Re: Best Desktop for TS4

Oh gosh! Thanks so much for your choice of helping me out! I am residing in the US so I guess that's convenient! I think I'm going to go for a desktop since I've decided to keep paying off my Pavilion laptop. I do like this laptop for simple web searching and Roblox since it handles it fairly well. 

So desktop is my preferred choice as of this moment! I would love some suggestion and I'm willing to go the extra mile to get the system that I honestly need! I do have other ventures! My priority with space is that it have at least a terabyte of hard-drive because I tend to download a lot of things on my computers over time. I also clean out into an external drive I've had since I was 15. Other games I would be playing would be like Warframe, PUBG, Dragon Age, Indie Games(They don't usually need much), and GTA once I get the desktop. I play a lot of horror games and their graphics are getting up there these days so I'm hoping to get a beast I can have for say 5+ years. (maybe? 🤓) 

I do have to previse(again..) that I'm totally oblivious to what's needed in a desktop to reach my ideal at this point but I'm hoping this will bring an amazing outcome! 

Again, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to help me out! 

@BabiGrim  Among the games you listed, only PUBG has higher requirements for ultra graphics settings than Sims 4, and not by all that much.  But if you liked the last Dragon Age and GTA, I'm guessing you'd like to play the next versions as well, sooner or later.  The issue is that the games are so far away from being released (probably about 2 years each), it's impossible to say what kind of hardware will be necessary for high or ultra settings, other than that the reqs will almost certainly be higher than what PUBG and TS4 demand now.

So there are two directions you could go.  One is to guess at what kind of graphics card you'd need in 2022 or whenever and buy it now.  The other is to get a card that's good enough now and figure you'll upgrade it in a couple of years, when you know exactly what you want.  The advantage of the second approach is that not only would you save money now, you'd likely end up with a better card the second time around, since technology is improving so quickly.  Of course, that only works if you're comfortable installing a new card or paying a computer shop to do it for you.

Either way, since you have $1,300 to spend and want to keep this computer for a while, it's worth paying a bit more for a stronger processor and other quality components (motherboard, CPU cooler, power supply: the kind of hardware you don't want to have to worry about).  That way, you can swap out the graphics card, or add more memory or another hard drive, and keep on going without having to replace anything else.

As an example, this Cyberpower custom build is $1,034 plus free shipping, or at least it is with today's deals.  (The deals change daily, but there's always something discounted, and this is just an example.)  It has an overclocked Nvidia 1660 Super for a graphics card, which is just a bit of overkill for your current games, but it should maintain 60 fps even in the most demanding parts of PUBG, at least if you're playing at the usual 1920x1080 resolution.  If you wanted, you could change the graphics card without needing to adjust anything else about this configuration.  The other hardware would support any card currently on the market, and that will almost certainly be true for several years.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1M39FD

Since you mentioned wanting to play a number of games and also have extra storage, you probably want at least a 500 GB solid state drive from which to run those games, or at least the ones that would benefit from being on an SSD.  (Sims 4 doesn't really, but others do.)  This build has a 2 TB mechanical drive too, because right now it's the same price as a 1 TB HDD.  But the drives can be swapped too.

Like I said though, this is just an example so you can see what you might be able to get for your money.  Please feel free to ask more questions, and let me know if you're looking for something different.  Given your budget, I went right to a custom build because although it's a bit more expensive, you get exactly what you want, and you know the quality of every single component included.

Would you say that configuration is a good bet for what I'm looking for?

Thank you so much for the example! I honestly wouldn't know how to upgrade and customize any PC cause I feel like I would mess it up. 

I like the look of the desktop you linked! I could get it in about 2 or 3 weeks since its only 1,000$+. 

Since it is a bit cheaper maybe you can help me overkill the system requirements. I don't mind going for a bit of overkill cause of my thought process. I want a system that is a "beast" for the sims and other games I play. 

Thank you so much for helping again!

@BabiGrim  The configuration is great for what you want to do now.  The reason I didn't add a stronger graphics card is that I'm not sure anything, other than maybe the $1,200 Nvidia 2080 ti, will run the future editions of GTA and Dragon Age well on ultra graphics settings.  You could still play on slightly lower settings, of course, but if your goal is peak performance, it would be better to get a good-enough card now and get a newer, more powerful one in two or three years.  You wouldn't have to install it yourself, either: if you don't know anyone who could help, you could have it done at a store.

Still, if you'd like to spend the money now, the next graphics card up is an extra $148, and the one after that is $278 more than the original.  (There are a number of slightly different models of cards in each category, because they're made by several different companies, but those two are the cheapest good options.)  Again, I wouldn't count on either of these cards running future demanding games on ultra settings, but there's no way to know for sure right now.

The other question I should have asked is at what resolution you want to play.  The more pixels to render, the harder a graphics card has to work.  If you're not sure, it's worth going to a store to look at various monitors; Best Buy is a good bet.  But keep in mind that as nice as a 4k monitor looks when playing videos, even a 2080 ti will have trouble running the most demanding current games in 4k at 60 frames per second.  If 1920x1080 doesn't look good enough to you, 2560x1440 is probably the right choice.

The rest of the hardware is already high quality.  The only upgrades you might consider, if you wanted, are getting a newer motherboard and a larger and/or slightly better hard drive.  The board I picked out is great, but a bit older and therefore currently $42 cheaper than its next-generation equivalent.  Either one is a great board, and there isn't currently any hardware that can take advantage of the features of the newest motherboards.  If you do want extra space on your primary hard drive, it's easy to build that in.  But it's also easy to install another hard drive later, if you ever need it, or to get someone to install it for you.  (When I say easy, this is what I mean.)

At any rate, picking out the exact components is better left for when you're ready to buy.  As an example, there's a current offer to upgrade a 512 GB solid state drive to a 1 TB version for $8, something that would normally cost around $100 on the site, depending on which brand you choose.  That sale probably won't be around three weeks from now (it wasn't two days ago), but there will almost certainly be a different useful offer instead.  Prices change so quickly, it's best to do the research, pick out what you want, and then order as soon as you see a good sale.  I'll be around whenever you're ready.