Eh...if you're gonna blow it, do it in proper, Pescadian style. Give the whole damn hard drive the viking funeral says I!

Duh...dead link for me too


Nah, go for the cheaper one...they overclock like devils anyway! Or better yet, follow Ste's advice...and overclock it! Core2Duos just beg to be overclocked!


Sound choice...I approve!


Sample prices for hard disks:
160GB: $63
250GB: $75
320GB: $90
All Western Digitals SATA II 16MB buffer from newegg. I'd personally go for either 250 or 320 GB.

RAMs:
Bleh...newegg's acting up on me, might try later.

(Later)

Ok, here are some sample RAMs that I find price-worthy. They're all 2 GB DDR2 dual-channel kits, with tight timings and a variety of speeds to choose from. Cost ranges from $141 to $194.


Like katenigma said, your PSU might be pushed to its limits just by the CPU/graphics card combo alone. Get a decent 500-550W one to be sure.

My eyes bleed just by reading that!


You might be interested in this X1550 if you're in the States (judging by the times you post, it looks like you're in North America scratch that, Forum Time went bonkers on me again  ). With the rebate and all, it's a pretty good deal. Otherwise, I think $100+ for a bloody PCI card is a waste of money. You'd be better off with a plain old Radeon 9250 for a little over $50 (like this one) and an ample supply of artificial tears 

I suck at maths, I know but...this doesn't add up! 2 1GB sticks+2 512 GB sticks=3 GB total...unless you have some obscure motherboard that has more than 4 RAM slots! (read one of your older posts, scratch that!) Or you have 1 2GB stick and 1 1GB...I'm confuzzled!
Try upgrading your BIOS. Keep in mind, however, that each motherboard manufacturer has its own way of getting that done. So, for starters find out exactly the name and model of your motherboard, then go the the manufacturer's site and follow the instructions DILIGENTLY. Keep your fingers crossed, pray, do a ceremonial dance or ritual sacrifice and hopefully all will go well 
Just had another thought: have you installed SP2? Might solve the puzzle without the need to upgrade your BIOS. Also, before you embark on the semi-risky procedure of upgrading the BIOS, do a thorough search for your motherboard to see if it actually supports 4GB and if yes, in what stick configuration. Some mobos plainly refuse to recognize 4 1GB sticks but have no problems whatsoever with 2 2GB sticks. Crazy things, the computers!

I hope you mean you have an PCI-E slot, not plain PCI.
Maximum $200...hm...Here's a few suggestions: do you play other games besides TS2? If yes and extensively, then go for an nVidia 7600GT, truly amazing mid-range card for about $130-$150 (depends on the manufacturer). If you're a sims-fanatic, ATi is the road to follow. For about $160-$190 you get an X1950Pro. Of course the Celery will act like a handbrake with regards to processing power, but at least you'll have a pretty fine card when you decide to get rid of it and get a decent processor *nudge nudge hint hint*
If you don't plan on upgrading the CPU any time soon, I think a cheaper graphics card is in order...for about $90-$100 you can get either an nVidia 7600GS (one step down from the GT) or a Radeon X1650Pro or even X1650XT (in Radeon models, XTs are better than Pro). Downside is, most of those cards in this price range will have the slower DDR2 memory instead of the faster DDR3 the more expensive models carry, but still the bottleneck will remain your Celery.


Nope.

ETA to syberspunk: sorry for leaving your questions unanswered bud, but I don't check in here that often any more as you might know, and by the time I checked in again your thread was already reeking of decomposition, buried somewhere along Page 2 and 3  Oh, and you had already ordered the parts 

*DrBeast waves hi to Joe
Yep, the Celeron IS single core and it might also be one of the worst CPUs Intel ever released! The Core2Duo, on the other hand, seems to bash the competition to smithereens, so yeah, I'd DEFINITELY go for it! And the extra RAM and graphics card, too. BUT...


Yes, this is the power supply, which ships with the case if I'm not mistaken, and it's quite ok for the system without the extras. If you do add in the extras, however, especially the graphics card, you will need a better power supply, something of better quality and wattage than the one supplied. My choice would be a Tagan in the 500-550W area, (don't think Tagan is that common in the American continent though) as I don't value Antec all that much...seem to be hit or miss deals.

ETA: just noticed this:

It's buffer cache size 

(random suggestions deleted after being edited a billion times)

...

Bleh...it's hard to write a good guide when at work. Let me point you too to the direction of this thread, which contains everything I could think of as guidelines, and then some!

You know, your rig would make a fine addition to the Archaeological Museum, Marhis
Ok, joking aside, I think the best you could get for your PC is a Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB, like this one...it's becoming quite extinct, but you might find some still. You'll see some improvement, that's for certain, but the low RAM bottleneck will still be there. Provided you can still find RAM that works with your motherboard, upgrade to AT LEAST 512MB, 1 GB would be even better.
But to be perfectly honest with you, even if you find RAM it'll cost you more than it's worth, and then you'll be stranded with a processor that's running pitifully slow for a game like TS2. So what I would recommend is: start saving up money and buy a new computer. You can get a rig fully capable of handling TS2 with ease for $600-$700.
Btw guys (and girls, of course...and those that haven't made up their mind yet, too!), there's a stickied thread that deals with building/upgrading your PCs for TS2...it's here 

Hm...I'd prolly go for the MSI. Lifetime guarantee is good and all, but I rarely keep the same graphics card on my rig for more than a couple of years anyway, maybe 3 years max. After that it's time to rob a bank take a chunk out of my monthly allowance and eat spaghetti for a month or so in order to buy a new card Also, the MSI has the added benefit of more pipelines, and you can always o/c it yourself, whereas the BFG is already pushed to or near its limits and there's nothing you can do with the missing pipelines (in older cards there was a chance you could activate the missing pipelines, but I think that's not feasible in the 7xxx series). Plus, I've owned a couple of MSI products and I was happy with them quality-wise

And hey...you yankees should be happy you have newegg! I check that site from time to time and drool at the product range and prices. Almost the only reason I'd ever visit the States!

Mmm...thread about new hardware! Finally, I can make myself useful again! Let's examine your questions then...


The GS is basically a mildly "toned down" GT (some pipelines are missing or just deactivated, and core and memory timings are lowered a bit). The BFG in question, however, is factory overclocked, which basically means a) it's pushed near its limits, and b) if it fries, it's still under warranty. As for the 4 extra pipelines the GT models offer, those are good and fine if you're into graphics-demanding games such as Oblivion. For TS2 they're not really that helpful. What complicates things a bit is the fact that the MSI is a mere $15 over the BFG! And what's that? Lifetime guarantee for the BFG? Lifetime guarantee for an overclocked product? Boy, they must be fairly confident of the quality of their products over at BFG headquarters! Tough call, my friend...me, I'd flip a coin! I deliberately left the Albatron out of this debate, because that name isn't exactly the synonym of quality, at least among greek users.


Obviously, better of both is the correct answer!  But from what I recall from your previous posts, you're already aiming for 2GB of RAM, correct? That's quite a satisfactory amount, and the graphics card(s) you're pondering about are already more than capable of dishing it out. What you really should check out is the MAXIMUM amount of RAM your motherboard can support. Upgradeability is the key here. If it's 8 GB max, you're fine. If it's 4 GB, you might want to reconsider, but only if you plan to get Vista (which I wouldn't recommend, from what I've read)


Personally I detest MMORPGs, but the rig you're planning to get is a pretty capable one. Happy hunting!



Couldn't have put it better! 

fionghuala: your new rig looks fantastic, but being the pessimistic bastard I am (others call me killjoy too!), I'm a bit concerned about your power supply unit. 500W may be more than enough if the power supply unit (PSU) is of good quality, but your random, no-name PSUs will hardly pump out that juice. Careful with that.
As for monitors, I'm a huge fan of CRT monitors (you know, the good old "boxes"), but those are sadly becoming extinct. If you can find a Samsung 997MB (19in CRT), go for it ASAP! You won't regret it!

Though it's becoming quite dated, this thread is still quite helpful. Heaps of info about building a TS2-oriented machine, really worth its 6 pages.

Edit: just checked that thread again, seems it's still alive and kicking.

I believe those are included in the ones I posted some posts up.

ETA: they're here and in the next 2 posts.

Good thing you're returning from time to time Nailati, or else Pescado would announce you dead! These face templates have turned into a royal PITA, eh? Well, I'm glad you still have the energy to continue working on them! We're all awaiting patiently still for you to finish them...they're surely worth the wait!

You might have accidentally downloaded a guitar that works only with his previous version of the band controller (I spotted a few of those in here). All the guitars I uploaded are properly named BlahblahwhateverV4, since they all require Version 4 of the Band Controller (now called Custom Instruments hack), and I believe Atavera named all the guitars he had updated accordingly. I'd keep all the guitars that are named thus and temporarily remove the others from the Downloads folder. If you're hell-bent on using all the guitars and/or want to track down the culprit, add the rest of the guitars (i.e. those that are not named blablahsomethingV4) ONE BY ONE, start the game, and see if it crashes. If not, add another one, etc etc until you reach the one that crashes your game. Single that out and set it on fire, proper Hendrix-style, or smash it to bits a-la Malmsteen. Of course, you could always be less dramatic and just delete it 

Join the club

It's the only way you can choose recolors on guitars, I'm afraid. If you don't like it, there's always the Undo button.

Plonk down a guitar, then select the design tool (the icon that looks like a set of keys) and click on the guitar...that should bring up the recolors. Some guitars (the Fender Strat, for example) have recolors for the amp too. You need to click on the amp with the design tool to bring up those recolors.

Medium wavy hair, mesh along with the black color. Bad news: it's not properly binned, and I don't have SimPE on this machine to make an impromptu binning. As for the recolors, I think someone else at MTS2 did those, as I couldn't find any with atavera's name.

Raene: to clear out confusion, can you specify which version of the Band Controller/Custom Instrument hack the guitars you posted need? All the guitars I posted require the Custom Instruments hack (also known as Band Controller v4), they won't work or work incorrectly with an older version of that hack.

Last batch...one bass guitar included for your low-profile Sims

Gibson (or ESP?) Flying V
Fender Stratocaster
Moser Bastard (beats me if I've heard of this one!)
Fender Jazzmaster Bass

That's all the guitars I managed to salvage. All require the Custom Instruments v4 hack (or, alternatively, the version Jordi posted a few posts up).

Enjoy!

More axes for your Sims to grind 

Gibson Les Paul studio
Ibanez K7
Yamaha (unknown model!)

Guitars, as promised!

ESP Explorer and Gibson Les Paul Custom

More to come...

I concur


Hey, I'm drifting further and further away from the game and, consequently, MATY, so I might at least be useful while I'm still around! 

And part 3.

If anyone's interested, I also have most of the guitars he made, the older ones for use with Band Controller v3 and the newest ones for use with the most recent (and renamed, I think) Band Controller, as well as the corresponding Band Controller hacks.