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killua072's avatar
killua072
7 years ago
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Help new laptop The Sims 4 w/ cc

Hi, I'm looking for a new laptop to play The Sims 4 with a few expansions and a lot of mods/cc on medium/high settings plus a couple other games. I can't spend over 1000 euros so I'd like to know which ones would be the best. The ones I found are:

- Lenovo Legion Y530-15ICH, RAM 8GB, Intel Processor I5-8300H, processor speed 2.3Ghz, Storage 1T HDD + 128GB SSD, Nvidia GTX1050, 2G ddr5

- HP Pavilion Gaming 15-cx0013nl Notebook, RAM 16GB, Intel Core i5-8300H, processor speed 2.3Ghz,128GB SSD, SATA 1TB, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, 4096mb ddr5

Would one of them be okay and if yes which one? If anybody has other suggestions or knows about better laptops for the same price they would be very very appreciated. Thank you. 

pc
  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    7 years ago

    @killua072  A mechanical hard drive (HDD) is slow compared to a hybrid drive (SSHD), which is still slower than a solid state drive (SSD).  By "slow," I mean that data will be read from and written to the drive more slowly, as in, it will take longer to install content, or to access it.  But this doesn't make a difference to Sims 4—aside from the initial loading time, the game runs the same on a slow HDD as on an SSD.

    I was saying that if you had a choice, a larger SSD would be more convenient, since you could put other programs on it that would be noticeably faster.  But those programs will run okay on an HDD as well.  And if you're only interested in playing Sims 4, browsing the web, playing your music and movies, etc., your experience will be the same either way, aside from the longer time it takes to transfer the data to the HDD in the first place.  Since Windows itself will be on the small SSD, you'll still get some benefits.

    I checked about ten different Italian sites last night, and I couldn't find any computer with an Nvidia 1660 ti for under €1500, aside from the one at eprice.  That's not surprising though, since it's so new.  And while it's better than the 1060, Sims 4 won't be able to use that extra power.  With a 1060 (6 GB variant), you should always be able to run the game on ultra settings.

    I couldn't find any other laptop with a 1060 6 GB for as low as €1300 either, which is the price of the Asus on Amazon I linked earlier.  It's probably as good a price as you're going to see, unless you wait a while and get lucky with a sale.  Asus makes great gaming laptops, and this particular model will handle Sims 4 very nicely.  Plus, if you do ever decide you want a faster secondary hard drive, it's easy to swap the HDD out for an SSD.  (I checked the manual.)  But you may decide it's not even necessary.

    P.S.  It looks like the unieuro model is available again, just at a much higher price now.  But sales can end quickly, especially with a good model like that one.

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  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    7 years ago

    @killua072  In the higher price range, you can get an Nvidia 1060 6 GB, which is a significantly better graphics card than the 1050 ti.  The 1060 will almost certainly handle Sims 4 and all packs on ultra settings for the entire run of the game.  Here's an imperfect but nonetheless revealing comparison, if you're interested.

    https://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=4074&gid2=3669&compare=Nvidia%20GeForce%20GTX%201060%206GB%20GDDR5X-vs-Nvidia%20GeForce%20GTX%201050%20Ti%204GB

    This Asus, at €1274, is essentially the same as the computers you were looking at before—it has a 17" screen and a mechanical hard drive instead of a hybrid—except with the 1060 instead of the 1050 ti:

    https://www.unieuro.it/online/Notebook/FX705GM-EV013T-pidASUFX705GMEV013T

    If you'd prefer to buy from Amazon, this one has a 15" screen, a mechanical 1 TB drive, and an even smaller SSD:

    https://www.amazon.it/FX505GM-BQ262T-Notebook-Monitor-i7-8750H-GTX1060/dp/B07N1Z7B92

    If you're not comfortable buying from eprice, that's understandable, but this MSI is €1301, with the same processor and RAM, the same 256 GB SSD/1 TB HDD combination, and an Nvidia 1660 ti, which is even stronger than the 1060:

    https://www.eprice.it/Portatili-MSI-NB-MSI-GL63-8SD-GTX1660-TI6GB-15-6-polliciFHD-WV-94-NTCS-A-G-RGB-col-C-i7-8750H-HM370-8GB-2-256GB-NVME-SSD-1TB-W10HOME-6GB-GDDR6-9S7-16P732-434/d-13055071

    And of course questions are always fine; that's the whole point of this site.  If you're going to spend a lot of money on a computer, you might as well do your research, and part of that is asking for advice when you're not sure.

  • killua072's avatar
    killua072
    7 years ago

    @puzzlezaddict I see, the 1060 seems much better than the 1050 ti so it's probably worth spending more money for a better laptop that has it.
    I don't know the difference with a hybrid one but a mechanical hard drive is good too then? Also, is a 128 SSD still good?
    I would get the one from eprice but since some recent reviews of that seller aren't good I'm not sure if I should trust it. And the one on unieuro isn't available at the moment sadly. I've been trying to look around on other stores as well, but there is a limited choice for my budget. I know these are probably the only options and there aren't even many stores to choose from but is there maybe any other similar laptop for a similar price somewhere? 
    It's ok if there isn't anything though, thank you for all the help so far!

  • puzzlezaddict's avatar
    puzzlezaddict
    Hero+
    7 years ago

    @killua072  A mechanical hard drive (HDD) is slow compared to a hybrid drive (SSHD), which is still slower than a solid state drive (SSD).  By "slow," I mean that data will be read from and written to the drive more slowly, as in, it will take longer to install content, or to access it.  But this doesn't make a difference to Sims 4—aside from the initial loading time, the game runs the same on a slow HDD as on an SSD.

    I was saying that if you had a choice, a larger SSD would be more convenient, since you could put other programs on it that would be noticeably faster.  But those programs will run okay on an HDD as well.  And if you're only interested in playing Sims 4, browsing the web, playing your music and movies, etc., your experience will be the same either way, aside from the longer time it takes to transfer the data to the HDD in the first place.  Since Windows itself will be on the small SSD, you'll still get some benefits.

    I checked about ten different Italian sites last night, and I couldn't find any computer with an Nvidia 1660 ti for under €1500, aside from the one at eprice.  That's not surprising though, since it's so new.  And while it's better than the 1060, Sims 4 won't be able to use that extra power.  With a 1060 (6 GB variant), you should always be able to run the game on ultra settings.

    I couldn't find any other laptop with a 1060 6 GB for as low as €1300 either, which is the price of the Asus on Amazon I linked earlier.  It's probably as good a price as you're going to see, unless you wait a while and get lucky with a sale.  Asus makes great gaming laptops, and this particular model will handle Sims 4 very nicely.  Plus, if you do ever decide you want a faster secondary hard drive, it's easy to swap the HDD out for an SSD.  (I checked the manual.)  But you may decide it's not even necessary.

    P.S.  It looks like the unieuro model is available again, just at a much higher price now.  But sales can end quickly, especially with a good model like that one.

  • killua072's avatar
    killua072
    7 years ago

    @puzzlezaddict Oh thank you for taking the time to look through all those sites! I noticed the model on eprice has a higher price now as well even though not as high as the other one, but prices seem to change kinda often. I guess I'll wait a bit to see if any sale appears, but I'll probably get the Asus one on Amazon since it seems the best one in the price range I can afford. 
    Anyway, I got to learn some things that I completely ignored before and I probably would have bought the wrong laptop without all this advice, so, once again, thank you so much for all the help!

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