Good PC for..

[jordanz]

My parents are buying my sister a new computer and my parents aren't that great with buying computers. My sister just wants to use AIM and play Sims 2 mostly,

I was thinking about telling them to buy this computer and it has a pci-e slot, so I figured I would just tell them to buy a x800 for that. Because the onboard video won't do a whole lot, as far as I can tell.

But my parents did already buy her a 1200$ VAIO. Which as far as playing games, it's not the top of the line. Don't know why they did that, but I told them to take it back and we'll go cheaper and buy her a PC for her needs.

Edit: Link may not work for all. But here is the specs:

emachines AMD? Athlon? 64 Processor 3200+ Computer Package
(Reg. $899.97) $549.97

With ATI RADEON® Xpress 200 Graphics, 15" LCD Flat-Panel Monitor and Color Printer.
? 512MB DDR RAM memory
? 160GB hard drive
? Double-layer multiformat DVDRW drive
? 8-in-1 media reader
? Open PCI-Express slot

 

[Hacp]

link doesn't work. As for buying a new pc, I would get a laptop. This one looks good .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115196

Buy another 512 stick for 1gig.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Hacp
link doesn't work.

 

[Hacp]

This one also looks good . Harder to upgrade memory though, but has bluetooth integrated.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115179

 

[jordanz]

Yeah I was thinking about upgrading to 1gig for safety. And well, performance. Because she's addicted to Sims2.

 

[mwmorph]

eh... any card will play sims 2 decently. my old geforce 2 played it at 10x7 medium/high fro a long time. no reason to buy a good or even decent gaming card since soms 2 is mainly cpu limited.

for pci-e look here.
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050524/vga_charts-13.html
a Radeon x300hypermemory will run it at 10x7 max quality no "smooth edges"(otherwise known as anti alising[AA])
for smooth edges max(4x or 6xaa or something), a 6600/x700pro would fit the bill pretty nice.
hell, even integrated intel runs 48 or so fps.

for even cheaper, agp will be here
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050705/vga-charts-pcie-13.html
for agp, it becomes even cheaper, just buy any fx 5700 or better and you got at least 57fps(for sims 2, any over 35-40 isnt needed since it is slow paced.
for aa, just get a 9800pro used off the forums..

I ran sims 2 with a
amd64 S754 3300+
512 mb ram
geforce 2 ti @ ultra speeds

well at 10x7 medium/high no smooth edges. you are building complete overkill right there.

 

[jordanz]

Yeah, I run Sims2 for her on my 6800GT, but I feel like if she's not playing near perfect quality she's getting jipped. And my parents spent 1200 on her at first anyways, so I figured if they get back the 1200, then about 800-900 won't be a problem as a replacement. And I'm also trying to prepare for her if she wants to play any games in the near future.

And thanks for the suggestions guys, I appreciate the help.