Buying a new pc... help requested

[mistymage]

I have $600 US to spend.  I want a desk top that will play Sims 2 and all its expansions.  I'm tired of the graphical glitches such as "I aint got no body, she aint got no head!" and "Look, the bedspread is stretched to the road!" or "As the hourglass spins".

I do have an OS disk but prefer it already installed.

CD/DVD burner a must.

Dual disk drive would be nice.

Prefer tigerdirect but, with glowing recommendations, will consider other sites.

My pc is being given to a son so hardware upgrades to it are not going to happen right now.

Direct links will be greatly appreciated.

[J. M. Pescado]

I do have an OS disk but prefer it already installed.

No, you don't. First, if you buy from a company that installs for you, they will install SPYWARE on it. Second, if you buy from such a place, they will sell you a crappy computer.

CD/DVD burner a must.

How many old computers do you have? CD/DVD drive technology has not changed in ages, so it is trivial to cannibalize a drive from a dead computer, saving you $20-50.

So, as a rule, expect to drop anything between $150-250 on a CPU/Motherboard combination, maybe $100 for a video card, another $100 or so for RAMs, and maybe $100-150 for drives. This will get you a high-end machine good for 2 years or so. Monitors not included, but there's nothing wrong with the one you have, yes? Monitor technology hasn't changed in years, so monitors don't go obsolete, they just become broken. If yours isn't broken, it's still good. Keyboards, meeces, same story, this hasn't changed in longer than many have been alive. My keyboard is probably older than most people here. So you don't need any of that, anyway.

Therefore, you will need: One motherboard/CPU, I recommend one of the Intel-based CPUs (I have an E8400) as the AMDs lag behind in performance still, 3 GBs of RAMs (more will do you no good because Win32 cannot use it effectively), and I've had satisfactory results with my aging but still current ATI X1950. Be warned that if you are non-technical, trying to install Windoze XP on a SATA drive can be a source of grief. Naturally, under no circumstances should you consider giving money to Microsoft.

[mistymage]

I do have an OS disk but prefer it already installed.

No, you don't. First, if you buy from a company that installs for you, they will install SPYWARE on it. Second, if you buy from such a place, they will sell you a crappy computer.

I'd rather spend a small amount of time deleting off the spyware rather than trying to track down drivers for every little thing on my pc.  BTDT and it was a pain.  I'm not even sure I'm using the right drivers for some things but my computer is working so I guess the ones I used were close enough.

CD/DVD burner a must.

How many old computers do you have? CD/DVD drive technology has not changed in ages, so it is trivial to cannibalize a drive from a dead computer, saving you $20-50.

I only have one dead pc but it will be getting resurrected.. my shuttle will live if my husband ever remembers to take it to the pc guy.  A hard drive replacement didn't quite fix it so now it needs someone who knows what they are doing to go through it and get it running again.  Meanwhile he (husband) told me to just buy a new pc that will play my game.  I mentioned the burner because we do have an older running pc (Windows 2000) that has only a CD drive.. it has a floppy drive too.  It works fine for the 76 yo. but is a bit slow.

So, as a rule, expect to drop anything between $150-250 on a CPU/Motherboard combination, maybe $100 for a video card, another $100 or so for RAMs, and maybe $100-150 for drives. This will get you a high-end machine good for 2 years or so. Monitors not included, but there's nothing wrong with the one you have, yes? Monitor technology hasn't changed in years, so monitors don't go obsolete, they just become broken. If yours isn't broken, it's still good. Keyboards, meeces, same story, this hasn't changed in longer than many have been alive. My keyboard is probably older than most people here. So you don't need any of that, anyway.

All I need is the tower with the best graphics card for Sims 2, enough memory and storage to not need to add on to it for a few years and, I wish, with XP on it (but I can do a re-install over Vista.. it is just so tedious to gather all the drivers to do so, and doesn't always work).  And some speakers but those can be grabbed when we go grocery shopping.  My monitor has speakers built-in but I want a little louder sound on occasion. 

Therefore, you will need: One motherboard/CPU, I recommend one of the Intel-based CPUs (I have an E8400) as the AMDs lag behind in performance still, 3 GBs of RAMs (more will do you no good because Win32 cannot use it effectively), and I've had satisfactory results with my aging but still current ATI X1950. Be warned that if you are non-technical, trying to install Windoze XP on a SATA drive can be a source of grief. Naturally, under no circumstances should you consider giving money to Microsoft.

I was hoping someone could point to a specific desktop that would do what I need.. run the Sims.  Or hand hold me and point out each component via URL that is needed (but building a pc from scratch just doesn't sound like my idea of fun). 

My husband pointed out that tigerdirect does have barebones Shuttle pcs for sale. I would love to have a second one because they are a great and teensy* way to play my game. But I would need someone, again, to point out what to buy to get it from "It turns on." to "Yay, I can play!".  I miss my Shuttle because it has dual graphics cards and room to expand its RAM. Even as old and slow as it was playing Sims 2 and all the eps up to Vacations, it never had glitches.

*Think the size of a bread toaster.

[nekonoai]

I cannot stress enough the need for maximum ram. For XP that's about 3 gigs. It completely got rid of all my graphical glitches.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'd rather spend a small amount of time deleting off the spyware rather than trying to track down drivers for every little thing on my pc.  BTDT and it was a pain.  I'm not even sure I'm using the right drivers for some things but my computer is working so I guess the ones I used were close enough.

Stop installing tons of things into your PC, and this won't happen. There is no other way to purge spyware of this level that is faster than simply reverting to a clean install.

All I need is the tower with the best graphics card for Sims 2, enough memory and storage to not need to add on to it for a few years and, I wish, with XP on it (but I can do a re-install over Vista.. it is just so tedious to gather all the drivers to do so, and doesn't always work).

You should ALWAYS reinstall, period. No questions. Really, the only drivers you generally need are Network, Video, Sound, and sometimes the chipset.

I was hoping someone could point to a specific desktop that would do what I need.. run the Sims.  Or hand hold me and point out each component via URL that is needed (but building a pc from scratch just doesn't sound like my idea of fun).

This is a no-shilling zone. We will not be tricked into shilling for your site.

*Think the size of a bread toaster.

Never buy those. Expandability is zero, they are physically unreliable, and they suffer from major heat dissipation and serviceability issues. Most of their parts are proprietary to fit into their unusual form factors, and therefore, harder to find drivers for. Pain in the ass.

[mistymage]

Since posting urls to pcs I might want would probably fall under the "no shilling" rule,  I just have one more question.  When it comes to graphics cards there are minimum specs listed at sims 2 support.  Would a card with higher specs.*** still work or would my game still not look pretty?

Such as getting an NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 512MB Video Card when the min. specs say:   

* GeForce 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950

Intel Extreme Graphics (see note below)
  * 82865, 82915 and above

*** I think that is a higher spec. card but I am not savvy enough to know for sure.

[HomeschooledByTards]

Do you live near a community college, a university, or does your local high school have a computer science program? If so, you might think about going to talk to one of the teachers there and see if they can recommend a student who would be willing to help you out.

Have the student give you a list of parts you'll need (you get the parts, or if you really trust the student let them get the parts) and pay him/her $50, a pizza, and a 2-liter of Mountain Dew to put the parts together, install XP and all the drivers. Most of my classmates (including myself) would have jumped at the chance to make an easy $50, plus get pizza and caffeine.

[Jelenedra]

I would also recommend becoming friends with someone that runs a PC repair shop. An actual shop, not those Geek Squad... geeks. They're there for the paycheck. Someone that runs their own shop does so because like computers, know a lot about them, and like talking to other people about them. The guy at the shop I go to told me he could rebuild a computer just like (if not better) than my Alienware (purchased 2003 for a butt ton of money. I can has regrets; even if it apparently will run the The Sims 3) for close to $500.

The added bonus to this is that PC repair shops have used parts. Used parts are cheap as free. Price check before committing, because they might be trying to sell you something that as $X when they got it in but is now currently costs $Y. Especially RAMs. Apparently the price of those rise and fall like stock. The shop I got to tried to sell me a 1 GIG RAM, to match the one I bought online, for about $30 more than what I paid at Amazon. (Of course, when I told him this, he sold it to me for the Amazon price. Very nice. I saved on shipping. Huzzah.)

[Yecats]

If you want to get a brand-new-plug-and-play computer, go to a website that'll sell such things and then upgrade from there.

Most websites will give you a 'base' cost for onboard sound/graphics/etc and min RAM.  From there, you can usually click on different items that fit the motherboard to 'upgrade' the machine.

For example:  Dell offers the chance to "Customise" the PC you're about to buy.

My "Upgraded" Dell desktop =

Build My Dell

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q8200 (2.33GHz, 1333FSB, 4MB)
Pre-Loaded Genuine Windows Vista(R) Home Premium OEM Version
Microsoft(R) Works 9.0 (Does Not Include Microsoft(R) Office 2003/2007 Software)
2 Yrs Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Dell (TM) S2309WFP 23 " Widescreen Flat Panel
4GB (2X2GB) NECC Dual Channel DDR2 800MHz SDRAM Memory
750GB SATA RAID 0 (Data Striping)
Integrated 16-in-1 Media Card Reader
Dual Drives 16X Max DVD-ROM + 16X DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer Write Capabilities
ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB
Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi(TM) Xtreme Audio

Accessorise My Dell

No Speaker
Dell(TM) USB Consumer Multimedia Keyboard (English)
Dell(TM) Optical USB Mouse
No Modem

Protect My Dell

Dell Online Backup 2GB
McAfee(R) Security Center(TM) - 15 Months OEM (English)
Standard Delivery: Delivery 9am-5pm - Monday to Friday (excl. public holidays)
Review & Add to Basket

Also Includes

Integrated Gigabit Ethernet
System Drive DVD Kit
Shipping Documentations
Dell(TM) Support Center
ANZ Return
Discount is only valid if the corresponding upgraded item is selected above.
Limited time promotional offer only. No further discounts apply
Vista(TM) Premium Label
Dell | Inspiron Desktop(TM) Mini Tower Handling & Insurance Charges(New Zealand)
Dell's Terms and Conditions apply

for the low, low, price of only
Online Price      $2,628.00

God I hate our economy.

[Jelenedra]

Boo to Dell! That's like...recommending GATEWAY. 

[Khan of Wyrms]

Dude!  Do NOT get a Dell.

[mistymage]

We do have a pc guy who does work for a reasonable price.  But he solves most problems by formatting.  Like with my Shuttle... it was in twice and he said "virus".  Turned out the hard drive died from over heating.  It was 5 years old so had had a darn good run.  Now that I have an OS disk I can do that much on my own.  He would build the pc but we would have to buy the parts.  He does not play the Sims so I would have to give him the type of specs Pescado mentioned so that he could tell us what to buy.

I don't want a Dell or an Aspire (what I am on now).  I am leaning towards an iBUYPOWER or Cyberpower gaming pc.  I just need to know if higher numbered graphics cards will work with the game.  But I suppose that is one of those "find out by trying it" things.

[rhldavies]

I find Medion computers very reliable and I've yet to run into any problems with mine. I recently upgraded my pc over christmas and I thought it was a pretty good deal for the price. For £488 (Err, around $700?) I got:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q8200 (2.33GHz, 1333FSB, 4MB)
Pre-Loaded Genuine Windows Vista(R) Home Premium (32 installed but also came with 64 on disk)
4GB DDR2-RAM (Dual Channel Mode)
1TB hard disk (Serial ATA 2, 16 MB cache)
Nvidia GeForce 9600GT (512mb GDDR3 RAM with HDMI and DVI output)
2x Multi-Standard DVD/CD Writers (DVD-RAM and Dual-Layer support)
3 Year warranty

The reason I upgraded it was mainly for sims 3.

[Annette]

@ rhldavies and any other Quad core owner: How does the Quad Core play TS2? I can understand that it will probably be great for TS3 as we assume they will write it for multiple cores. But TS2 was written for the single core.
So is your game play with 2 less than it was on a single core computer as it's not using all the power you have, or does having all that extra ram and a newer video card make it better?
I'd hate to upgrade and find out that TS2 played better on my old single core 3.2ghz than it does on a quad core. I'm looking at getting the Q9550 from here http://www.msy.com.au/SYSTEMS/P3.pdf

[Solowren]

for the low, low, price of only
Online Price      $2,628.00

EW. Dell charges $320 for that quad core processor. I got mine for $110.

DELL SUCKS.

Also, Annette:

I got a quad core recently in my new build and kept my graphics card and RAM, and I notice gameplay improvement over my old single core. It's not significant, but it's something.

[J. M. Pescado]

Since posting urls to pcs I might want would probably fall under the "no shilling" rule,  I just have one more question.  When it comes to graphics cards there are minimum specs listed at sims 2 support.  Would a card with higher specs.*** still work or would my game still not look pretty?

High specs always still work, barring driver issues which are eventually worked out. Ignore, however, any blather about 'Intel Extreme'. Intel Extreme is not a video card, it is a fancy framebuffer that amounts to little more than software rendering, and therefore, is equivalent to no graphics card at all. I have a 10 year old 3D card which is more powerful than that crap.

[rhldavies]

Anette, with my old computer it had an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB RAM, an Nvidea graphics card (forgot what number, I think around 5-600) and it was 'buggy' to play. Animations like growing up were very laggy for me.

With the new Quad core processor, extra RAM* and improved graphics card, my game loads x3 times faster including bodyshop which was a complete nightmare to run.  I used to try and play the game at max detail, but my old computer just couldn't handle it. Now, I have all the game detail at max and it has yet to crash on me. It has far smoother rendering of sims and housing when rotating the camera. I used to try and play the game at max detail, but my old computer just couldn't handle it. (Not sure if this is relevant but I have all stuff packs and expansions installed)

My partner informed me that what I have now, compared to my old computer, is more than powerful enough for Sims 2. I feel it was worth the upgrade even if I hadn't planned to use it for The Sims 3.

Hope this helped.

*(I know Vista only uses upto 3GB RAM)

[dorquemada]

Be warned that if you are non-technical, trying to install Windoze XP on a SATA drive can be a source of grief.

Can you please elaborate that? I haven't had any installation problems, however, there were some strange things I've noticed on a computer with SATA and it would be useful to know details, as I'll have to reinstall on a new disc soon.

[Annette]

Good to know people like the Quad Core. I'll get it then, just a few more dollars to save.

[Yecats]

I wasn't endorsing Dell.  Just pointing out that some websites out there have a Modify feature.

I got my current PC from a New Zealand retailer.  Bought the basic setup, upgraded the RAM, the video card, the HDD and the CD burner.  Got them to send it to me as parts (saved me the labour charge) and built it myself.  Total cost 5 years ago: $1600.

Now it's not even worth that, but it still runs well.

I have an AMD A8N-E 64 Processor 3200+, 2.01Ghz, 1GB RAM, 1.4TB Hdd at the moment.  Looking to upgrade to 3GB RAM.  NVidia 6600GT, Realtek sound, thermaltake 430W PSU.

The only issue I'm really having at the moment is with DEP, but I'm trying to get around that.

[lordrichter]

Does Sims 2 ever use (or recognize for that matter) more than 2GB of RAM?

[Rheassi]

Iam also researching for a new system.. Going to build it myself... This is what I have planned atm.. Tear it apart and tell me what is wrong with it please.

I play Sims 2 with all expansions and stuff packs installed as well as a downloads folder with over 20000 downloads. I want it to run flawlessly on the highest settings. I also want to be able to play a very very large apartment building with 10+ apartments useable. Other games I play include World of Warcraft, LOTRO and Vanguard on occasion so needs to run them as well.


cpu core 2 duo e8400 3 gig
video card geoforce 260 gtx
GeIL EVO ONE 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
500 gig hd
vista home premium 64 bit
28 inch widescreen monitors
and all the other basics dvd burner case ect
came out to about 2700 total for 2 systems

Rhea

[Yecats]

Isn't the maximum apartment allotment 4?


And 3GB is the maximum XP32 can register - I'm using the computer for things other than the sims and hoping that MOAR RAMZ will reduce the abundance of BSOD.

[Kyna]

You can have more than 4 apartments on a lot, but only 4 of them can be occupied by playables.  The rest will be occupied by social townies. 

Rheassi, if you were hoping to have 10 playable families in your apartment building, it's not possible.  Pescado said the limit of 4 playable families per apartment lot is not moddable.

[Rheassi]

I was not sure on the apartment number... I just want it to run really well lol.

I ordered my parts yesterday so we will see how well it turns out over the weekend.

Thank you,

Rheassi