is this a great pc for gaming skyrim and bl2

Um no, ditch the soundcard if you're not using any surround set up as the onboard mobo soundcard is usually enough for stereo.A full tower is insanely excessive, go for a mid tower unless you need the space. Also the GT 630 is a terrible card, go for a GTX 660Ti or HD7850 at least.

Unless you want to run on minimum. Then I guess it'd work.

Working on links.

i don't know but i got a standard macbook pro and it ran skyrim fine (on the lowest settings)

Wow, this is really unbalanced. Totally overspent on the CPU and mobo, and nowhere near enough on the GPU.. Change CPU to an i5 2500k/3570k(you'll get identical gaming performance to the i7). Change mobo to any ASRock,Gigabyte,MSI, ASUS one that suits your needs. Stick with 8gb ram. You won't use anywhere near 8gb if you're gaming, 16 is beyond beyond overkill. Don't know why that PSU is so expensive, but look into a Corsair/XFX/Antec/Seasonic PSU, 500-650w range. Change CPU cooler to a Hyper 212 evo. You could ditch the soundcard, as the onboard sound will more than suffice, but it's pretty cheap so it's up to you. Also, any dvd writer could be found for like $20. And from the money saved, get the GPU that your budget permits. Stick around the 7870/660ti range and up if you can. What's the native res of your monitor?

By the way, I saw you comments on reddit and having 4GB VRAM means nothing because that GPU doesn't have the horsepower to play the games you want decently. So don't let someone tell you a certain GPU is good just because the amount of VRAM it has.

dude.. get the Alienware x51.. best bang for your buck.. If you get the base version you can run Battlefield 3 highest graphics right out the box..

and it's just a bit bigger than a console

Yuck! Get and SSD drive instead of a normal storage drive. They are expensive but they will save you lots of time and energy.

Also, do not buy Windows 7 if you plan on getting Windows 8. Just install a Linux OS until Windows 8 comes out.

You don't need 20GB of Ram (16GB reg and 4GB video). The most you would need is 8GB.

Get a 3rd generation Intel i5 CPU because there is not much of a difference between the two (i5 and i7) plus you save money.

You might want a higher power supply if your going to want to play games at max performance with your video card.

To put things in perspective.
I have skyrim with the HD dlc+ texture mods. Double shadow res and about High settings with 2x AA.
Run @ 1680x1050
Rig-
15-3570k @3.8GHZ
8GB ram (4.1 used)
GTX460 1GB v1 @875mhz core/925memory
WD green as a drive just for games.

I get 59FPS (capped to match monitor refresh rate)
99-100% Usage
1012MB max Vram usage.