PC for SimCity Budget of £400

ObixConstant

ObixConstant

ObixConstant

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My brother wants a PC to run SimCity with he's using an old HP Pavilion desktop from 2008 at the moment to play the game and isn't happy with the performance on low settings... surprise surprise.

If someone could recommend a build with a Budget of £400 that can run the game at 1680x1050 to a decent standard that'd be great, he can stretch the budget further if need be.

Thanks to anyone willing to help.
 
Hi, I think upgrading his current setup would be a great idea! Up the CPU to a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 which are around £50 now and stick in a decent graphics card such as the Radeon 7850. Not only will you save money but have a better setup than you would get from spending £400 on a new build.

Although might be worth checking out what form factor the PSU is as from what I've read manufacturers such as Dell don't use the standard ATX. If it's all good then you can stick in a XFX 450W.

Alternatively threw this up before you posted link to HP

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLT2CP4G3D1869DT2TXRGCEU) (Red & Green Activity LEDs) **WORLD FIRST** £64.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM £45.00
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £370.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Like I said the Radeon 7850 will deliver better GPU performance than the 5800k which is an APU so has built in CPU and GPU
 
Last edited:
I would look at a new PSU as well, but time you done that you might be better doing a full upgrade.

At the moment Ocuk site is having issues so I can do any alternative builds.

Edit: working!
 
Use your current hard drive:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
(£83.29) £99.95
(£83.29)
Gigabyte HD 7770 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £91.99
(£76.66) £91.99
(£76.66)
Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £40.99
(£34.16) £40.99
(£34.16)
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £320.74
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £66.50
Total : £398.99
 
Is it actually possible to log on the Sim City servers yet?
And I don't know if its true but they do a lot of the simulations on their servers so you can play it on old PCs.
 
RJC said:
Use your current hard drive:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
(£83.29) £99.95
(£83.29)
Gigabyte HD 7770 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £91.99
(£76.66) £91.99
(£76.66)
Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £40.99
(£34.16) £40.99
(£34.16)
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.16) £16.99
(£14.16)
Sub Total : £320.74
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £66.50
Total : £398.99
Click to expand...


Thanks for the build :cool:

dacads said:
Hi, I think upgrading his current setup would be a great idea! Up the CPU to a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 which are around £50 now and stick in a decent graphics card such as the Radeon 7850. Not only will you save money but have a better setup than you would get from spending £400 on a new build.

Although might be worth checking out what form factor the PSU is as from what I've read manufacturers such as Dell don't use the standard ATX. If it's all good then you can stick in a XFX 450W.

Alternatively threw this up before you posted link to HP

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLT2CP4G3D1869DT2TXRGCEU) (Red & Green Activity LEDs) **WORLD FIRST** £64.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM £45.00
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £370.96 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Like I said the Radeon 7850 will deliver better GPU performance than the 5800k which is an APU so has built in CPU and GPU
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought as much, but like you said I haven't looked inside the PC to see if anything would fit. He'd probably be happier with a new PC anyway.

Thanks for the build

Rendi said:
Is it actually possible to log on the Sim City servers yet?
And I don't know if its true but they do a lot of the simulations on their servers so you can play it on old PCs.
Click to expand...

Yes me and my brother have played it all day ;) although my experience blows his out the water :D it runs smoothly don't get me wrong but the visual leap between our two experiences makes it much more fun for me, no doubt about it.
 
 
This would be nice, basically what the guys recommended but with different hard drive and ram. Also added in two fans since the case only comes with a back exhaust one, you could add both to the front or as you see fit.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £69.98
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £44.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
2 x Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM £9.98 (£19.96)
Total : £395.94 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Last edited:
It all depends on which SimCity mate. SimCity 4 has a lot of issues running on modern systems especially running Windows 7, couldn't even get it to work on my old Q8200. And we all know about the latest SimCity :P
 
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