I'll cut straight to the chase; I play Skyrim on a 360, mainly because I can't afford a decent PC, and the piece of crap that I currently have couldn't run it in a thousand years. As such, I'm not at all well versed in PC gaming specifications and the like (before you go reeling off the the system requirements, I've checked them).

I just want to know how much I'd have to pay for a PC that can run Skyrim (well), assuming the possibility I might ever come into any reasonable sum of cash.

As I've said, my computer's pretty ancient, so let's assume we're starting from the ground up here.

Any help would be much appreciated

EDIT: I'm talking UK pounds

It actually depends since u alrdy have a computer, it, might be cheaper to upgrade it. 8gs or ram cost about 50 bucks, a decent graphics card dependding if ur nividia or amd could cost ya around a 100 bucks new on sale somewhere, tjen make sure u have a decent power supply thats at least 500w and that cost ya bout 50 bucks, and the processors anywhere from 100 to 200 bucks. So ur looking at around 300 bucks give or take if ur redoing ur PC to run skyrim. As far as buying a brand new ome, ur looking at 400 to 500 bucks that will run skyrim.

Now granted ull be spending more if u want the ultra settimgs with texture packs, bit aroumd those prices to get ya started. Great thing about PCs to consoles, once u have a PC their cheaper to upgrade than buying a brand new console.

Just find out the specs on ur PC, and chances are u might only have to upgrade 1 or 2 things.

I'm no expert and can't help with UK prices, but personally I may just build a new computer come autumn. Intel should have their new tech on the market and hopefully "bang for bucks" will be more ideal?

Ya come chriatmas time, alot of cards and processors go down in price. U just gotta figure out when ya want it. If ya want it now then the stuff that went down last Christmas are still down in price, or u can wait for newer and hopefully better go down im price.

Cheers for the help so far, but has anyone got anything a tad more specific?

Can you build it yourself? Honestly it's not that hard if you do everything slowly and carefully.

I suppose It's not out of the question, but I'd need to learn how to... So no, not right now.

http://www.tomshardware.com/ is a good source for info.

You can build a moderately cheap PC only if you can recycle things like your case, dvd drive, maybe...MAYBE your hard drives.

I built a new one in November for Skyrim and I paid a little over $500. I bought one new hard drive but recycled by old ones and my case. Everything else I bought was new. New proc, memory, video card, DVD drive, motherboard, power supply.

The most expensive part in my new build was the GeForce 560 2gig OC (it's not even the Ti) and that was around $320. I guess in total I spent closer to $6-700 but still. I came close to my original budget.

All these prices are USD.

EDIT*

I'm running Skyrim on Ultra settings with my current build.

Also, the op has the best user name EVAR!

For building your PC, just check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw.

I'd say 600 pounds would be appropriate to run Skyrim at high settings with little to no lag. Anything above that will make the game look even better, with possibility of graphical mods and with no lag at all.

My pc was built november last year round an i5 for 700 quid and it plays skyrim on ultra with no problems - could have been 80 quid cheaper but went for a vanity case .

Most people here who know anything about PCs (Myself included) build them themselves, and will recommend that you do the same. It's not hard to do, and you have to do it the first time at least once.

As long as you get compatible parts all you'll really have to worry about is screwing everything in tightly enough. Every part of a computer has a specific place where it is designed to be mounted in a case, and those places are generally obvious. And, if all else fails, your case and motherboard of choice will come with instructions telling you exactly where to put things.

The hardest part of building a PC yourself is picking out the parts while still leaving room for upgrades and staying within budget.

Hmmm, here maybe 8000-10000kr which is about 1000￡
My computer cost about 10000, and I upgraded it right before skyrim and that cost me 5000, but then I replaced just about everything inside the PC except some fans etc.
I don't know what screen you have or the size of the cabinet, which can probably be used for your new PC.

Thing is you have a computer and you have a 360 anyway so instead of buying a new but poor PC and a next gen console (I'm assuming you might) pool the money together and build a powerful PC instead. You can then update it bit by bit over the next years when you want/need to and then you have the best of both worlds.

Maybe you can save money on a screen by hooking it up to your TV (if that is a possibility) at the end of my bed. I have mine hooked up to my 32 inch TV and playing Skyrim is pretty awesome.

Also because you can use a 360 control you can still leisurely lay back and relax if you want to. Also with it being hooked up to your TV you are saving room.

My PC cost me around ￡800 when I put it together, it would have cost about ￡1000 if I had it pre built due to the mark up so make sure to build it personally.

You can save money also by reusing your older mouse and keyboard because frankly any old set will be perfect for example

This is the GPU I have http://www.amazon.co.uk/012-P3-1573-KR-Nvidia-SuperClocked-320-Bit-Graphics/dp/B004S6Z0FM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1334001488&sr=8-4, very nice, very powerful and when I got it it was about ￡330 so there are some bargains out there

I've found a brand new computer, that can run Skyrim, for 298$ at Wal-Mart. Sadly, no Monitor. But the monitor doesn't matter and can be anything so wont be too costly to get a monitor.

Sounds very suspicious. What're the specs?

Define "well". If by "well" you mean "at graphics quality, resolution, and framerate on par with a 360", you're looking at something pretty cheap. Maybe in the $250-300 area with all brand new parts. If you mean something noticeably better than that, probably about $350-400.

If I am correct.. 4GB Ram. 500GB Memory. Duel Core Processor, or something like that, and a few other things. Remember, it does lack a monitor which can easily add another 80-100$ if you buy a brand new sweet one.

I define "well" as at least high settings. I define "Good" as ultra settings. I define "great" as ultra settings, texture replacers, and AA at at least 4x.

All at 1920x1080.

Geez, that couldn't even run Oblivion. Also, that computer surely couldn't run Skyrim as I'm fairly certain that it doesn't come with a GPU. A good GPU that could run Skyrim would cost at least $150. Without a GPU you wouldn't even be able to run Morrowind. That computer may not even have any PCI-e slots considering how cheap it is (I doubt it, but it's possible), and if it didn't have any PCI-e slots you can completely rule out adding any sort of GPU.

Something wrong with you? Skyrim is only like 4GB! How in heck can 500GB Memory Space not run Skyrim? That totally makes no sense!

My current computer has only 80GB memory and this computer has Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion on it!

~Edit~

Are you getting GB and MB confused or something!? Something does NOT add up here.

Yeah, I was confusing 500GB of HDD space with 500MB of RAM.

Cheers for the info, and thanks haha, only 2 people have got the ref so far


Cheers again, looks promising


Cheers to you too! And thanks a whole lot to everyone else who's contributed, this is looking pretty promising actually.

Okay.. Like I said, it has 4GB of RAM which is the recommon requirement for Skyrim. The computer I saw has all the recommon requirements, basicly. Just not all the Max stuff. You know? For extreme graphics and all.

My current PC was built for $800 back in January of last year, not including already owned parts such as monitor, keyboard and mouse.

i5 2500K Quad Core Sandy Bridge processor, 8 GB of RAM (4 at first). 650W power supply, 1.5 TB HDD, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 (460 at first).

Snake Plissken. Escape from New York/Los Angelas, played by Kurt Russell.

And to clarify, this is pretty much what I mean when I say well. High settings with minimal lag at least.