http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Refurb...-tower/40955133


I was hoping to get it for Christmas, I just wanna make sure this can run properly so I don't feel like I wasted money...

@ImYourGirl1, I moved your thread to the Computer & Technical Support forum. It seems better suited there. And please state the computer specs, so people can give their opinions right away.

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes, but don't expect a solid 60 Frames Per Second on Ultra settings, with a very high resolution. I'd invest in a decent Graphics Card that exceeds the recommended requirements, just to be sure. Knowing EA, their minimum system requirements are a joke, especially for future reference. Sims 3 especially will be a resource hog on your computer with all Expansion Packs, mostly because of its poor optimization and rushed programming.

EDIT: Be wary of pre-installed computers that come with a lot of crappy software. HP and Dell especially from my experience tend to include a lot of unnecessary software that starts up with Windows every time, which only wastes resources. It's not a big deal since you can uninstall it most of the time, or just disable it, but still. It's a good thing to be aware of.

I'd be less certain... it should be fine for TS4 as far as I'm aware, but that graphics chip is unlikely to cope with TS3 if you want a bunch of EPs.

Now that you mention it, yeah. It will struggle with TS3. Integrated graphics are always a no-no when it comes to gaming if you ask me.

Really?

Why are the system requirements so vague? I would think that if the computer has 3.4GHz to run on and the game requires 2.4 GHz I'd think it would run pretty well. I always hear that Intel i3 chips are pretty phenomenal. But I guess I'll take your advice.

Do any of you know any computers that are affordable and could run these games well?

The i3 is the CPU, not the graphics chip. The graphics chip is the Intel 4400.

That said, there's a good chance that the i3 will also struggle for TS3. Although the official requirements for TS3 are a single core 2.4Ghz, those have been demonstrated to be completely fanciful - from patch 1.27 onwards, we've seen a lot of people with i3s (which are significantly better than the P4s EA witters on about) having terrible game performance and in some cases, the game just not running. I would recommend an i5 for TS3, but the i3 would be fine for TS4.

The graphics chip, the Intel 4400, is a lot better than past Intel chips. But given that to get a guarantee of decent performance for TS3 with ITF, you need to be in the top half of the dedicated graphics card ranges, the Intel is still out of its league.

In terms of affordable, what's your budget? Do you already have some stuff, like monitor, speakers etc.? Also, is playing TS3 + EPs a must for you? That pushes the requirements up significantly.