Building a new puter - what should I get?

Well it looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of SL development for the foreseeable future... time to upgrade my computer. I want to get an Intel based machine, and I want something that'll be a good mix of performance, stability and price. It doesn't have to be the absolute latest and greatest, but if any of you have recommendations for motherboard, CPU and video card that really make SL shine, and is stable, I'd love to hear them! I'm not into overclocking or tweaking around... I'm awash in work so I have to be able to hit the ground running with a machine that'll be rock solid.

Oh, and I'm also willing to spend a little extra $$ on making this system QUIET. Fan noise is the bane of my existence, especially because I also do a fair bit of audio production on the puter. So any video cards etc. that are passive cooled and/or silent fan recommendations would be much appreciated too.

assuming a 32bit OS...

3GB of good quaility, fast RAM

A least one graphics card, minimum 8600 GT or GTS but preferably a 8800 GT or better (I can't comment on the new 9000 series, perhaps someone else can)

Minimum 22 inch good quality *DVI* monitor(s). If you are intending developing in SL then try and get two monitors. You'll never regret it.

DVI cables for the monitor(s) (they are not supplied with the monitors, you have to purchase them separately)

Minimum 650 watt PSU, but preferably 800 watt or better

As for processors, I have an Intel Core2 E6600 overclocked to 3.3Ghz on one PC which runs SL beautifully; on anotherPC I have a AMD Athlon Dual Core 6400+ 3.2Ghz which again runs SL beautifully plus has the advantage of using 128bit dual channel RAM

Good quality, comfortable and pinpoint accurate mouse. I use a Microsoft Wireless Laser 5000. Kinda expensive but no regrets...

That's my thoughts....

fast cpu
a pile of fast ram
and a fast nvidia geforce

lol..great summary!

and two fast monitors...

Haha well I already have the 22" DVI monitor. Thanks for the recommendations on the PS, motherboard, CPU and video card. So what's a decent 8800 card that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? And what would be considered good quality fast RAM these days (again without breaking the bank to get the absolute bleeding edge)?

Dang, this looks like a good deal for a quadcore processor!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

Anybody know if SL would actually use 4 cores, or intends to anytime soon if not?

bleeding edge is still pretty expensive

ironically next to bleeding edge is pretty freaking cheap

machine i just built for a co-worker uses dual channel 800mhz ddr2 ram

i think we coughed up a grand total of 40 bucks for each pair of 1 gb sticks (4 sticks 4gigs, 2 pairs of dual channel)

and no SL doesnt use multi core-processor configurations, and nor do ALOT of other programs, right now unless your a gamer, photosnot pro, or making the next shrek, the other cores (or cpu's in my case) only help you multi task

then you can manage your armada of doom on 1 core and run a ripoff of tic tac dough in sl on the other

er - um forget the armada of doom, ive said too much

The NVidia 9600 is a bit more than half of an 8800GT; 64 stream processors instead of 112, but a slightly higher clock speed to gain some of the performance back. Right now, there is also the quietly-announced 8800GS, which is a bit more than 3/4 of an 8800GT (96 stream processors) with a slower clock speed. (Newegg lists the 8800GS as "supplies limited", which suggests that they were made from 8800GT chips that partially failed testing and will disappear once NVidia gets its chip yields straightened out.) Either of those will be faster than any 8600 card, but slower than an 8800GT, at a price that falls between them. Benchmarks suggest that performance of the 9600GT and 8800GS is similar; either is worth considering in a budget system. My personal rule of thumb for system balance is to spend about the same amount of money on the CPU and the graphics card, so consider the 9600GT or the 8600GS for systems with CPUs in the $100-150 range, but step up to an 8800GT if you're planning to spend $200 or more on the processor. The 8600GT is probably right for budget systems with an under-$100 CPU; I wouldn't go any lower in the line than that.

Second Life makes only slight use of additional processor cores at this time. Recent viewers have an option for multiple rendering threads, but they only seem to be used for texture decompression; on my dual-core system, I have seen CPU utilization go well over 50% when I first log in or arrive in a new location (times when the most textures will get processed), but not at other times. I don't know of any current development plans to make the viewer more fully multithreaded, though some changes might be relatively easy to make (like spinning off media playback). A dual-core system is nonetheless worth having, because it means that other applications will run smoothly at the same time as Second Life; it makes going off to a browser session or into Photoshop a lot more pleasant. Quad cores are heading into diminishing returns for the workflow (playflow?) of most SL residents, but will have some advantage for content creators (especially users of apps like Photoshop that can use multiple cores effectively). I've seen the Core 2 Quad Q6600 at $200, though it seems to have edged up to $250 recently, which makes it attractive; at that price class, you get to chose between the Q6600 with better multitasking, or the E8400 with 20-25% better single task performance but only two cores. The AMD Phenom will also be worth a look once AMD produces them with higher clock rates and with the TLB bug fixed; I advise against buying the currently available Phenom processors unless you plan to run only Linux on them. (64-bit Windows seems to be especially problematic on the Phenom. Recent Linux kernels have a workaround for the TLB bug that nearly eliminates the performance penalty.)

2GB of RAM is enough for SL at this time, with a browser or the like on the side; if you're going to run heavy-duty content creation apps at the same time, you'll want more. Might as well buy 4GB unless you're building a really low-budget system; RAM is cheap right now. 32-bit versions of Windows will only use 3GB of it; you'll get the full 4GB by running Linux or 64-bit Windows. And yes, Mac fans, your OS can use all 4GB in a Mac. Right now the price premium for DDR2 memory faster than DDR2-800 is high, so don't bother unless you're building a high-end system (it only buys you a couple of percent in system speed, so the money is better spent elsewhere until you're well up the power curve), and you're certainly much better off with 4GB of DDR2-800 than 2GB of DDR2-1066 or 1333.

One thing not to bother with is a sound card, unless you also play games other than Second Life or use your computer to listen to CDs or watch DVDs. SL doesn't use any of the fancy sound-generation hardware that gaming sound cards (like the Creatve Audigy or X-Fi cards) have, so there is no performance gain, and all the audio in SL is compressed so you won't get much quality improvement with a separate sound card. Exception: if you're planning to do SL voice you either want a good sound card (because the INPUT circuits on most motherboards is terrible) or a USB headset or microphone.

Pick a good solid motherboard; ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte are among the better manufacturers, and Intel's own motherboards are solid choices for users with no interest in overclocking. Pick an nVidia chipset if you're thinking of SLI graphics (you're probably talking about a $1500 or more system to justify that), or an AMD chipset if you're thinking of CrossFire (though I don't really recommend ATI graphics cards for Second Life); if you're only planning to use one video card, you can also look at Intel's and AMD's chip sets for their own processors. Add an ample power supply, a good CPU cooler if your processor doesn't come with one, and a well-ventilated case. Don't fuss with overclocking; Second Life isn't a first-person shooter where every scrap of computer speed will improve your results, so stability is much more important than an extra 5% of performance.

If you're going with these recommended hardware specs, you can run Windows Vista if you like; you'll have enough memory and a good enough graphics card to make it happy. XP will also work just fine, of course, and Linux is an option as well. For SL purposes, it doesn't matter which version of XP or Vista you use; choose according to the features you want or need for the other uses of your computer. If you need to log into a corporate domain, you'll need XP Professional or Vista Business or Ultimate. If you want the Media Center features (TV viewing and recording), you want Vista Home Premium or Ultimate; I no longer recommend Windows XP Media Center Edition. Otherwise, XP Home or Vista Home Premium will be fine; I don't recommend Vista Home Basic because it leaves too many things out.

just to confirm

yes ddr2 800mhz is the best price-speed at market today

yes you will need 64 bit windows or linux to address anything over 2gb

no sl will not really benefit at this point by having...

multicore cpu's

fancy sound cards

more than 2gb of ram

but everything else you ever do will

windows XP and SL like eachother more than vista and SL, + xp pro is usually cheaper, and does have a 64 bit flavor

also xp uses less ram, less cpu time, and is generally less annoying than vista (but its still 4x more than windows 2k)

Yes I will be running XP on this machine. I have Vista on my laptop, and let's just say I'm not wild about it.

You guys have given some great advice and I agree with much of the logic you laid out here, especially Shirley. I do think I'll go with 4 GB of RAM, as it's cheap, and XP Pro can apparently handle it. We'll see how much of it actually shows up.

I also think I'm going for the quadcore... multitasking is definitely something I need to do a lot of, so that will help. Found a really nice Gigabyte motherboard for 90 bucks... I also found an ASUS fanless 8600GT 512mb video card for $115... this seems like a great value especially as "quiet" is a priority for me. I'll be getting the OEM version of the CPU and using a Zalman CPU cooler in place of the stock Intel one.

I do have a pro quality sound card as I do a good bit of audio editing and mixing on the computer... I'm a musician and audio engineer so I do need that. But I will simply take the sound card out of my current puter and put it in the new one... should be fine. I'll do some informal testing to see if I notice a difference in SL's performance using the headset vs. my soundcard.

Thanks much for the tips folks!

People often forget that the quality of your network connection is important to SL.

Shop around for your local service (DSL, Cable, Fibre, whatever) that has high bandwidth, low latency, and generous usage allowances.

For example, a bare minimum these days might be

bandwidth: 1Mb/s
latency: less than 500ms
Allowance: more than 15GB/month

If you live in a city, this will be easy. If you live in a more rural setting, even this might be hard.

Better would be 3Mb/s, 300ms, unlimited. You could be on 24/7 with this

Just a small tip,
look for 2x2048 not 4x1024 wich usually fills every ram slot.

Price diffrence shouldnt be noticable, but will allow for future upgrade for more ram if you ever use a 64bit programs/ or use alot of ram on various programs running, i know i can break 3.5gig ram use pretty fast on cad,photoshop,sl,other things running, why i wouldnt use 32bit os anymore.

Yeah I am definitely going for the 2x2048, thanks. . It actually does save a little money over 4x1024, even.