Building/Upgrading a PC for TS2
Zazazu:
What brand did you go with? I haven't had a chance to look at Addison's insides yet (opening things when they have power running to them makes me extremely nervous, even though I know he's got a lot of space between the panel and his motherboard) but I'm almost 100% sure that it's not a 550W. I'm getting such great quoted prices on the graphics card and RAM that I'd be fine with anything less than $300 for the PSU. And that's way, way more than I'm seeing charged.
Here's what I'm looking at: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=58&name=Power-Supplies
The Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL 550W looks great at first glance, lots of nice reviews and $59.99, but the COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-650-ACAA-A1 650W is of course higher and still not bad at all at $109.99.
jolrei:
I recall looking at Thermaltake, Coolermaster, and Antek. My memory (which is questionable at best) suggests that I finally went with an Antek 430W, which is not listed on the Newegg site, as far as I can tell. Prices have come down a fair bit, I note, since I built Frankenstein. I'll check through my notes etc. on this and confirm what I actually went with. I know it's not more than 430W, but it's a very stable, consistent 430. I think I paid $80 or so a year and a half ago for something that costs $40 now. Maybe you can make economies now after all.
I was looking at a 450W PS at $25, and a techie friend talked me out of it which is why I recall going for the more expensive component.
Edit: @Zazazu: I have the Thermaltake Purepower 430W. Very solid. Naturally, you will have to determine the wattage required for whatever processor, mobo, and other components combination you put together. Bigger is not "worse", and may be better if you're adding higher end cards (i.e. video) than my system has.
KatEnigma:
I highly recommend the OCZ power supplies. They all have stellar reviews on Newegg. I have a 530w one (now obsolete. LOL!) and it alone lowered my system temperature by 10º C. My only complaint is that the cables were so thick and high quality that they didn't want to bend nicely. It's also QUIET. I can personally attest to OCZ's excellent customer service, as well. Newegg has a 600w one on sale right now for $89.99 if you find that you need to replace yours.
I don't know where mildly is getting 550w for the 1950 from, though. The number I'm seeing is 450. I looked last night, because I'm putting the 1950 Pro into my new system, and am going to reuse my PSU and case. But then, I'm not paranoid about it because I only run with 1 HD and 1 optical drive.
KatEnigma:
The link to the toshiba won't work, but I looked, and couldn't see what graphics chip it had anywhere on the page.
The Compaq might run the game. It won't be great, but I can run through OFB on a laptop with worse. Of course, you'll be stuck with Vista, and you want to run Seasons, which borked the Nvidia drivers more, so maybe not.
If that's all the budget you have, you need to either get a desktop NOT a laptop, or wait until you've saved up enough money to get a laptop that will run TS2 properly.
jolrei:
Quote from: Nikuste on 2007 October 30, 19:10:36
Again, any opinion helps. I know they aren't the best, but that's about where my budget lies. My current computer has to run everything on the lowest settings, so I'm not worried about low settings (although better ones would be nice!). I've got a 32MB graphics card, 512MB ram, WinXP, and I think around 1.5ghz.
It looks like there were some suggestions for ATI cards, since they tended to have fewer problems, especially with integrated and low-end cards.
If you have to go for a laptop, I'd go with the Toshiba, mainly because of the ATI built in card. If you do that, you will likely want to upgrade to the 2Gig of RAM (which appears to be an option). I personally don't like laptops because I don't get to choose all components - I'd rather build my own rig. That said, you can get a bigger bang for the buck if you go with a desktop rig, but I don't know what other requirements you have for your computer (maybe it needs to travel - I often wish my Sims 2 desktop machine could travel with me during family reunions with my inlaws, for example).
I have an onboard ATI X200 (on an X300 chipset - considerably older than what is offered with the Toshiba) and it does a great job with TS2, even when it shares memory with my 1Gig RAM computer. On the other hand, this may be because the other components of my rig are pretty good too. There are other "MATYvillians" who have better systems than mine on paper, who have had difficulties playing, so it really pays to make sure you meet/exceed the system requirements.
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