Recommendations for a pre-built pc

@BabyOcelottt666  $1,500 U.S. can certainly get you an excellent PC for Sims 4, and a good-enough one for Hogwarts Legacy, which is the most demanding of the three games.  Do you want the best computer your budget can buy, or the cheapest good-quality system that will run Sims 4 on ultra settings and the other two games reasonably well?  Does the budget include a monitor?

Let me know, and I'll find some options that fit your preferences.

@puzzlezaddict so funny, I see your replies on similar posts and was hoping you would respond 😂 

The budget definitely doesn’t need to max at 1,500 - if there’s a system less expensive that can get the job done that would suffice. I think the main goal is to make sure the computer can run those games efficiently (specifically sims on ultra)  for awhile without having to make upgrades to the computer - if that makes sense. 

That budget does not include a monitor but if you have any suggestions in mind for those I wouldn’t mind taking a look.

thanks so much! 

@BabyOcelottt666  As mentioned, Hogwarts Legacy is the most demanding of the games you've listed.  And the graphics card is the single biggest determining factor as to how well the game, and really most games, will run.  So I'll mostly talk about HL with the understanding that Sims 4 and Planet Zoo will run great on anything that runs HL even sort of well.

Within your budget, the best-available GPU is a 4070, although most options with this GPU are close to $1,500.  (I found two that are cheaper.)  The next-best graphics card on the Nvidia side is the 3070, and there are plenty of good options well within your budget, but not for any cheaper than the ones above.  So while the 4070 is a bit of overkill for what you want, there's really no point in stepping down to the 3070 at current prices.  The 4060 and 4060 ti have their issues and aren't much cheaper either.  The next step below that, at least where Hogwarts Legacy is concerned, is a 3060 ti, which is somewhat cheaper but getting harder to find.

There are of course similarly-performing AMD graphics cards, but looking at current prices, they're more expensive for the same performance.

So with the 4070 and 3060 ti being the two viable options at the moment, the question is really how high you want your framerates to go in HL.  Even at a 2560x1440 resolution, on ultra quality, a 3060 ti can maintain about 60 fps on average, more like 50 for the 1% lows (the kind of drops you'd notice on screen).  For a 4070, it's more like 70 fps, with similar lows.  At 1920x1080, still on ultra, you're looking at around 80 average, 65 low for the 3060 ti and about 95 and 60 for the 4070.  There is of course some variation from one system to the next.  Enabling Nvidia DLSS improves these numbers for both graphics cards, as would lowering the settings.

Whether the improvement in performance from the 4070 is worth the higher cost is really up to you.  It's certainly within your budget, and the smoother experience can make a significant difference.  But if Sims 4 is the main game you want to play and HL is a game you'll run through once, maybe there's not as much point in paying the higher cost; Sims 4 won't notice any difference at all.

Having said all that, these are the cheapest options I found with a 4070.  The second one has a processor that's somewhat better than the first, although they're both capable of keeping up with the graphics card's demands.

https://www.newegg.com/skytech-st-shiva2-0735-w-ne/p/3D5-000Z-00147

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1762654-REG/cyberpowerpc_gma9340cpg_gamer_master_gaming_desktop.html

These have a 3060 ti, and their processors are equal to the second one above.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ibuypower-slatemr-gaming-desktop-intel-core-i5-13600kf-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060ti-8gb-1tb-nvme-black/6536556.p?skuId=6536556

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-master-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-7-7700-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-1tb-ssd-white/6533247.p?skuId=6533247

There are other options with a 3060 ti that have processors that aren't quite as good (still more than sufficient for HL, just not as powerful), so if you want a system with a 3060 ti but don't like these two for whatever reason, just say so.

All of these have 16 GB RAM, which is enough and really the minimum for HL; and a 1 TB SSD, which will easily hold all three games and your Sims 4 user content.

For the monitor, do you know what size you'd want, or whether you're sensitive to higher framerates?  If you're relatively young, you probably are whether you know it or not, but it's worth asking since not going for a high refresh rate monitor would save you a significant amount of money.  On the other hand, I can tell you that playing at 144 fps is an absolute joy for those of us who can tell the difference.  I'd also suggest a higher resolution, specifically 2560x1440, if you want at least a 27" monitor, since 1080p can look somewhat grainy at that size.

For HL, you can always choose to play at 1080p on a 1440p monitor, but not vice versa.  Sims 4 and Planet Zoo will run great at 1440p on either graphics card, with Sims 4 at least staying at or above 144 fps except when the game engine decides to drag things down.

Let me know what you think, and I'll find some good options to match.

And if you have more questions, please feel free to ask.

@puzzlezaddict Thanks so much for this - super helpful. I think I am going to move forward with this option you provided (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1762654-REG/cyberpowerpc_gma9340cpg_gamer_master_gaming_desktop.html).

For the monitor I am looking for 27"-32" but truly I do not know enough to let you know which resolution or fps (is 144 fps the same thing as 144 hz?). I think I would be able to tell the difference if the refresh rate was lower. I'd like the color to come through nicely, not curved, and to not have that issue where darker colors get washed out. Hopefully that is enough information for you! I'd rather splurge on the computer itself than spend a lot on the monitor so maybe budget-wise up to $300. 

It might be worth noting that I'm not so into the way some gaming monitors appear. I understand with the actual PC you have to go with it but at least I can put it under my desk lol.