what would be a "good enough" computer for SL?

Hi everyone.

My old computer is, well, old. And non-modifiable (G4 Mac mini). So i want to get a new computer, specifically with SL in mind. The thing is, as student I'm on a budget. I'm well versed in computers and can handle building from components. I plan to run linux as OS. (Can't afford a new Mac right now that would run SL well, so Linux is my next best choice)

Now here's my question: What would be a computer that is capable of running one instance of the SL viewer with minimum local-machine induced lag and optimal frame rate? I don't need a huge gamer machine, it is just supposed to run SL well, nothing more. Any suggestions?

Thank you all.
Tanith

You can start with this one and build from there. I checked some of the options on the customize list and for another $65.00 you can get a decent nVidia PCI express 8500 GT card (not the best out there by a long shot, but adequate for SL if high settings are not your goal). You will also need to get a monitor.........but with a little looking around you can find one for just a little over $100.00.

http://www.googlebb.magicmicro.com/smoreinfo.asp?iid=1995

Intel Pentium Dual Core CPU, or whatever the AMD equivalent is. The E5200 or better.
2GB of memory.
NVidia GeForce 8600GT, 9600GT or better.

These aren't the cheapest components you can get and still run SL acceptably (right now), but I don't believe anything cheaper represents a good value. You give up more in performance than the dollars you save.

Is a 2GB Core Duo (about 1.5 MHZ) with an Nvidia Go 7600, and it works fine. Usually about 10-20 fps.

It is an HP dv9000, if you must know (save the HP flames, people .

Compared to that good enough computer, the ones mentioned will be great.

I guess what's considered "good enough" is subjective. To me, <15fps is not good enough.

I'm on Linux, I bought my system 1 year ago and I'm fine with it. Not an ultra-gamer machine but SL runs well on it - I'm usually over 20-30 FPS with 50+ FPS peaks depending on my in-world location, while also running a web browser with many tabs opened.

I can't say how much it would cost now, but it was definitively cheaper than the usual "gamer/high-performance" setup offered here by local resellers. <Hope this makes sense, please ask if I'm not being clear>

So. I choose a fast if small hard disk (WD Raptor 74 GB), because Second Life heavily uses the hard drive. I think it's a cool disk but note that it was quite expensive and it's really noisy.

I didn't bother to buy a quad-core CPU (SL doesn't fully leverage on multi-core technology): I saved some money by choosing a dual-core (also I didn't bother to buy the fastest-est-est dual-core CPU I could find).

I use and suggest to use four RAM gigabytes at least, because RAM memory is relatively cheap and it lets the system run smoothly (note that by default many 32-bit systems will only use 3-3.2 gigabytes: still, I suggest to install 4 GBs - even if you won't fully use them).

Choosing an Nvidia video card was a no-brainer because they're known to work better with SL than ATI ones. At first I bought a 7300 with 512MB RAM (60 euro 1 year ago); recently I upgraded to a 9600GT with 512MB RAM (140 euro), that noticeably boosted framerate.


Lastly - This won't improve Second Life viewer performances, but I strongly suggest to add the SpaceNavigator to your setup. It's cheap (50-60 US$?) and it _greatly_ improved my SL experience (more immersive and movie-style). Unfortunately, it's not still working out of the box with the Linux SL viewer (you need to compile the viewer from sources and patch it: this is going to be fixed in upcoming viewer releases).
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Space_Navigator

Thank you very much everyone for you wonderful advice. With your advice in mind I have more or less settled on this setup:

MSI P6NGM-FD Mainboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E5200
4 Gigabyte DDR2 6400 RAM (max. RAM for that board)
NVidia GeForce 9400GT with 1 GB RAM (or 9500GT with 1 GB, depends a bit on budget, this will be the last item I buy)
An SATA harddrive (not yet decided which)

Price should be about 250 Euros, including a cheap 500 W PSU.

And Opensource Obscure, I already have the Space Navigator, bought it for myself as present to my last birthday. I can only concur and warmly recommend it. I payed 59 Euros for it, and it improved my SL so much it is unbelievable.

The only thing not yet certain are the craphics card (definitely nvidia 9xxx GT, but which? is the 9400GT enough or should I go higher?) and hard drive.

Again, thank you all for you help. *hugs*
Tanith

Big (~500GB), fast (7200RPM SATA-300) drives from Seagate (7200.11 and 7200.12) & Western Digital (Caviar Blue and Black) are cheap. It's probably tough to go wrong with any of them.

The new entry-level Mac Mini (introduced this week!) finally (YES!) has a real GPU, so for $599 you can replace your existing Mini with a new one that should run SL well.

I've been thinking about it and I'd love to. But i can't possibly afford 600$ right now. 250 to 300$ spread out over 2 to 3 months is the best I can do. University student's budget...

But thank you for the tip.

I can't afford it either, but it's nice to know that they finally fixed the Intel mini.