Me and my dad are building a computer, which I want to play Sims on. I want to go back to Sims 2 as I've heard it's better, apparently better CC, and I can make a machinima with it. I've played Sims 3 since it came out and have had annoyances interaction-wise (I believe) (Why can't toddlers hug each other? Ugh, EA, so lazy!, for example)

I just peeked over at what he's written down:

Motherboard: LGA1155
CPU: i7 34GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3-1600
HARD DRIVE: ITB 7200 RPM
VIDEO CARD: HD750 3GB

Would Sims 2 or Sims 3 be compatible at all? I've checked on the Systems Requirement list and the video card isn't listed on either.

I'm not even sure The Sims 2 can RUN on a CPU with more than 2 cores but I could be wrong. The Sims 3, however, does seem to perform better on more than dual-core. Can I ask if The Sims games are the only PC game you play, or do you play more demanding games (Far Cry 3 Crysis 3, etc.) that would actually put something like an i7 to good use? Because honestly, if The Sims 3 and 2 are the only PC games you play, an i7 would be a waste. On the Intel side, the most you'd need would be an i5. On the AMD side, something like a Phenom II X4 965, or an FX-4300 or 6300 would be more than enough. Plus, they're cheaper. And unless you do something on your computer that requires 16GB of RAM, I would cut back to 8 GB which is more than enough. And, the money saved could be put towards a better graphics card, which I'm not quite sure what you listed. The "HD" series is ATI/AMD Radeon.

Could you please explain what your budget is, if any? That way people would be better able to recommend a build.

I play Sims mostly. I also plan to buy Skyrim for the computer too. I have no idea if Dad would be playing anything but he plays Command and Conquer which isn't demanding at all.
I don't really think my dad and I have set a budget. He's doing most of it, I'm installing software I guess. I want to pick the graphics card because Sims is the only game I really play avidly.

Sims 2 can run on any number of cores. It won't make use of the 'extra' cores, so it's unlikely to perform better on, say, a 3.0Ghz quad core than it would on a 3.0Ghz dual core, but it will still work just fine.

Your graphics card model is wrong - Radeon card model numbers are four digits long, so it'll be HD7x50 or HD75x0. The rest of the specs will handle either TS2 or TS3 beautifully. I would stick to the i7 for TS3 - there will be a noticeable improvement playing TS3 on an i7 over an i5. You don't need 16GB RAM for TS3, but given how shiny your budget seems to be, if I were building the computer I'd go for no less than 8GB (and, hell, 16 is a nice number, square and all that).

Make sure you get a solid PSU from a reputable brand. It'd be a shame to build such a fancy computer only to suffer from power problems down the line.

Thanks for clearing the core thing up, White Rider. And I totally agree on the PSU. Lesser quality PSUs and brands are damn well likely to take a person's whole system down with it. Scary as hell to think about.

Wait, what's a PSU? I have no idea about all this. What are some brands that are good?
Thanks anyway!

They mean the computer's power supply. Just make sure you buy a good brand and it is powerful enough to run everything. If you do some research on google it should help.

If you take a look at the "Building / Buying a new computer" sticky in this forum, you'll find a list of PSU models made by good brands. If you get something from those lines (probably newer than what we have listed), that's a good buy; if not, the other lines made by those brands are pretty good too.

PSU stands for Power Supply Unit. Top-quality brands include Corsair, Antec,and SeaSonic, but there are others I haven't listed. Also, you'll want to buy a PSU that has the 80 Plus certification. That basically means that the PSU is at least 80 percent efficient -- there are 5 levels of certification: 80 Plus, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The higher this level is, the more efficient a PSU is, but it also means something like an 80 Plus Platinum PSU is way more expensive than say, something that's 80 Plus or 80 Plus Bronze.

Hope this helps!