Will my computer play Sims2

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.the-sims (More info?)

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop on its way. The one I'm on now (an
almost 6 year old Dell) is getting ready to give up the ghost.

So I unexpectedly have a new computer. That wasn't plannned for another
year so I was still buying Sims 1 objects (the donated sets from the
now gone Simzalabim that are dirt cheap) and am loath to stop playing.
I mainly decorate houses. The people are kind of secondary and scoring
is ignored.

Question: Will this configuration play Sims 2 well? How well will it
play Sims 1? I heard maybe not so well. I would rather play the Sims 1
well than play the Sims 2 with pauses and jerky characters.

Configuration

Processor: Pentium M Processor 730 (1.60 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB) I've
been told this is equal to 2.6 GHz on a Pentium 4.

Memory: 1 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
Video Card: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800
Hard Drive: 100 gb 4200rpm

also a 17 inch wide screen to watch it

I would love to upgrade everything but couldn't afford it. This was
pretty expensive even with the $800 off sale.

So far two guys who play games (but not the Sims) have given me advice.
One told me I should have gone for a cheaper video card (a 128MB ATIs
Mobility Radeon X300) and used the money to upgrade to a Processor 750
(1.86 GHz/2MB) which is 3 GHz on a Pentium 4.

The other guy told me my processor speed was fine but I should have put
the money saved from buying a cheaper video card on the smaller but
faster hard drive (80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive). He said my drive was way
too slow for gaming and should be upgraded.

(bitch part of post coming)

When I sell my next book maybe, but a few days ago my book idea got
turned by Avery's Health Division for being "too scientific" (and it
was way dumbed down). Yes, you cannot have health books that are backed
by science anymore. Better to make it all up (and my first book still
makes them a fortune).

::Sigh:: We've decided we will have to prostitute ourselves to sell in
this market. We've changed the name of our other proposed book to: "How
to treat your husband like a dog" Maybe that is unscientific enough.

(end of bitch and post)

Thanks for any help
Maureen in Mukilteo

(anyone want to learn how to treat you husbands like dogs to keep them
healthy?)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.the-sims (More info?)

maureen@keanenutrition.com wrote:
> Question: Will this configuration play Sims 2 well? How well will it
> play Sims 1? I heard maybe not so well. I would rather play the Sims 1
> well than play the Sims 2 with pauses and jerky characters.
>
> Configuration
>
> Processor: Pentium M Processor 730 (1.60 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
> I've been told this is equal to 2.6 GHz on a Pentium 4.
>
> Memory: 1 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
> Video Card: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800
> Hard Drive: 100 gb 4200rpm
>
> also a 17 inch wide screen to watch it

My specs are much lower than that and play TS2 fine, that is a very nice
laptop and should play TS2 perfectly well.

> So far two guys who play games (but not the Sims) have given me
> advice. One told me I should have gone for a cheaper video card (a
> 128MB ATIs Mobility Radeon X300) and used the money to upgrade to a
> Processor 750 (1.86 GHz/2MB) which is 3 GHz on a Pentium 4.

I would say graphics are more important than Processor with TS2, although I
haven't changed either since I got TS2.

> The other guy told me my processor speed was fine but I should have
> put the money saved from buying a cheaper video card on the smaller
> but faster hard drive (80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive). He said my drive was
> way too slow for gaming and should be upgraded.

I'll agree that the HDD does seem a bit slow, but I'm not a major object
downloader for TS2 (yet) so I don't know how much the HDD speed affects TS2,
I've ben thinking about getting a new HDD recently so the answer to this
might help me too. Any one know if changing from IDE to SATA has much of an
effect?

 

[strider]

Archived from groups: alt.games.the-sims (More info?)

>I'll agree that the HDD does seem a bit slow, but I'm not a major object
>downloader for TS2 (yet) so I don't know how much the HDD speed affects TS2,
>I've ben thinking about getting a new HDD recently so the answer to this
>might help me too. Any one know if changing from IDE to SATA has much of an
>effect?

I've tried playing it with SATA drives and it doesn't seem to have
much of an effect, at least not on my system.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.the-sims (More info?)

> I would say graphics are more important than Processor with TS2, although
> I haven't changed either since I got TS2.

I'm leaning the opposite way. I have a GF4 Ti4400, and in buy/build modes
(or paused), rendering is as smooth as glass no matter how quickly I
move/zoom/rotate the view. Unpause or put the game in 'live' mode, and
everything slows down to a crawl.

This tells me the video card has no problem keeping up with the graphics
engine; rather, it's all the "other" computations that are CPU-intensive.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.the-sims (More info?)

In stone pixels, maureen@keanenutrition.com carved:
> Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
>
> The other guy told me my processor speed was fine but I should have
> put the money saved from buying a cheaper video card on the smaller
> but faster hard drive (80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive). He said my drive was
> way too slow for gaming and should be upgraded.
>
You did the right thing by going to a large hard drive. The game is
notoriously space-intensive, especially if you DL a lot. The 1 Gig of
memory and internal cache should allow you to run the game with few
problems.