System Requirements
 

As most of you guys know, I'm a big games player. It's usually consoles 99% of the time but, very occasionally, I see a PC game I really want. The Sims 3 comes out at the end of next month for PC only and I fancy getting it but I doubt my PC can handle it. Where do I go on my PC to see the info I need about CPU and Memory etc? I'm using XP, incase that makes a difference.

According to Wikipedia, the requirments for the game are:

Windows
CPU
Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent
2.0GHz (XP)
2.4GHz (Vista)

Memory
1 GB (XP)
1.5GB (Vista)

Hard Drive Space
6.5GB of free space and 1GB for additional content

Graphics Hardware DirectX 9.0c compilant card with 128 MB RAM (NVIDIA FX 5900/ATI 9500 or better)

Sound Hardware
100% DirectX 9.0c compliant card

Windows (using Built-in Graphics Chipset)
CPU
Intel Pentium D 2.6GHz

Memory
1.5GB (XP)
2GB (Vista)

If I need to upgrade my PC, roughly how much can I expect it to cost and how difficult is it to upgrade? I know it's a bit foolish to upgrade for a game but my PC has needed upgrading for years now and The Sims 3 is a bit of incentive for myself to do it.

Right click My Computer, then properties.

Installing components is pretty simple. Check out newegg.com.

That was embarassingly easy and obvious. Thanks for the help.

I just saw that Sims 3 was coming out. I have yet to play the 2nd one, but I just downloaded it for my DS and am planning on giving it a go here soon.

I've been stuck with the console version of Sim games since the first one. Bare bones, mutated excuses of Sim games. So I'm wanting the PC version of 3 because I doubt it'll ever come out on the 360 and if it does, I know it would be stripped right down.

Yeah, def gonna download Sims 3. Looks great, and I always had a bit of fun with the other The Sims games.

God, I always end up coming close to crashing my pc from all the shit I download for that game. Still always worth it. I just hope that this time the bugs are to a minimum.