Computer Specs for SL

I haven’t been involved in SL for long. Currently using a laptop but want to get a new desktop. When I looked at the recommended SL system requirements, they list a whole range of graphics cards. I'm looking for some guidance in narrowing down the bewildering choice of cards and would welcome recommendations. What about processor speed and memory for the computer itself? Overall, what’s the ideal system for general use on SL?

Thanks!

Bond.

Most computers that are not "bargain" types will work with SL. SL is extremely graphics and CPU intensive so a CPU with a speed of at least 2 gigs is best and a dedicated graphics card that supports OpenGL is almost a must..........nVidia is way far ahead of ATI in that area. SL does not utililize multicore processing so right now they are not much of an advantage........however the multicore CPU's do allow more freedom to run programs along with SL (such as browsers, imaging software, etc). If you just want an off the shelf computer that will run SL adequately then look for one that has 2 (or 4) cores with a processing speed of 2.8 to 3.0 gigs, a PCIe video card that has 256 or greater video RAM, 2 gigs of DDR2 system RAM. The operating system of you choice but for many Windows XP seems to work the best. If you wind up with Vista you will need 3 gigs of RAM since Vista is so much more memory hungry than XP.

My system is an off the shelf Lenovo Desktop. It is not the most poweful machine Lenovo makes but it is near the top. I'll list what I have in this one and tell you I have next to zero problems running SL with 30 to 50 FPS in most normally populated sims......drops a little in extremely active sims.

Intell Core 2 Quad Q1066 with 2.8 gigs (per core) at 1066 FBS
3 gigs DDR3 system RAM\
500 gig SATA Western Digital hard drive at 7200 rpm
nVidia GeForce 8600GT 256 DDR3 PCIe graphics card
Windows Vista Home Premium (most bells and whistles turned off.......the Aero stuff)
My Windows Experience Base Score is 5.7 (of a 5.9 total possible).....That's something only Vista users might be interested in.

Something along the specs of my system will run SL very well.......but my old system did okay too with about half the power of this one and XP as the operating system.

Thanks Peggy! This is great information. I really appreciate the detailed response.

Bond.