I'm looking to purchase a PC (spec below) for my daughter who's much into SIMS 2 but wants something that will run SIMS 3 when she's ready to upgrade. Her budget is up to £400 excluding monitor. The SIMS 3 Hardware requirements at http://gb.thesims3.com/game/systemreq seem to be a little out of date and don't mention any video cards available round here.
I guess the built-in graphics on the ASUS mboard would do the job, but figure it'd be worth giving her a bit more headroom with a discrete graphics card.
There seem to be so many graphics cards out there these days with incredible levels of sophistication, and my main concern is simply whether I can be sure the SIMS 3 (and for that matter, SIMS 2) will be compatible with the GEFORCE 210, and in fact, whether it's a useful step up from the built-in graphics for the extra £20 or so. Can I safely assume that Direct-X hides all video compatibility issues? Surely life can't be quite that simple!
Regards - Philip
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core G620 (2.60GHz, 3MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LX2/SI - mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
512MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - DVI,HDMI,VGA
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155/1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1
Price: £382.00 including VAT and delivery.
I guess the built-in graphics on the ASUS mboard would do the job, but figure it'd be worth giving her a bit more headroom with a discrete graphics card.
There seem to be so many graphics cards out there these days with incredible levels of sophistication, and my main concern is simply whether I can be sure the SIMS 3 (and for that matter, SIMS 2) will be compatible with the GEFORCE 210, and in fact, whether it's a useful step up from the built-in graphics for the extra £20 or so. Can I safely assume that Direct-X hides all video compatibility issues? Surely life can't be quite that simple!
Regards - Philip
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core G620 (2.60GHz, 3MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LX2/SI - mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
512MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - DVI,HDMI,VGA
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1155/1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1
Price: £382.00 including VAT and delivery.