upgrade my mums pc....

mrbios

mrbios

mrbios

Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2003
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Gloucestershire
im terrible with budget systems (:p) so what could i do with a budget of say £200 to her current aging pc that just wont run the SIMS 2 for her very well lol

can use the case and hdd from the current machine, so just really need a motherboard, cpu, ram, graphics card combo suggestions :)

say a maximum of £250 and a prefered or £200
 
Try this:

specme.JPG
 
I'd go for the above from gamesaregood and swap the graphics card for a used X1950 Pro. It'll run the Sims without breaking a sweat and it's cheaper. It's a darned good card.
 
paradigm said:
E2140 - £45
P35 Motherboard (you're choice) -£60~
2GB of PC - £30
Radeon HD3850 - £104

£239~ Inc VAT.
Click to expand...

change the e2140 for a 2160 with an arctic freezer 7 pro

and a 512MB 8600GT from OCuk instead of the ati.
 
No thanks. 8600 isn't a great card for the money, its also a waste of DX10 compatible hardware. e2160 I don't agree with either, it will not overclock any further than an e2140 (only reason I can see you recommend an aftermarket cooler), and costs more.
 
paradigm said:
No thanks. 8600 isn't a great card for the money, its also a waste of DX10 compatible hardware. e2160 I don't agree with either, it will not overclock any further than an e2140 (only reason I can see you recommend an aftermarket cooler), and costs more.
Click to expand...

okay about the processor, i don't know much about the difference betwen the two. But an aftermarket cooler and a hefty overclock is still the way to go for getting the 2140.

but I really do disagree with you on the 8600GT. My 256Mb version plays bioshock maxed out at 1024x768. I think it's great value personally.

If all you're playing is SIMS 2, then the 8600Gt is way more than enough.
 
The 8600GT is enough for the sims granted, but the 3850 is a much MUCH better card if people can lose the stupid "nVidia > *.*" mentality.

Secondly, 1024x768 is a LOW resolution, I'd be annoyed if I couldn't run a game maxed out with full AA and AF set at driver level at 1024x768.

And for reference, my E2140 ran at 3.3GHz on the STOCK cooler.
 
paradigm said:
E2140 - £45
P35 Motherboard (you're choice) -£60~
2GB of PC - £30
Radeon HD3850 - £104

£239~ Inc VAT.
Click to expand...

thats a bit OTT tbh.

if all she wants to do is max out the Sims 2.

my old pc could max it out at 1280x1024:

athlon 2600xp
512mb ram
radeon9550 could max out the sims 2.

so what pc has she got now? a whole new system probly isnmt required, maybe just a new graphics card perhaps.
 
why are people recommending £90+ graphics cards for a game like the sims?

even something like:
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ 2.10GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Gigabyte GA-M68SM-S2 nVIDIA MCP68S Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
OcUK GeForce 8500 GT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
Sub Total : £134.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £25.06
Total : £168.27
Click to expand...
would be more than ample, even the onboard graphics on that board is probably powerful enough without getting the 8500gt.
 
Last edited:
ah well while i mentioned the SIMS2 in the OP i do want it to be able to run more advanced games if needs be, so a slight future proofing is required, though not over the top

at the moment shes got a P4 2.6ghz with an all onboard motherboard (intel graphics) no agp or pci-e slot on the board and 512mb ram

i DO NOT want to overclock this pc at all, so please dont specify anything with the intention of it being overclocked :)

sorry for the confusion there and cheers for the posts so far
 
mrbios said:
ah well while i mentioned the SIMS2 in the OP i do want it to be able to run more advanced games if needs be, so a slight future proofing is required, though not over the top

at the moment shes got a P4 2.6ghz with an all onboard motherboard (intel graphics) no agp or pci-e slot on the board and 512mb ram

i DO NOT want to overclock this pc at all, so please dont specify anything with the intention of it being overclocked :)

sorry for the confusion there and cheers for the posts so far
Click to expand...

just get a cheap am2 mobo with a cheap athlon x2, some cheap 1gb generic ram (or2gb if you really want, but i could run it maxed out on 512), then get the cheapest last gen graphics card, an x1600 or summit, or even a high end two gen old card.
 
yantorsen said:
just get a cheap am2 mobo with a cheap athlon x2, some cheap 1gb generic ram (or2gb if you really want, but i could run it maxed out on 512), then get the cheapest last gen graphics card, an x1600 or summit, or even a high end two gen old card.
Click to expand...

Yeah something like this perhaps:

capture1yw3.jpg
 
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