Mumsnet Talk

Talking of mods I cannot live without NRAAS, Twallan is amazing!

Overclockers is quite pricey. Ebuyer is a good budget option, when it works properly.

Console life is around 8-9 years.

More like 5-6 years. There seems to be a 3-4 year lag between new versions of consoles. The replacements take a couple of years to be come attractively affordable as a replacement and for the games to no longer al be £40

MurderofGoths There's a time clock you can get (for Sims 2) which slows down the game clock to half it's usual speed, so it doesn't take them an hour to use the toilet or eat any more. I loved it - just couldn't get used to the way it messed up their sleeping patterns so I took it out. Anyway if you want o check it out it's by Chris Hatch at Back Alley Sims, although I utterly despise him, he's a sexist creep arsehole, but he makes damn good mods if you're willing to search through all of the weird porn mods that he makes as well Often I am not, hence not providing a direct link.

We used to build all our pcs, but now stick with the Dell outlet. There's some good deals to be had, with OS already paid for and legit.

I think there's a hierarchy PCs are more for hardcore gamers and geeks IMO - which is neither a good or bad thing, just different to how consoles work.

One of the biggest factors IMO currently is the fact that with console games there's a massive second hand market, so you can swap games fairly regularly for not too much money. PC is more long haul - you can't usually trade games in at game shops etc or sell them on because of the activation codes in them being one-use, and a lot is switching to digital download only (with Steam etc) - there's talk that console gaming will go this way too, but I think that would be a shame - it's nice to have the distinction there, I think.

Of course tablets are lower on the "serious gamer" hierarchy - they're fun but they'll never replace purpose-built machines, and a touch screen just isn't versatile enough. More for the casual gamer really, or someone who likes trying a lot of new things.

I am slightly addicted to The Sims I'm still mad on Sims 2 though, I can't get into Sims 3 properly at all. The constant updates (and then the need to update all of your mods) drive me insane, the faces just look odd (slider mods help) and I can't get my head around the timing with the whole neighbourhood ageing thing. I'm planning to give it another go, though, when I get my new hard drive.

...though re-reading your post, Sparky, I see he wants it built to order rather than DIY. So that's not what he wants really (unless he fancies a challenge..)

If he buys a few computer/gamer magazines he'll probably find ads from custom builders. That will at least give him some names to look into?

What about lambda-tek... They have an online configurator too, great fun for trying different specs. You can keep your design/s, and order the components there, or shop around.

www.lambda-tek.com/computing/gbindex.htm

Thanks for that link - can you actually customise desktops with amazon then? I'd assumed not?

Overclockers is pretty good. But Amazon's prices are often hard to beat.

Can I go off at a slight tangent? DS is saving up for a gaming desktop, he's got ideas about selecting the components himself so it comes built to his spec.

Can anyone recommend somewhere reputable to get it from?

I'm no expert but the way I see it is this: 30-odd FPS is ample for games like The Sims and MineCraft provided it can be maintained. You don't want it to drop to 5FPS when it gets asked to do something tricky.

If you're a serious player of twitchy games where fast reaction times are critical - games like CoD, Halo or StarCraft for instance - then you'd probably want 60+FPS. But the average player would probably not notice the difference.

Anything more than 100FPS is, in my opinion, pointless because I don't believe that our nervous systems are wired to be able to usefully deal with images changing that quickly. Few displays can keep up with FPS rates that high either.

Ooo Snorbs talk to me about FPS... I get up to 200 with The Sims, but so many website say you don't want that, and that I need a FPS Limiter? Is that true?

I built a gaming PC for my son for Christmas. I used some bits and pieces I already had spare - PSU, hard disk, DVD drive etc - but if I had bought everything new it would probably have been about £600. We've yet to find anything it can't comfortably run.

I think at least some of the people buying the over-clocked UltraExtreme Weapons-Grade Fata1ity QuadSLI HyperRAM Turbo style products that are covered in dubious heatsinks and lots of stickers are more interested in winning an online dick-size war over FPS rates than anything else. You don't need a top-end i7 to play CoD.

Or maybe you could make one of these

MurderOfGoths Can I have a leave the bastard mod?

@ Sims are taking their phones to the toilet with them and logging in to Mumsnet?!

I'd be impressed if in S4 they could put locks on the bathroom doors, so when one sim goes to the loo, 15 others don't follow them in then throw a wobbly because they can't all go too.

An MN mod - you'd have to make a YABU one, and sims could have a deep, abiding fear of being U. Also, naice ham would be a useful addition to the menu.

@ Pedro!

juney I agree, though I'm now thinking of trying my hand at designing mods/items for Sims 3 which are MN themed!

If EA Games can do that I'll give them my life savings!

Is it not possible that the Sims are taking their phones to the toilet with them and logging in to Mumsnet?!

The thing with sims is they just rehash the expansion packs for example, the next one due out is University... which I loved in S2 but am loathe to continue spending £20 a pop on expansion packs and yes I believe S4 has been announced for 2014

To be honest, it'll have to be amazing and be able to run without using up a 1gb of RAM in order for me to buy it, I'm sick of paying out for a game that is slowly cooking my PC to death.

I quite like the uncanny valley faces Do you know what I wish? I wish they would sort out the time, the Sims should not take an hour to go to the toilet!! And if they do then surely there should also be a Sims doctor?

MurderOfGoths The main thing that put me off S4 was the sims themselves - they look really creepy with their strange, lumpen faces uncannyvalley

Hopefully, when S4 appears EA will have reverted to more cartoony characters.

PedroPony I agree! £1000 is a lot for a machine to play games on ... but you really don't need to spend anywhere near that much. I'd guess that the big name computer retailers may charge those kind of prices, but there are plenty of other smaller retailers who are far more reasonable. Or you could go to a computer fair or assemble a machine yourself.

My pc cost about the same as a PS3, but it does more than just play games. I use it for work too and run powerful graphics, design and word processing packages. I couldn't do that on a console. Saying that, I'm genuinely not knocking consoles, I really enjoy using mine, it's just a very different gaming experience.

Hope you both enjoyed your gaming! With the hideous weather we have at the moment that sounds like a great way to spend the evening

Forgot to say F1 looks damn good, DH even bought a steering wheel for it. Unfortunately we just don't have the time/space to play it, so it just sits in the cupboard.