Notebook as 2nd computer for travel

Groan. Not another "What computer should I buy?" thread.

I have a good, new Mac that is great for at home. I am going on a 3-week vacation <g> and want to just stay in touch. Ok, I'm addicted to SL.

I am looking at something like ASUS 904 or Acer Aspire. Will those get me a reasonable connection? Can live with extra lag and reduced features. (No sword fighting? oh, no!) Not willing to spend more.

Thanks,
Not tech savvy
Sylvan

I have no idea if SL would run on a netbook.

The first major roadblock is likely graphics. I think the Atom chipsets have something similar to Intel 950 graphics media accelerators embedded in them. I'm not sure whether SL will run on that or not.

SL will run on 945 GMA's (although not exactly very well), and if I'm not mistaken, the 950 is the 945's successor. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. If the 950 were simply an updated version of the 945, it might work. But I think the 950 is actually an entirely new design. I'm not 100% sure, though.

Assuming the GMA is suitable, the next question is can the Atom processor handle an app as intensive as SL. Again, I have no idea. It might; it might not. The only way to know for sure would be to try it.

And then there's the question of memory. SL doesn't tend to do too well on machines with less than 2GB of RAM. I think the netbooks you listed are only available with up to 1GB. I could be wrong, though.

If you've got a BestBuy near you, maybe the thing to do is head on over there and ask them if they'll let you test SL on one to see if it works.

Ty. I'll try that.

You could put SL on an USB stick and ask the guy in the store if you can test it. No need to install it, only requires some network connection.

I have SL running on a Toshiba R500 with one of these ULV processors (1.33GHz) and Intel graphics. It's almost usable . Reportedly there are people running it on ultraportables .
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/3671-second-life-eee-pc.html

Asus has a gaming laptop thats fairly inexpensive however it runs second life as well as a desktop can.

One of the things you need to keep in mind when looking at laptops for gaming is gaming iss graphic intensive. you want a laptop that has a brand name video card that does NOT use shared system ram.

The asus G series gaming laptop have a nvidia video card with half a gig of ram, pleanty of system ram and a good size hard drive.

I have an eeepc 900 that runs SL well enough for basic IMing and moving around to check on things, and it's perfect for travelling (you just have to have all the settings set to minimum).

There are newer models out now that use an Atom rather than a celeron-m, I assume they will run better.

For day to day use it's pretty limited for SL, but for travelling it's an amazing bit of kit at under a kg and 9 inch screen, and pretty cheap too. I use it at home when I can't be bothered to go upstairs to the PC!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASUS_Eee_PC

I have a MSI PR210 (think it has been replaced with the PR211 now). 12in screen, very lightweight and compact, 2Gig RAM, Dual Core AMD processor and ATI graphics....runs SL no problem albeit on low graphics setting...but it is very playable on a very compact machine.

As a side note, I also have it running on a Samsung N10 netbook. Boy is it slow, but it runs and is fine for IMs,, just don't expect to go dancing...

I've run SL off a notebook for more than 2 years as I'm always travelling and spend 4 days/week in hotels. In fact, even when at home I use it rather than my desktop.
Currently, I use a HP Pavillion dv6000 but before that I had a Dell. Both have/had NVIDIA graphics cards and I have NP whatsoever. As was stated, avoid integrated graphics.
Only think to watch is overheating but if you prop it up on a book, take care not to cover the fan holes!, you'll be fine.
If you feel unsure then you could do is go to your local PC store and as them to run an internet check using this link:
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest
This will run a check on the laptop to ensure it can run SL as well as a whole host of other applications.

Good luck

Thanks for the link, Dingthat. It looks very useful. I'm curious, though, how it arrives at its decisions. If it's just comparing the local machine specs to the listed minimum requirements, it might not necessarily be all that telling for SL, as the stated minimums are actually way too low for usability. Any idea?

I would think a cheap lap top would fair better those little notebooks really don't fare to well in the Ramm/CPU nor GPU.. I know the 945 intel runs it at bare min with a lot of lag.. the 950 at least back a few months was not according to many of the post...

whats that little asus going for now? I saw some for 299 and I could grab an older Toshiba satalight 15" for 349 with at least a better CPU and RAMM.

I now have a little ASUS eee 900 notebook. 900 MHz Intel Celeron processor.

I am running Nicholaz Old School.

With the included 1 GB of RAM, I got a washed out image that loaded a little slowly but not bad. W/ upgrade to 2 GB, I have a very good, simplified view. At home.

But travelling, I have been unable to connect with any regions. Don't know if related to restart. Will check when I get home Mon.

Sylvan

It may be network speed. I know when I take my notebook and use my cell phone as modem, I can not connect. The cell phone reports 2.4 as the max connect speed, and I think that is the problem. Maybe some hotels use a slow wireless connection? Don't know but its frustrating not to be able to get in world.
BT