New computer - can I improve on this?

[Twinmum]

OK, I may be looking at a new computer sooner than I was thinking of. So the natural question is "what do I need to get?"

Twin1 had a computer built last May and I have played on it a few times and love it. For one thing, it runs Union Cove without so much as a hiccup. Of course, she bought it with gaming in mind. So I thought her build would be a starting point for my new computer and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for improvements on it - one thing that will be improved on is the hard drive, I'll go for a solid state.

So this is her computer (some of this isn't as important, but I'm not sure what everything is, so I'll just list all that's on the invoice  )

CoolerMaster Elite 342 MicroATX case, 2x5.25, 1x 3.5 ext, 5x 3.5 int, no PSU

Palit GeForce GTX550Ti PCI-E 2.0 1GB DDR5 Video card, with VGA, HDMI, DVI

700W Thermaltake Litepower Power Supply, 5x SATA, 2x PCI-E

Asus P8H77-M LE H77 LGA1155 MATX M/B. 2x DDR3, PCI-E x16/x4/x1/PCI, GigaLAN, VGA/DVI/HDMI, 4x SATA2/2x SATA3, Audio, USB3

Samsung SH-S222AB Black Internal 22x Speed SATA DVD-RW drive, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x +R DL, OEM with software included

4Gb Corsair 1333MHz CL9 DDR3 DIMM, Single Module for Intel and AMD platforms

1000Gb 1TB WD10EALX Western Digital Caviar Blue SATA-II/SATA-III 3.5 hard disk, 32mb cache

Intel Core i5 3450 3.1Ghz Quad-Core CPU (Ivy Bridge), LGA1155, 6mb, 4 cores, 4 threads, CPU w/fan cooler BX80637153450

[Flynn Arrowstarr]

Hi, Twinmum. The specs for the computer look great. I would suggest two improvements:

• Keep the 1TB hard drive and add the solid state drive. Install Windows to the solid state drive and Sims 3, but move your Documents and other storage folders to the 1 TB drive.
• Increase the memory to 8 GB total, or more (if budget and motherboard can handle it). 8 GB will give you plenty of breathing room when using a 64-bit version of Windows and will make Sims 3 run a little smoother.

Not as important, but if you can find the 2 GB version of the GeForce 550 Ti for under $150, it should prevent Windows from taking any system memory for graphics.

hope this helps.

Flynn