I vote yes.

I was going to buy it on day 1 but the horrible feedback led me not to. I bought SH5 finally about 2 months ago, and it was a slideshow until I upgraded from a 512 mb 7950GT to a 1 gb 460 GTXoc.

SH5 looks absolutely stunning, there are interface mods now that help gameplay out alot. There are some other mods that fix things that should have been fixed on release and a full war campaign was just released. Its definitely playable, I don't have a problem with the constant internet connection (I do think the DRM system is B$ though).

IMHO SH5 will be the best of the Silent Hunter line, a year or two from now it will be one of the best military sims available. Its not there yet, but it is worth buying now.

Recommended mods, Tarnsman?

My Installed Mods:

Capthelm's SH5 audio mod
Mighty Fine Crew Mod
German language mod
Conus' Graphic mod
Sober's base wave mechanics mod
Steel Vikings interiors
Uboat historical Specifications
Ui 2.2
R7 Hi Rez Optics
R7 Hi Rez English Panels
Sober's Relaistic Hydrophone operator
Enhanced Funnel Smoke

Any "all-in-one" mods (along the lines of RFB or TM for SH4)?

Closest thing you'll find is Magnum Opus or Aram Victoria Curam. I enjoyed MO very much but personally I had many problems getting her to run correctly so now I run an assortment of mods.

Uh...what's wrong with SH4? Better than SH3; fewer bugs than SH5.

I don't get the dislike towards 4 either... to me, best of both worlds, U-Boats and the US Subs in the same installation, no BS DRM, large world to play in.

There's a lot of people (at Subsim, mainly) who think that American subs were junk and only achieved their success because they think Japanese ASW tactics (not strategy) were nonexistant. That, and a fair number of players are hung up on recreating the 'Das Boot experience.'

I like SH4 the best, and have always preferred US Fleetboats to U-boats (more fun playing for the right side, more use of Radar, more big ships to sink, etc.). When I asked the original question, I was just thinking about U-Boats, and was unaware of any serious U-boat mods for SH4.