How will it run? I was wondering if people could give me an idea of how this would run on my system, I believe the graphics card is the serious problem, as it passes minimum, but fails at recommended: Pentium 4, 2.66GHz Windows XP Home Edition 512MB RAM GeForce MX 440 - 64MB Don't believe anything is important for the basis of the question. The RAM and graphics card are easy to upgrade, and been meaning to, but rather costly, so what it would need to get from playable to enjoyable?
I think you answered your question, MxD. RAM is relatively cheap at the moment but the real problem is spending cash on a graphics card. The new standard is PCIe so AGP cards are relatively cheap. For example, the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128MB can be had for as little $40 and 256MB cards for little more. Remember Maxis' cardinal advice re graphics: the more memory the better.
The only problem is that I'm from the UK, so $40 at the exchange rate for computer equipment is much higher.
Not true. http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPP-Graphics_Cards--nvidia_geforce_fx_5200 Best price is 27 At current exchange rates $40 is 22.50 which might make the US prices seem lower than the UK's but we have more consumer protection laws than the US and sterling is probably overvalued anyway