PC Gaming & Steam

[sulphur]

Figured I'd ask this here as I remember quite a few of you being gamers.
I'm new to the PC gaming, last PC game I played was Unreal Tournament haha. I'm mainly aiming towards Skyrim, and looking to add alot of mods to it to increase the size of the game. I've invested around 600hrs on the ps3 but it's now laggy and buggy as hell.
I'm just not sure how Steam works, or how the mods and stuff work. Are the mods free? Is it as simple as copying and pasting the files into the /data folder?

[Jayy]

So do you have a PC already or are you asking what's required to run a lot of mods on Skyrim?

As for Steam, they have what's called Steam Workshop for some games to handle the mods and Skyrim has it. You just browse all the best mods and hit subscribe and it installs and takes care of it for you, simple as that.

Mods are free. You can also use the nexus mod manager : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/modmanager/?

You may find more mods there that are not on Steam Workshop and similarly, once you download the mod manager, you can just download free mods and install them via NMM.

As for Steam itself, once you have an account, you pay for the game and it lets you download it instantly. Then you just install as normal to your HDD's, all your game saves are stored in the cloud so if you have a crash / format, you don't need to back anything up other than your actual game files on your HDD, which even if they corrupted, you just download them all again from Steam.

If you were asking about the fire power needed, I would be aiming for 4GB GPU, 8GB+ Ram and an I5 or I7 cpu.

[Philly46]

This is the guide I used to get started.

https://youtu.be/nfz4sNbDX6k

Skyrim is glorious.
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[sulphur]

I'm gonna be using a laptop for a few months, just to get set up and figure everything out before I actually invest in a proper gaming machine. It'll be a MacBook Pro so it's got 2.4Ghz, 6Gb ram but I'm not sure how the graphics card competes with the likes of nvidia.
Seems pretty straight forward thankfully, so I'll just get cracking.
Cheers boys.

[dydey90]

A Mac is different to a PC. I would expect something like Skyrim to work just fine, but making a make work on Mac takes just as much work as porting it to Wii U and there's a much smaller target market.
In fact, looking at the top sellers list today only one of the top five is available for Mac.
What I'm saying is, if Steam seems crap and like there's barely any games then give it another chance.
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[lihp]

[Jayy]

[Philly46]

It won't handle it. A heavily modded Skyrim pushes my R9 390 so an iGPU like the one in your MacBook is going to cry.

Mac and gaming do not belong in the same sentence. If you try this you're going to have a bad time.
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[sulphur]

I realise the gpu might not be the best, obviously it won't run it at max modded to hell but i was hoping it would run on high with a few select mods? It's got an IntelIris4000 if that's anything decent?
I'm aiming to invest in a gaming laptop come Xmas time, so this is basically a trial run to make sure my investment would be worthwhile and won't just gather dust.

[Ste]

A half arsed trial run isn't a good investment!

Save your money and put it towards a gaming laptop if that's what you want.

[lihp]

[sulphur]

[M.C]

Gaming on a laptop's rubbish, the performance will be dire compared to a PC. Problem with PC gaming's all the system specific issues you come across, that's one good thing about consoles, you dont have that even if the performance's a bit worse (although often more stable).

I'm not a fan of steam, but most games have migrated to the platform so unfortunately you have to use it. Mods can be a pain, with the games I play they're always being broken with new game updates.

[Philly46]

[Jayy]

I don't know much about Apple products as I've never owned any but have a mate who had a MBP and it struggled to run some basic shit, which is why he bought a Razer gaming laptop but didn't want to go full potato and get the big bulky beast gaming laptops (Alienware, etc).

If it's an integrated graphics chip, it's going to be diabolical with NO mods

[Philly46]

[sulphur]

Balls. So this stupid expensive thing with that fruit logo on the front is a pile of shite after all. Won't even run a 5yr old game on high with a few mods.
Ok, I'll just have to up my budget a bit then to account for the upgrade from 970 to 1060. I'll have a look at PCSpecialist and see what I can make.

Thanks for the input lads.

[CaNsA]

rx480

just sayin'

[Philly46]

Peeps here have skills, if you set a budget for a build then more advice can be given to get best bang per £.
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[sulphur]

Budget wise, I was aiming around £1100 for a decent spec 15.6" with a gtx970 and around 16gb ddr4, 256gb SSD and a hybrid 1tb.

After looking last night if I up my budget to 1300-1400 I can get more ram and a 1060/1070. I'm gonna look up the rx480 since you've mentioned it.

Has to be laptop though, not into desktops at all. I don't like the static set up of desktops.

[dydey90]

[sulphur]

This is the one I've been weighing up from PCSpecialist. There are others I'm looking at on Scan, but most/all are GTX laptops, there are none with rx480.

Chassis & Display
Octane Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6400 (2.7GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
FREE PARAGON GAME READY PACK with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
Memory - Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED) + 1 e-SATA/USB 3.0 PORT COMBINED
Battery
Octane Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (82WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OCTANE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£89)
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Games Controller
Xbox One Controller + Cable for Windows (£42)
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,327.00 including VAT and delivery.


Hows this look?

[CaNsA]

Fucking hell.

The desktop gaming pc you could build for that amount of cash would be awesome.

[dydey90]

[sulphur]

No you're definitely not wrong. I've looked myself, and I can built an unbelievable machine for that budget but a desktop isn't practical for me at all.
Unless I could hook it to a tv similar to a console? I'll need to look into this. Like a mini tower?

Until I look into the above, it's laptop for now. For that budget the best I can find is a 1060gpu, 2tb hybrid HD, 256SSD, 16gb Ddr4 and an i7. Different chassis' fluctuate the price a bit, but averaging around £1300. Seems a lot of money for a laptop though, so I'm a bit hesitant.