Building Computer to play all sims games(NEED HELP)

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treynewton1

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Ok guys I am getting ready to build a computer for my wife who plays all the sims and expansion packs like there is no tomorrow. She currently uses a HP with upgraded video card but the game still sometimes freezes so I said what the heck ill build her one. This is my first computer build and I basically only know what video card and Power supply I will be using. The rest is why i am here is to get some advice. Here is what I what I have so far.
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS 2.0 X 16 HDCP READY SLI SUPPORT VIDEO
Power supply:Cooler Master extreme power plus RS-700
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912
Hard Drive: Not purchased yet
Operating System: Not purchased yet
Processor: Not purchased yet
Memory (ram): Not purchased yet
Motherboard
: Not purchased yet

Below are the minumum system requirements for The Sims 3, which are the same for all The Sims and expansion packs. My question is could anyone recommend what size hard drive, OS, processor, RAM and mother board I could use to get this build started. I dont want to mess up and buy the wrong stuff which is why I am asking for some help with this. I dont care if the processor is AMD or Intell just need to know which one would work with whatever motherboard I end up getting, with the help of you guys maybe I can get this started in the next couple of days. thanks for the help and suggestions.
FOR WINDOWS XP

  • 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
  • The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
  • Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
  • At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games
FOR WINDOWS VISTA

  • 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
  • 1.5 GB RAM
  • 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1
  • At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games
For computers using built-in graphics chipsets under Windows, the game requires at least:

  • Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA 3-Series or above
  • 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU (Windows Vista), or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo (Windows XP Service Pack 3)
  • 0.5 GB additional RAM
 
Hard drive- almost any size. I would go for a 500GB or so. Don't bother with the giant drives for something like this.

OS- Windows 7 x64-bit, whatever variety

CPU/Motherboard- at least a i3 dual core, but I would go with a quad to be sure. If you go above two cores go with AMD to save some money. Like this CPU:
Newegg.com - AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX

And this motherboard:
Newegg.com - ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

RAM- Go with at least 4GB:
http:/http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193

But you can get 8GB for just $17 more so why not.
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

That would be over and above for just The Sims... it should handle any current game.
 
I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this thread because my mom and dad are asking me to build them a computer now. Or as my dad put it "If your computer doesn't blow up, you can build ours." My mother is a big Sims fan too. Good luck with your build, I hope all goes well.
 
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