Need help picking Video card, Case, Ram

[leegroves]

I'm building my sister a computer for her. She is on a very tight budget though ($200 +-). She wants to be able to do the usual plus play the Sims 2 and Uru (sequel to mist?).

I'm donating her my XP 2500 Barton, Asus A7N8X-E mobo, P.S., CD drive

She still needs:
Case
Video Card
Ram


Video Card Something? About $75 or less that can play the Sims 2 well... is it possible?


Case $50-70 (shipped)... she wants it too look cool, must have window ( a new p.s would be a plus but not neccasary)

Ram OCZ value $50 flat 2X256 DDR 400

Any suggestions/comments greatly appreciated

 

[imported_rod]

Hmmm.... Case is a personal choice. My local computer shop has a generic one, with a pink alien face on the front. It looks cool, and girlie... I dunno where you'de get one from though...

Graphics Card: A Radeon 9800Pro would be good, but in that price range, you're probably looking at something more like a Radeon 9600XT. What's the minimum requirements for Sims2?

RAM: Seems a good choice. If she's not much of a gamer, 512MB should be alright.


Hope that's helped a bit.
RoD

 

[DaFOBulous1]

CASE: I would actually get any generic case and help her mod it. Add some "red/pink" case fans. Add maybe a window mod. It isn't really too hard at all.

GRAPHICS CARD: A 9800 PRO is MORE than enough. If you budget is > $200, I would actually downgrade to a cheaper card of Nvidia/ATI sorts. If Sims 2 is what she plays, almost any card will do. I remember my friend's 5200 was good enough.

RAM: I think for lower/mid-range gaming, RAM is more important. I say spend the extra $20-$30 bucks and get her a gig of Kingston ValueRam at the online stores.

What hard drive is she using?

Im actually using my build my sister.

Specs are similar to yours except:
3200+ Barton engineering sample, SLK-800A
9800 pro r360 core, Artic Silencer, ramsinks
2X256 Geil Golden Dragon PC3500, 512 Geil Golden Dragon PC3200, red LEDs

It has 4 case fans 2 purple and 1 blue, one no LED. It has a color LED fan controller which I highly suggest for the extra "coolness" she might want. I have the one SVC is selling for $5. As well as 2 optical drives, one I got for free and the other for $10 shipped, (48X and 16X DVD)

It is a bit of a overkill for her as people can say it's a pretty nice gaming rig but Im hoping this will take her throughout her college years and at the same time be able to play some Doom3 at Ultra High settings. 🙂 The build cost me about $450 for everything including the case I didn't use for 2 years and whatnot, and the little extra things I added.