Insimenator.org

Hello all :hello2:

I've been wondering for some time what kinds of Computer systems you folks use to run Sims2.
Why? well I've noticed that meshes can affect a computers performance especially when lotsa polygons are used!! :h3lp:
So kindly Creators tend to be "user friendly" and keep polygons lower than they can possibly be. This is to be commended. But Having seen (& sold) computers for the last 5 years I'm thinking that the specifications on Today's PC/Macs are sufficient to tackle most if not all the wondrous meshes that are out there.... ( i could be wrong):tongue6:
I want Creators to use more polygons.....so I'll simply ask all who read kindly post your computer specs. Mine are like this.

approx. Age of system = 4 years
CPU speed = 1.8Ghz
amount of memory = 1 Gb
Video card = 6800 (nvidia)
able to play sims2 with all my excellent custom content enabled = Yes....no problem game loads longer than it used to.


For folks who don't know how to find out CPU speed or type of video card simply go to your control panel/settings panel and look for system, also device manager. or use belarc advisor ( free PC audit tool)

Sorry it's been years since i've used a Mac.....

I hope Meshers/creators can gauge from this when releasing their wondrous creations. keep on meshing!! :salute:

I got pretty much the same as you, this is my third PC I built.

System age = 1.5 years
CPU speed = 2.2 Ghz
amount of memory = 1 Gb
Video card = 6600 (nvidia)

Saving up some money to build my fourth PC :P

Love to get a Mac, but they are over priced and there aren't much software available.

Hey Aussiebun!!  you forgot to say if you can with play all your favourite custom content!!:old:

I play on a laptop. It actually plays the game well I think. My desktop computer has too little RAM to handle the game

System age: 1.5 years
CPU speed: 1.66 Ghz
Amount of memory: 512 MB
Video card: Integrated graphics with laptop.

I can play with all my custom content, as long as I keep on a medium size lot and watch the amount of polygons in furniture.

I have no problem playing it with my PC, but sometime it lags a bit, especially when scrolling. I don't know whether it is do with the custom contents (mesh) or it is just my PC. But it is tolerable..

"Crappy" ol' (new) laptop.  :lol:

Type:  Dell Inspiron 6400/E1505
Age:  1 year
Video Card:  ATI Mobility Radeon X1300  (Which is dying slowly... but quickly enough to get on my nerves. :x )
CPU Speed:  1.6GHz
Physical RAM:  2GB  (This does absolutely NO justice to speed for some reason... :crybaby:)

Compared to my old PC (Compaq Presario AMD Athon XP 2800+),  this thing is a lot slower than what I'm used to.  At least the laptop has a better graphics card than the PC.  :angel:

As for CC, it depends.  If I even build an actual house with furniture in it, I'll get random "blue refresh screens" and an occasional glitch-up with graphics.  God forbid if the house is above one story... I can't even enjoy playing the game like I used to.  I miss the good ol' days... :?

OMG :lol: I can't believe people are playing this game with their laptops. It must be lagging like hell

Tenshii, your poor laptop :P

It actually runs pretty well animation wise... not too choppy at all unless I'm on extremely huge lots, but it's definitely not savvy for any type of movie making or anything.  For those with high-end PCs... think of my normal speed as fast as the "slowmotion 1 (or 2)" cheat on your normal lots.  :(

The only few reasons I got the laptop:

1.)  Because my old one's screen was so dim, I might as well had been typing with my eyes shut.  

2.)  My old one's earphone plug broke, disabling me from hearing any sound externally or internally.  :smt120

3.)  So that I could actually play Sims 2 on the go, and not be bored on overnight trips with the band.  Can't take the home PC, now can I?  :tongue3:  (I refuse to have their sort of fun.  Sometimes, it ends up being illegal activities I wish to stay very far away from.  :lol:)

Otherwise, I would've begged for a gaming PC instead.  :smile bi:  Too bad I'm broke now.  :lol:

i expect to see alot of "non-gaming" PC's in this post....

Remember that sims 2 was released in 2004 so theoretically 2 year old systems should be able to run the base game smoothly provided they meet the minimum requirements.

(taken from wikipedia)
Minimum requirements

 Mac OS X

    * OS: Mac OS X 10.3.8+
    * CPU: 1.2 GHz PowerPC G4/G5
    * RAM: 256 MB
    * Disc Drive: DVD drive
    * HDD: 3 GB free space
    * Video: 32 MB ATI Radeon 9000/nVidia GeForce FX5200

Microsoft Windows

    * OS: Windows 98/98 SE/Me/2000/XP/Vista
    * CPU: 800 MHz
    * RAM: 256 MB
    * Disc Drive: 8x CD-ROM/DVD drive
    * HDD: 3.5 GB free space
    * Video: 32 MB DirectX 9.0 and T&L compatible
    * Sound: DirectX 9.0 compatible

Hi. I build computers for a living, both office and gaming types. I have two computers that run Sims 2, my son's and mine.

My son's is essentially my old computer in a new case:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0Ghz
1Gb ram
ATI 9800 XT w/128mb
WD Raptor 74Gb 10,00rpm SATA drive
Maxtor 80Gb SATA drive
Kingwin Aluminium Case (Looks Mac G5-ish)

Mine:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (overclocked from 2.4 to 2.8Ghz)
4Gb Ram
EVGA Nvidia 8800 GT
WD Raptor 150Gb 10,00rpm SATA drive
WD Raptor 74Gb 10,00rpm SATA drive
WD Caviar 500Gb SATA Drive
Lian Li PC6895 custom aluminum case

My son's system works fine on his 19" LCD screen (1280x1024) as long as we set the view distances to something less than max, and we don't put too many trees or other detailed objects around.

I turn everything all the way up on a 24" LCD @ 1920x1200 resolution. I have had no lag or stuttering, but it also runs Bioshock flawlessly.

Unfortunately I don't get to play too often, and then have to divide my time between FPS games and Sims 2.

This is a great idea. I think it depends on what you like a fast game or a pretty game or can have the luxury of both.

I retired my desktop. It was built for TS1.
We move around alot. So its better for me to have a laptop. 7 times in the last 19 years. 3 citys in 2 Countries other than the US and 5 cities in 4 states in the US. That counts my hometown. I would be without a desktop computer for months if I had to wait for the movers.

I have 2 laptops I can use.
My old Laptop Specs
HP 1.8Gig AMD (I am thinking Athlon) 15inch LCD 500mg ram  x300ATI Radeon 40gig Hard drive Windows XP
Its good with smaller lots and a smaller downloads folder. It works decent but loading a big game is slow and graphics could be better. I started playing TS2 with this laptop.

My new Laptop Specs
HP nx9600 3.6 Gig P4HT 17inch LCD 1Gig Ram x600ATI Radeon (Can't win them all) 120Gig HD Windows XP Professional. I settled on this one. It runs the game wonderful, game load time is not a factor. The graphics detail is much better than my old laptop flawless for a laptop. I feel it was a good buy for a laptop at under 800USD. Oh I have a game folder sized 6 Gigs

Age- Err 8 months maybe
CPU speed - so can't find that... lol
amount of memory - 893 MB
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
Microsoft Vista Home Premium (stupid vista...)
Sims runs fine slow loading from the ton of custom content but otherwise big lots and all run fine

Intel Core Duo E 6700 on Asus P5B Motherboard
2 Gigs Ram
Geforce 8800 GTX 640 MB Ram

approx. Age of system = less that 1 year, probably about 6 months or so
CPU speed = 1.60 GHz
amount of memory = 958 MB
Video card = NVIDIA GeForce GO 6150
The computer is a personal laptop. Custom content works fine for the most part. There have been issues with stuff not showing up, not unzipping etc. but that has nothing to do with the computer per se. Game loads a little slower than usual, sometimes quite slow depending on amount of CC and wether it's compatible with EP's.

unheardwisdom to find your cpu speed...:hiding:
 Press start>control panel> system....on the general tab you should see your CPU speed and amount of memory (RAM)

AMD 64X2 3800 - running overclocked to 2.8 ghz
2 gigs ddr dual channel ocx
dual PCI-X 512ddr SLI nvidia 8600
250gig NV Raid
Asus pro-active MB
5 fans.

Let's see, it's an approximately 2 year old ABS M6 Sniper, due for some updating...

Asus M2N32-SLI MoBo
AMD Athlon 64X2 3800+
2 Gbs. Corsair DDR2
Dual nVidia 7600 GT's in SLI
Dual 320 GB. H/D's in Raid 0
Thermaltake VA8000 case w/ cooling kit

I play with everything maxed... :D

tis a laptop though

approx. Age of system = 2 years
CPU speed = 1.4 GHz
amount of memory = 504 MB soon to be 1 GB though!
Video card = No idea at the mo... must ask partner bout that
able to play sims2 with custom content enabled = Yep.. game does load slower though

Mine:

Dell Dimension 5100
Age: 2yrs 2months
RAM: 2GB
CPU Speed: 3.0 GHz
Video Card: Radeon x600
Have 2.2GB of downloads, largest files are generally skintones & hair (about 1GB of it!). Game runs fine, all settings on high, only lags a bit on large vacation lots. I think this maybe due to the video card rather than the RAM.

I've been running on a old clunker... with some new upgrades

Dell Dimension 8200 (400mhZ FSB)
Pentium 4  (1.9Ghz)
1GB RAM
512 MB Radeon X1650Pro Video Card
60 GB HD

I see generally It's the faster video memory (and amount) that holds back Sims2 . I've played it on min spec machines....with Good Video Cards.

eg. 888Mhz CPU 512 RAM and Geforce 4 (128 Mb Video mem) and it played even faster than my "rig".....obviously Lack of Custom content on the experimentation "rig" is a major factor.

Hmmm.....Integrated graphics will always suck ....unless it is a high end Graphic/Gaming "rig"

Meh laptop:
Dell XPS M1710
Age: less than a year, got it in February.
2 GHz processor
2GB RAM
nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS
HD:81.1 GB

I love it to pieces. It's been an excellent simming machine. Loading times are annoying, but never anything terrible (2 or so minutes to load the game). Graphics are beautiful, but my one complaint is that the highest available resolution in game is lower than the resolution of my screen (1920x1200), so my game is just the slightest bit blurry. Not much to complain about, though.

Well, my laptop (before it died on me :()

Toshiba Laptop M35X-S111
Would have been 3 years in February
Intergrated Intel Graphics Card
1 GB Processor
1.5GB of RAM
8x CD /DVD Drive RPM
HDD Space 37.2 GB

I love(d) my Toshiba but it let me down...the motherboard finally said, "Screw That" and went out!  The loading times really didn't bother me as much 45 minutes...I guess I was used to it but I would eat and get in the shower and then I could play.  When I was in college I would do homework while it's loading....:).



LaTasha

Like i thought......No really "old" machines in these posts.

Bring on the Pixels!!!

CPU Type: AMD Opteron 144, 1800 MHz (9 x 200)
Motherboard Name: EPoX K8T890
Motherboard Chipset: VIA K8T890, AMD Hammer
System Memory: 2048 MB
Display: Radeon X1650 Pro
Storage: 60GB + 160GB + 180GB
OS: Win XP Pro

But i really wanna upgrade to a dual core processor, like Athlon 64 X2 or something else by AMD *drools*
Total AMD freak here, lol
And i wanna get 2 more gigs of ram and  a new motherboard :P

Approx. Age of system = 'bout 6 months or so.
CPU speed = I believe it's 1,60GHz
amount of memory = 2046MG. (And something about 2 * 120 GB harddiscs.)
Video card = ... Hmm. I'll google it:
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 (256 MB dedicated RAM) (AMD Turion64 X2 based  models & Core 2 Duo T5200)
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 (512 MB dedicated RAM) (Intel Core 2 Duo based models) < That one sounds familiar.
Able to play sims2 with all my excellent custom content enabled = No problems at all.

This is a HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop. And I say 'FEH!' to all of you that are using stationary computers, 'cause I can bring my Sims everywhere! Muha!

well i mine is about 6 mons. old....it's a Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Athlon(tm) 64x2 Dual Core processor 3800+
2.0 Ghz
memory ram 894.9 MB
32 bit operating system
processor speed 1837.7
Direct X 10
Video card Nvidia Geforce 6150SE nForce 430
display memory 256.0
I really don't understand all this info. but my game plays good...i don't have much CC only about 900 things...not sure the Gb of them...The only thing i have is after playing for awhile i get some temporily freeze for few seconds then it is fine again....I notice most of the freezing happening when sim or pet walks by or when maid, delivery truck, ect. come...I have most of the graphics enabled and on high...I really don't have a problem with Vista other than when i first installed my games it said it wasn't compatible...but I got them to work somehow don't remember now how....I also have all the expansions and H&M stuff pack...so all in all I'm satisfied....

I have:
amd dual core 3.2ghz
2 gig ram
160 gig hardrive
ati radeon x1600pro 512 mb(did have a nvidia 8600 512mb but returned it twice as it kept stuffing up the computer, I went back to my old radeon x1600)
motherboard?
2.8 gig od custom content. Loads really quickly- 5mins tops.

On the odd occasion it would lag when a delivery truck or maid or gardener arrive. but that lag would last 1 second.

I mainly build houses now than actually play. I have all expansions and stuff packs.

System age: 5 months
CPU speed: Intel® Core 2 Duo processor 2.4 GHz
Amount of memory: 2 GB
Video card: 256 MB ATI Radeon X1300

Runs fine with custom content.

Some pretty cool systems......might be time for an upgrade for yours truly :goodidea:

Microsoft Windows XP
Media Center Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 2

HP Pavilion
AMD Athlon[tm] 64x2 Dual
Core Processor 4200+
2.20 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

Video Card upgrade -NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512mb
Working fine now.:happy8: