Finally decided to buy a proper PC to play S3, but what should I buy?

Nope. There's nobody here but us chickens. Go away, we're trying to (sleep, play our games, do something else...) >:)

Just kidding, of course. o:)

That machine would be fine for all of TS3, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice or the best value for the Euro.

Processor: You don't really need an i7 that strong on desktop for this game, a quad core i5 will do fine. But the extra power is not going to hurt (except the price tag). Do you have any other intended uses, now or in the future, for this computer?

RAM: At least 8 GB. With 16 GB, this one is more future-proof. I wouldn't buy a new PC with less than 16 GB these days.

Graphics: At least an Nvidia GTX 1050 in that series or the AMD equivalent. This one has a GTX 1060, that's better than recommended. Any higher than that would be overkill for TS3, although again may have other uses in the future if you play or will play other graphics intensive games.

Storage: This one has two internal drives, a 256 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD. The SSD would constrain your space for TS3 and all expansions too much and too soon unless it's at least twice that size. If you go with this configuration, I would suggest installing the game on and redirecting the user Documents folder to the larger HDD. If you can get a larger SSD (or add one later), that's great too but would drive the price higher.

Branding: Yes, Lenovos tend to be high priced for what you get. I can only quote US prices right now, a desktop similarly configured, not that brand, would start at around $850-900 (USD), plus monitor if needed. Less if we don't have the SSD.

@phoebebebe13 - Any words of wisdom to add for a player in Finland or do you see anything on that site in particular that looks like a better choice?

Oh @igazor <3 Thank you! I should have known I can count on you!

The sad truth is, that I really have no other use for the PC... :D It's really insane... So i5 it will be and something else than Levono, if I can find a good match. Now I know much more of what I'm looking for. Thank you so much for your help! And a special thank you for using language I can understand! :p

If @phoebebebe13 has some recommendations, I'd be thankfull to hear them out too :)

I see you have a decent Euro budget, pm user @chesterbigbird . She is a computer build expert, tell her your budget, country, the games your playing and she can help you with a desktop.

Thank you @phoebebebe13 :) I'll do that.

Your very welcome :)

Igazor, what are your thoughts about the VooDoo computers?

"Scorpina2009;c-16450229" wrote:
Igazor, what are your thoughts about the VooDoo computers?

I think back when they made them, it was a great way to spend up to $20,000 USD (yes, that many zeros) on a computer. VooDoo was a luxury brand that HP acquired a long time ago and they retired the name four years ago. The HP Omen line took over.

Not to say I wouldn't have any use for one but would have to see specs on a particular model to really judge. One doesn't always get the quality one is paying for with the fancy upper end brand names. These certainly looked pretty though, if that's any kind of a factor.

I always used a Dell pc, but since that last one was struck by lightning, I bought a computer much better than my Dell that a friend made who builds computers. Its been great. There are a couple of minor issues, but it saved me money to buy a non-brand name. Thank goodness I have a friend who can build and repair computers if needed.

I was always just curious about the Voodoo computers. BUT, since they are so pricey, I never bought one.

thank you for your input igazor

I'm using a Lenovo Ideapad 110 with: ($400 CAD on sale)
Ram - 8 GB RAM
Processor AMD A9-9400 Radeon R5, 5 Compute Cores 2C+3G 2.4 GHz
(I don't know much of what this means)
Windows 10 Home
I'm wondering how many expansion packs I can run on this before I start running into problems? I'm thinking of getting some more (watching for sales or multi-packs -ie WA/Gen)

I'm running 5 expansion packs a a bunch of mods and CC. The Sims has never run better.

I inherited my brother's gaming system with 16 GB RAM and 8 Compute Cores (He was a mega gamer - I ended up wiping the hard drive and starting from scratch. That was easier than uninstalling all the stuff I didn't want). Many years ago, he tried out The Sims (notice lack of a number), got me hooked on it, then gave me his disk when he got tired of it. I wonder how many expansion packs I could run on that thing.

@MadDoctor61 - On the Ideapad, it's going to depend on which expansions. They take different tolls and performance hits. Its processor just barely meets the recommended requirements for Pets, the heaviest hitting of all of the EPs (followed in order by Seasons, ITF, and IP). The weak spot is its graphics card. An R5 is integrated, slightly stronger than the more commonly seen Intel integrated chips of its time, but still just that. Different players will have different experiences and expectations on that one. I would think that the four EPs mentioned above would be out of the question, but some have managed to get them going, others find their game starts to stall out on Pets and Seasons.

The brother's gaming system would be unknown unless we knew more about its specs in turn.