building/buying a computer: balanced component hardware?

GrammastolaRosea

Hi!

So I have what I felt was a high-end laptop: 2.26 ghz dual core, nice graphics card for a laptop (the laptop was marketed for 3d modeling-- architects, engineers), and I put 8gb ram in it!

But sims 3 has always played poorly on it, worse with each expansion pack.
It took me a while to realize it, but the laptop was overheating-- no longer running at 2.26ghz! With the 3rd expansion pack last spring, the game got so bad it would barely load before freezing... until I bought a cooling pad. Then it would run OK for about 30 minutes before getting laggy. I stopped playing.

There's not much more to do about a laptop; all nicely sealed into one supercompact package. Loop cooling coils around the keyboard, connected to the compressor from a minifridge? Hahaha.



SO. I hardly move my laptop anyway. Time to trade to a desktop.
I'm not a computer buff-- I know just enough to know, what I don't know.

I've a budget of maybe $1000. Most important to me, is to build/buy something with intelligent specs, to know where the limiting factor is! (like a recent poster who was advised to buy more ram, and not a better video card as he was thinking-- that's the sort of thing I wouldn't know)

If I bought 16gb of ram, but it only had 800mhz front bus speed, would I never realize the performance? Or if I got a 3.8ghz 6-core processor (if they make one), and then only attached 3gb ram; could I take advantage of the fast processor?
Do two video cards run better than one, or merely run a 2nd monitor?
You get the picture.
If I'm not overclocking, do regular fans do enough for cooling in a desktop? I know they don't in a laptop :-) But I hate to have $1000 in good hardware underperform for want of a few more cheap fans.


Can someone give me some ideas for computer parts combinations that will best play the sims?
Matched motherboard speed/ ram/ hard drive speed (does 10k rpm make a difference versus 5k? does sata II or even III matter versus plain sata?)/ video card memory (is there another way to gauge a video card, beyond its dedicated memory?), and if front-side bus speed can be a bottleneck too, and if say 1333 fsb is important, over 1066 or even 800.

Like I said, I'm browsing ebay and craigslist too... and with SO many computers out there I don't know what to look for. This one has a 3.4ghz dual core processor, but only 800mhz front-side bus speed; that one has two lower end graphics cards, do they equal one higher end? I was just looking at two such computers and many others... and decide that I really need to know more before I leap on an expensive purchase to live with for the next few years.

Some balanced suggestions with no areas of wasted brawn, nor silly bottlenecks that singlehandedly kill performance. Problem is, I don't really know which bottlenecks to look for. I'm like a guy who might be tempted to put a 400horsepower, high-torque engine in a car with narrow wheels; not understanding why it can't actually accelerate any faster, merely spinning its wheels and burning rubber!



thanks for the advice!!!

GrammastolaRosea

Oh-- and what is the story on power supplies?
500watt, 700watt, 1000watt...?
My assumption would be that I only need as much power as I use, and any more is, well, unused-- like running a 15amp hairdryer on a 20amp circuit, 5amps aren't used, and a 30amp or 50amp circuit would be silly.

How much power does the average desktop use, and what kind of upgrades end up warranting an upgraded power supply?

ExcLusiv3

GrammastolaRosea wrote:

Hi!

So I have what I felt was a high-end laptop: 2.26 ghz dual core, nice graphics card for a laptop (the laptop was marketed for 3d modeling-- architects, engineers), and I put 8gb ram in it!

But sims 3 has always played poorly on it, worse with each expansion pack.
It took me a while to realize it, but the laptop was overheating-- no longer running at 2.26ghz! With the 3rd expansion pack last spring, the game got so bad it would barely load before freezing... until I bought a cooling pad. Then it would run OK for about 30 minutes before getting laggy. I stopped playing.

There's not much more to do about a laptop; all nicely sealed into one supercompact package. Loop cooling coils around the keyboard, connected to the compressor from a minifridge? Hahaha.



SO. I hardly move my laptop anyway. Time to trade to a desktop.
I'm not a computer buff-- I know just enough to know, what I don't know.

I've a budget of maybe $1000. Most important to me, is to build/buy something with intelligent specs, to know where the limiting factor is! (like a recent poster who was advised to buy more ram, and not a better video card as he was thinking-- that's the sort of thing I wouldn't know)

If I bought 16gb of ram, but it only had 800mhz front bus speed, would I never realize the performance? Or if I got a 3.8ghz 6-core processor (if they make one), and then only attached 3gb ram; could I take advantage of the fast processor?
Do two video cards run better than one, or merely run a 2nd monitor?
You get the picture.
If I'm not overclocking, do regular fans do enough for cooling in a desktop? I know they don't in a laptop :-) But I hate to have $1000 in good hardware underperform for want of a few more cheap fans.


Can someone give me some ideas for computer parts combinations that will best play the sims?
Matched motherboard speed/ ram/ hard drive speed (does 10k rpm make a difference versus 5k? does sata II or even III matter versus plain sata?)/ video card memory (is there another way to gauge a video card, beyond its dedicated memory?), and if front-side bus speed can be a bottleneck too, and if say 1333 fsb is important, over 1066 or even 800.

Like I said, I'm browsing ebay and craigslist too... and with SO many computers out there I don't know what to look for. This one has a 3.4ghz dual core processor, but only 800mhz front-side bus speed; that one has two lower end graphics cards, do they equal one higher end? I was just looking at two such computers and many others... and decide that I really need to know more before I leap on an expensive purchase to live with for the next few years.

Some balanced suggestions with no areas of wasted brawn, nor silly bottlenecks that singlehandedly kill performance. Problem is, I don't really know which bottlenecks to look for. I'm like a guy who might be tempted to put a 400horsepower, high-torque engine in a car with narrow wheels; not understanding why it can't actually accelerate any faster, merely spinning its wheels and burning rubber!



thanks for the advice!!!

Ok 1000 watts is over kill for any regular user unless they are using top of the line gpus and going tri sli or dual sli

regular stock cpu cooler is fine once the user is not going to over clock there cpu

as for a hard drive got with a plain sata two hard drive,you won't see much performance gain at all with the sims 3 using a sata 3 hard drive,trust me i know i have a ssd drive and i see no performance in the game while having the game installed on my sata 2 drive or ssd drive,tho a ssd drive is really fast for runnings apps and booting the system

ram speed,1333 mhz or 1600 is fine,tho you will be fine with 1333 ram as you are not going to over clock,only if your over clocking you should get some high quality sticks.how many gb of ram you need?if your going core i7 which i suggest get 6 gb of ram 1333 should suit you fine,and just some little info,if you use the max ram your system allows,the harder the over clock is and you will have to lower the bus speed of the ram

processor?i7 920/i7 930/ should be fine for you,unless you feel the need to get something a tad faster,but personally it would be cheaper to buy a after market cooler and over clock the cheaper processor your self and save tons more,or you can save money and go quad i5 or amd quad,the sims 3 does 4 phsysical cores so a quad core will help

as for a graphics card,depending on your budget,evga 450/460/480,480 and 460 shows the same results while playing the sims 3,i have a 480 and my friend has a 460 and we get the same frames,personally with your budget the 450/460 will do you great,as for dual cards?the sims 3 don't need dual cards at all one card does the job just great,only if your playing high end games at high resolutions id suggest getting dual cards,if not you will be wasting your money.

for your power supply i believe a 600-750 watt psu will be perfect.but make sure it is a top quality brand psu,such as corsair or enermax evo

i can tell you this much,with a quad core,4 gb of ram or 6 gb of ram/460/450 nvidia card,sata 2 hard drive you my friend will have no problems maxing out the sims 3 on a higher res monitor such as a 1920 by 1200 screen

ExcLusiv3

if your set on buying a pre built pc

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227282

the only thing id change is the processor stock fan if you do decide to over clock.

this system will be perfect for your simming needs.

quad core

gtx 460

8 gb of ram

1 tb of hard drive space

asus motherboard