a pc for sims 3 + all expansions and mods
(originally posted to sims 4 by mistake.) hi there! i created this account to ask for help. i’m thinking of buying a gaming pc to only play sims 3 (maybe 4 sometimes, not sure though) and minecraf...
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@mercyheals The second and third stores provide custom-built PCs, not a bad option in general but also not great in your price range. You'd be spending more money to get the same components and no real benefit since you don't need a specialized build. So I crossed those off the list.
For the first and fourth options, I only went with what those stores sell themselves, since it's often difficult to get support for something that comes from a third-party vendor. I did look at the third-party prices though, and they're a bit cheaper, so let me know if you'd like to go that route. I really have no idea how good your consumer protections are, only that here in the U.S., I would never recommend these options, at least not for an entire computer. But then our consumer protections are pretty meager.
At any rate, here is the best system I found for under 800€:
Its processor and graphics card are capable of running all Sims 3 content at a 1920x1080 resolution on ultra graphics settings, minus the two (water and high-detail lots) that need to be turned down to lower the stress on the game engine. It comes with more than enough storage, plus 16 GB RAM, which is great to have if not strictly necessary for Sims 3.
If you'd like to spend a little less, this one has a slower graphics card, but one still capable of ultra settings minus water and high-detail lots. Its processor is a bit slower but still more than capable, and it has more storage, although the 500 GB in the one above is plenty.
https://www.pccomponentes.com/pccom-lite-intel-core-i5-11400f-16gb-1tb-ssd-gtx-1650-windows-11-home
There are other options if you're comfortable installing Windows yourself, which is not a difficult process. (All you'd need is a USB stick you don't mind erasing and temporary access to a PC already running Windows 10 or 11.) The key here is that these computers are cheaper, not including a Windows license, so you could buy your own license online for whatever price you find. I've seen relatively cheap, perfectly legitimate options that come with an old install medium, one you wouldn't want to use, but that doesn't matter because you're really just buying the Windows key and creating your own install medium. The questions here are whether you'd be willing to install Windows and whether the price of a key means this option makes sense.
At any rate, all but the first of these would be a hardware upgrade over the ones above, although you don't actually need an upgrade. (The first is equivalent to the first one above.) It's more a matter of whether you want the extra power for the future, or for a monitor with a higher resolution than 1080p or a higher refresh rate than 100 Hz.
https://www.pccomponentes.com/pccom-lite-intel-core-i5-11400f-16gb-1tb-ssd-rtx-3050-negro
If none of these is exactly what you want, let me know why, and I'll do a more focused search. And if you are in fact comfortable with buying from a third-party vendor through one of these sites, let me know, and I'll list some of those options as well.
By the way, this site's spam filter sometimes eats posts with too many links, or that have been edited too often. That's probably what happened to your previous post.
yep, i thought that urls may have been the case, so i tried to format the message a little for it to be sent successfully.
this have been a lot of help, thank you soooo much!!! i’ve browsed the options and the price for windows license that i was able to find, and so far it kinda seems like the difference between buying it separately or not is not significant. do i understand it correctly: the very first option you found (from mediamarkt) is basically the same as the first one in the list without windows (from pc components)? as i see the memory is different (512 gb vs 1 tb), but are they overall the same? sorry if i didn’t get that correctly >w>’’
overall, the options you’ve sent to me seems pretty great (thank you!!), right now i’m leaning towards the first one without windows (pccomponentes.com/pccom-lite-intel-core-i5-11400f-16gb-1tb-ssd-rtx-3050-negro) because of the reviews and 1tb memory (just in case, haha). so, did i understand you right about them being the same with the very first option (from mediamarkt) that you said was the best? or should i just stick with that one with windows included? it would actually be even more convenient as i’m planning to buy the keyboard and other things from mediamarkt, i’m probably just being a little tempted by the amount of positive reviews on pccomponents lol.
@mercyheals Yes, the two options with an RTX 3050 are essentially the same. The i5-12400F is a faster processor than the i5-11400F, but not in a way that will have any impact on Sims 3—both will have no trouble keeping up with the game or the RTX 3050, which will be the limiting factor whenever the game engine is not. So it makes no difference which processor you get.
The extra storage is nice to have but not necessary for Sims 3, so I wouldn't suggest deciding only because of that. The game itself takes up about 32 GB storage, and it won't perform well with over about 10 GB custom content, give or take, so the rest of the storage needs would be for extra saves and Store content. That's not to say that you couldn't use more storage for other reasons, only that you'd never need it for Sims 3.
Either computer would be fine, but the reviews from PCComponentes are worth considering given the product. Your computer should be fine out of the box and for years to come, but it's always nice to know you have extra support, or a higher build quality, or whatever matters to you, even if you never need it. It's one of those things that matters a lot more to some people than others, and I can't tell you how much weight to give it.
I will say that installing Windows yourself is actually a great idea regardless of the computer you buy. You get to blow away all the bloatware already on the system; you give yourself a pristine, fully-updated Windows right away, rather than relying on the built-in software to update everything correctly; and you learn something about how your system works, at a time when you don't have any data to lose or program installs to corrupt. You don't have to do this, of course, but it's the kind of thing everyone should do once just so they understand the process.
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