[Hermione_moo]

Ok so I want a desktop that will run games such as Warcraft, The Sims etc, be quick on the internet and hold all my music etc. I have found this;

Intel Dual Core Xeon 2.66GHz 32/64-bit processor with
4MB cache and 1333 MHz FSB
Fast 4GB (4096MB) PC2-5300F SDRAM Fully buffered memory
(upgradable to massive 32GB)
500GB SATA II hard drive
(Supports up to 6 x SATA or 4 x Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.0Gb/s drives with RAID capability)
High Definition integrated audio with internal speaker
Integrated Broadcom 6752 Lan-on Motherboard
CD/DVD-ROM drive
Brand new ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB graphics card
Front: Headphone, microphone, and 2 USB 2.0, 1 IEEE 1394
Rear: 5 USB, 1 standard serial port, 1 parallel port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, 1 RJ-45, 1 audio in, 1 audio out, 1 Microphone in, 2 IEEE 1394b
1 PCI-E x16, 1 PCI-E Mechanical (x4 electrical), 1 PCI-E x8 mechancial (x4 electrical)
3 PCI-X, 1 half-length PCI slot
5 x internal Bays and 3 external 5.25" bays
Dimensions (H × W × D) 17.9" (45.5 cm) x 8.3" (21.0 cm) x 20.7" (52.5 cm)
Power Supply : 800 Watts

What are your thoughts? Do any of you have any advice on what I need to be looking for?

Any help would be much appreciated as last time I was up on computers, we had just moved away from floppy disks.

[Elliwhi]

That's good if you are trying to run Sims 1 or 2 on it. But not sure about 3. You may have to look at the Sims 3 Tech Specifications. Overall, you have found a good computer

[Hermione_moo]

so what do i need to look at upgrading to make it run the higher end games? I don't really understand what part of all the spec does what.

[Elliwhi]

Basically, if you want to play a game which has more storage space, you may wanna look at upgrading your RAM.

[Hermione_moo]

so if I took the upgrade to say 8gb RAM, would that work on Sims 3 and Warcraft would you say?

[TLK]

(Original post by Hermione_moo)
so if I took the upgrade to say 8gb RAM, would that work on Sims 3 and Warcraft would you say?

I'm sure 4GB will run Sims 3
http://www.thesims3.com/game/systemreq
I'd upgrade to 6-8GB since I'm sure you may wish to play other games that might require higher specs, but 4GB is also fine.

[Hermione_moo]

great. Thank you, that system is only £200 so a very happy bunny xx

Thank you both x

[Chrosson]

(Original post by Hermione_moo)
Ok so I want a desktop that will run games such as Warcraft, The Sims etc, be quick on the internet and hold all my music etc. I have found this;

Intel Dual Core Xeon 2.66GHz 32/64-bit processor with
4MB cache and 1333 MHz FSB
Fast 4GB (4096MB) PC2-5300F SDRAM Fully buffered memory
(upgradable to massive 32GB)
500GB SATA II hard drive
(Supports up to 6 x SATA or 4 x Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.0Gb/s drives with RAID capability)
High Definition integrated audio with internal speaker
Integrated Broadcom 6752 Lan-on Motherboard
CD/DVD-ROM drive
Brand new ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB graphics card
Front: Headphone, microphone, and 2 USB 2.0, 1 IEEE 1394
Rear: 5 USB, 1 standard serial port, 1 parallel port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, 1 RJ-45, 1 audio in, 1 audio out, 1 Microphone in, 2 IEEE 1394b
1 PCI-E x16, 1 PCI-E Mechanical (x4 electrical), 1 PCI-E x8 mechancial (x4 electrical)
3 PCI-X, 1 half-length PCI slot
5 x internal Bays and 3 external 5.25" bays
Dimensions (H × W × D) 17.9" (45.5 cm) x 8.3" (21.0 cm) x 20.7" (52.5 cm)
Power Supply : 800 Watts

What are your thoughts? Do any of you have any advice on what I need to be looking for?

Any help would be much appreciated as last time I was up on computers, we had just moved away from floppy disks.

You could play at minimum two copies of The Sims 3 at the same time on this. Maybe more, but I'm not sure what that processor is exactly. Do you have a link to the page where you're buying this from?

Also bear in mind that I can't see if it has an Operating System on it...

[Hermione_moo]

(Original post by Chrosson)
You could play at minimum two copies of The Sims 3 at the same time on this. Maybe more, but I'm not sure what that processor is exactly. Do you have a link to the page where you're buying this from?

Also bear in mind that I can't see if it has an Operating System on it...

sure, it is here;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2806908477...#ht_4917wt_838

[Chrosson]

(Original post by Hermione_moo)
sure, it is here;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2806908477...#ht_4917wt_838

Ok, you can probably run 4 copies of The Sims 3 at the same time if you were so inclined.

It comes with Windows XP. Note that there is absolutely no point upgrading the RAM if you don't upgrade to a 64-bit operating system (typically the 64-bit version of Windows 7), as your computer will not be able to 'see' any more than 4GB of it.

I presume you've got all the peripherals (monitor, mouse, keyboard) already? You should be good to go then (although I note that it's £250, not £200 as you stated before).

[Hermione_moo]

lol, i like to round figures down, it makes my husband happier lol.

I have all the other bits yes. My other desktop I bought in 2006 and it just cant cope with much anymore.

really pleased thank you for your help x

[Elliwhi]

(Original post by Hermione_moo)
so if I took the upgrade to say 8gb RAM, would that work on Sims 3 and Warcraft would you say?

8GB Ram will have Sims 3 running smooottthhhllllyyyy!!!

If you were to play Sims 2 with expansions then it would work as you may need more than 1GB of Ram to run Sims 2 with expansions.

[Chrosson]

(Original post by Elliwhi)
8GB Ram will have Sims 3 running smooottthhhllllyyyy!!!

If you were to play Sims 2 with expansions then it would work as you may need more than 1GB of Ram to run Sims 2 with expansions.

Just to emphasise that
a) 8GB of RAM is beyond excessive for Sims 3.
b) Upgrading the RAM is pointless, as the operating system that computer comes with cannot use more than 4GB.

[maturestudy]

The processor is probably several generations old. XP is old and I'm just guessing that the system is too. If it's the processor I think it is, (Xeon 5150) it's based on the old Core micro-architecture. Truth be told, the only reason I would recommend a Xeon workstation is if you're putting two processors in it, or if you really need the extra I/O bandwidth of PCI-X.

The memory is only DDR-2 667MHz but it uses server-grade memory (generally slower than desktop RAM). Be careful though, if you are going to upgrade you will need to buy expensive Fully Buffered ECC RAM. 4GB of that will easily set you back £100+VAT from Crucial.

The graphics card is lacklustre too (although it's new, you can pick them up for under £20). The PC was probably used as a graphics workstation for the last five or so years and I guess they decided to take the Quadro card out and sell it separately.

Given the system requirements of The Sims 3 (Pentium 4, 1GB RAM) you shouldn't have a problem running it. It's just that £250 is a decent enough budget to build yourself something much better.

[Camoxide]

(Original post by Hermione_moo)
Ok so I want a desktop that will run games such as Warcraft, The Sims etc, be quick on the internet and hold all my music etc. I have found this;

Intel Dual Core Xeon 2.66GHz 32/64-bit processor with
4MB cache and 1333 MHz FSB
Fast 4GB (4096MB) PC2-5300F SDRAM Fully buffered memory
(upgradable to massive 32GB)
500GB SATA II hard drive
(Supports up to 6 x SATA or 4 x Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.0Gb/s drives with RAID capability)
High Definition integrated audio with internal speaker
Integrated Broadcom 6752 Lan-on Motherboard
CD/DVD-ROM drive
Brand new ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB graphics card
Front: Headphone, microphone, and 2 USB 2.0, 1 IEEE 1394
Rear: 5 USB, 1 standard serial port, 1 parallel port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, 1 RJ-45, 1 audio in, 1 audio out, 1 Microphone in, 2 IEEE 1394b
1 PCI-E x16, 1 PCI-E Mechanical (x4 electrical), 1 PCI-E x8 mechancial (x4 electrical)
3 PCI-X, 1 half-length PCI slot
5 x internal Bays and 3 external 5.25" bays
Dimensions (H × W × D) 17.9" (45.5 cm) x 8.3" (21.0 cm) x 20.7" (52.5 cm)
Power Supply : 800 Watts

What are your thoughts? Do any of you have any advice on what I need to be looking for?

Any help would be much appreciated as last time I was up on computers, we had just moved away from floppy disks.

You're trolling right?

[Darkphilosopher]

An 800W PSU to power that...? Overkill much?

[Sgt.Incontro]

(Original post by Darkphilosopher)
An 800W PSU to power that...? Overkill much?

Pretty much!

And just wow to the people suggesting that you need at least 8GB of RAM to play Sims.

[maturestudy]

(Original post by Darkphilosopher)
An 800W PSU to power that...? Overkill much?

(Original post by Sgt.Incontro)
Pretty much!

And just wow to the people suggesting that you need at least 8GB of RAM to play Sims.

Some of the Xeon Quad Cores required up to 150W and this system supports two processors - so that's 300W+ gone out of your PSU before you even start. Stick in a Quadro FX graphics card and a few 15,000RPM SAS drives (the system supports up to ten drives btw) and you will soon find yourself creeping dangerously close to the rated wattage.

[Darkphilosopher]

(Original post by maturestudy)
Some of the Xeon Quad Cores required up to 150W and this system supports two processors - so that's 300W+ gone out of your PSU before you even start. Stick in a Quadro FX graphics card and a few 15,000RPM SAS drives (the system supports up to ten drives btw) and you will soon find yourself creeping dangerously close to the rated wattage.

lol

[manderton]

(Original post by maturestudy)
Some of the Xeon Quad Cores required up to 150W and this system supports two processors - so that's 300W+ gone out of your PSU before you even start. Stick in a Quadro FX graphics card and a few 15,000RPM SAS drives (the system supports up to ten drives btw) and you will soon find yourself creeping dangerously close to the rated wattage.

you must be reading about a different system . . .

from the website

Supports up to 6 x SATA or 4 x Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.0Gb/s drives with RAID capability

first impressions is it's pretty darn rubbish and in no way a "gaming" machine. Gaming machines rely more upon clock speed than core quantity.

as for the graphics card, very low and old 5 series designed for media usage.

at the end of the day, you're looking at an old server being dressed in drag being sold to the unsuspecting customer as something it really isn't.