Recommendations for PC's
Helloo,
I need some help looking for a PC for the sims. Since I would play on a Macbook I been thinking for a change but I don't know anything about what kind of PC to look for.
Uses:
- Playing sims 3 - with added mods and cc
- Play sims 4 - planning on adding mods/cc (and Future sim games)
- Also day to day use
- Playing Stardrew Valley (Not as frequent as I will play the sims)
- Potentially use it for personal usage (school work)
If anyone could help me make recommendations or suggest what kind of PC to look at will be so helpful 🙂
@wastedlizzy The last one is overpriced for its hardware, so go ahead and cross it off the list. An i5-13600K is somewhat faster than the i9-10900K and cheaper too, and you can get a 3060 ti in a cheaper system. Two and three are overkill for Sims 3, not that that's a bad thing, but you don't need to spend that much.
If you want something overpowered, consider this:
Its graphics card is much faster than you'll need for Sims 3 (or Sims 4 for that matter, or possibly for Sims 5), but it's cheaper than even the first option you found. Skytech also makes good computers in general—the build quality is as good as you'll see for an entry-level prebuilt gaming system.
This is even cheaper and basically the same computer except for the slower, but still overpowered for Sims games, graphics card:
In case you're wondering about the processor's capabilities, this one is more than good enough for Sims 3. The game can only use 3 cores max, so having more than 4 doesn't help unless you're doing heavy multitasking, and even moderate workloads will be perfectly fine running on 3 cores; this CPU has six performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. The important detail for gaming is the boost clock speed, and this one can turbo to 4.6 GHz, which is great. Mine goes to 4.8 but is older, so it accomplishes less per clocy cycle, meaning it's accomplishing less at 4.8 GHz than this one would at 4.6. Mine is never close to max on any core when running Sims 3. I've done enough benchmarks to be sure.
There are lots of options in your price range, so it might be easy to overthink the decision. But the important details are the hardware and the fact that you're looking at Best Buy, meaning you have a physical store to go to for help if you happen to need it. You don't need to spend more money to get a "better" computer that won't provide you any benefit in games.
For the monitor, with this budget and this tier of graphics card, I would suggest looking at a 2560x1440 resolution, and you absolutely want an IPS panel, the highest quality overall. The game will look fantastic, and the GPU can easily handle all those pixels. Think about the size you want as well, or measure the space you have on your desk.
For brightness, if you only play in a dark room, 250 or 300 nits (candelas per meter squared, or cd/m^2) is enough. If you're playing with lights on or windows open, you'll want something brighter, more like 350 or 400 nits.
The other important question is whether you want to play at a high refresh rate. If you live close to a Best Buy, I would suggest going to the store and asking someone to show you 60 or 75 Hz, then 120 or 144 Hz. See whether it makes a difference to you. Even without running a game, you can test by dragging a File Explorer window around the desktop. If you don't notice any difference, save your money and go with 75 Hz. If you do think 120 or 144 Hz is smoother, get a monitor that runs at that higher refresh rate.
Here are a few examples of high-refresh rate monitors, 2560x1440 resolution, IPS, and bright enough for a lit room. As you can see, they're not cheap, but they're not out of your budget either, and you'll hopefully be spending a lot of time staring at one:
If you do visit a Best Buy, I would suggest looking around at the various models on display and taking notes. You might decide you like the screens from manufacturer A better than manufacturer B for what are entirely subjective reasons, and that's totally valid. For example, I would never buy a Dell monitor for me because I don't like the colors, but a lot of people do like them. For any given manufacturer, most screens of a given panel type (e.g. IPS) will look pretty much the same in terms of color and style, so you can get a good sense without seeing exactly the models you're considering.
If you have more questions, please feel free to keep asking.
