com, they do good motherboard/ram/cpu bundles and also entire builds for a decent price.

The equivilant of newegg in the UK is probably www.ebuyer.com, I have not bought from them in the past 7-8 years as the returns service used to be terrible but it seems like it's really improved as of late.

Hope that helps!

(Sorry if it seems my first post is advertising for these two companies lol)

Cheers, thanks a lot!

I only said because I've just yesterday finished a cheap build to play Skyrim after being fed up with the bugs/frame rate on PS3. You can build something for ￡300-￡350 that'll blow the performance of console versions out of the water, doesnt need to cost much! Goodluck

Thank you! I have one final question. Assuming I have all components ready and rearing to go, how long will it take me to get to the stage where I have a working computer?

Also for technical help, advice before you buy or even just to find out exactly what parts you should be buying within your budget I can recommend joining the forum (if it's allowed) at overclock.net - I generally always check here before making any hardware upgrade, you'll soon find out if you'll have any compatibility issues or perhaps an alternative recommendation.

If you had all of the parts sitting in front of you? Taking into account a total lack of experience with such things and stopping to read manuals/Google things, probably an afternoon.

Depends, certainly if it's your first time you'll want to spend a little longer but you could easily do it on a Sunday. I could take mine apart and put it together again in an hour I guess but it's usually best to spend some time making sure all the cables are tidy, etc! (Factor in operating system installation will take another 30mins-1hr)

It really is just like Lego. The only issue you'll have is making sure things are compatable (i.e, processor will fit in that motherboard, etc.) but thats why I say check on a tech forum before you order, they will let you know if you should change something. They are enthusiasts and get off on it! lol