What computer should I get?

My current 3-year old desktop computer is still going strong, but its starting to get wobbly under Second Life and there are some windlight features I am unable to use. I also want to start getting into 3D rendering software so I need some decent specs anyways. (AMD Athlon 3000+ running at 2.04, 1 Gig RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5700 LE, 250 watt power supply).

So - looking for suggestions/recommendations. Price is fairly flexible but I want to keep it sane (yes, I know that's a subjective measure ;-P).

You have asked a very open-ended question, so it's hard to give a precise answer. But here are some guidelines anyway...

Video card: for a serious SL computer an NVidia 8800GT is the lowest-end card you should be considering now. You should be able to get one for under $150. The 9800GTX would be a moderate step-up from there; I've seen them for at little as $200. If you've got more money to spend, you could think about an SLI setup or a 9800GX2 (essentially an SLI pair of 9800GTX cards on a single board).

You weren't asking about budget systems, but for those on even more limited budgets an 8600GT or a 9600GT aren't bad. But I'd think I'd stretch to the 8800GT if at all possible.

CPU: At a moderate budget, the Core 2 Duo E7200 (2.53GHz, $129 or less) and E8400 (3.00 GHz, $189 or less) are both very nice. If you're willing to spend more, go quad. At the $200 level choosing between the E8400 and the Q6600 is tough; with a little more to spend you could step up to a Q9300 ($250) or a Q9450 ($300). Beyond that it's diminishing returns.

AMD CPUs can't quite match the general performance of Intel at the moment, but you can still do well if you're an AMD fan. With AMD's line price is an excellent performance guideline; they've done a good job of scaling the price and performance to match. If you're looking at a triple or quad core model, make sure to get one with a model number ending in "50" rather than "00"; the latter (earlier design) have a bug that seriously hurts performance unless you're running Linux.

Balancing CPU and video: my personal guideline for a balanced gaming system is to spend about the same amount of money on each, plus or minus a bit.

Motherboard: stick with quality brands and it's hard to go too badly wrong; just make sure to choose one with a reasonably modern chipset, rather than something that's been lying around for a long time. Check the CPU compatibility (look online, literature that comes with the board is almost certain to be out of date) if in doubt about whether the motherboard supports the CPU you want. Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte are all good choices. Intel sells motherboards under its own brand as well; they are good if you're planning to run your CPU at stock speed, but no good for overclocking because their BIOSes don't usually offer much flexibility.

If you're thinking about putting together an SLI setup now or later, make sure to buy a compatible motherboard.

Memory: 2GB at the very least. 32-bit Windows can't use more than 3GB, but the next buying step up from 2GB is 4GB, and it's still pretty cheap. (The extra gigabyte just goes to waste until you upgrade to a 64-bit OS; in the Windows world, I don't recommend that yet for most users.) At moderate price levels I'd stick with DDR2/800 memory; you pay a big price premium for DDR2/1066 to get a very small performance gain, and you'll get more bang for your buck spending the $50 or $100 elsewhere.

OS: unless you're having something custom built, you're pretty much stuck with Vista, though you might find some old stock systems with XP. Fortunately, by now Vista works OK; you'll need more RAM than an equivalent XP system would need, but if you have 2GB or more you'll be fine.

Other stuff: buy a DVD burner; you'll need some sort of optical drive anyway and it's only $30-35. Don't bother with a sound card unless you plan to set up a serious music listening or movie watching system or play games other than Second Life; the compressed sounds used in Second Life aren't high enough quality to justify the expense. Get a decent USB headset if you want to do SL voice; it's the lowest hassle way to go. If you choose to go with a non-USB headset you'll want a sound card, because the inputs on most motherboards are awful. Get a good keyboard and mouse; your hands will thank you.

A quiet, energy-efficient computer for about US$1070 delivered (if you're in the US), if you're willing to build it yourself or know a geek who'll do it for you:

Case: Antec Solo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129018
This is a favorite among quiet computing enthusiasts.

PSU: ENERMAX PRO82+ 425W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194033
Also popular for silent computing, and more than enough for a video card more powerful than the one I'm going to recommend.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337
Will not do SLI, but if you decide to go that way you're only out $90 for this board. IMO SLI sucks too much juice (generates too much heat and noise) for a system you'll have powered on for non-gaming tasks.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
With the above motherboard you can under-volt (not under-clock) this CPU for additional power savings. Very efficient and fast.

CPU cooler: Scythe SCNJ-1100P (Ninja)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185038
With the above processor you don't need a fan on this heatsink. It comes with a good one, though, and you'll use that fan to replace the exhaust fan on the case.

You don't absolutely need it, but there's a bolt-thru kit for a different manufacturer's CPU cooler that works wonderfully for this cooler. Easier to install and more secure, and I've included it in my cost estimate:
http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?productid=3605

Video card: ECS N9600GT-512MX-P GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134040
The 9600 gives performance almost as good as an 8800 but uses less power and generates less heat. Silent computing enthusiasts like to put an Accelero passive cooler on the 9600 (and also the 8800), and this card comes with one already on it. Kinda pricey, and you can get an 8800 instead for this price if you want. I got this when it was on sale.

Fan: Scythe SY1225SL12L 120mm "Slipstream" Case Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185057
You'll mount this on the back of your hard drive cage. It'll draw cool air in the case, across your HD (which doesn't really need it, but whatever), and blow on your video card and motherboard. Unlike the fan on most video cards, this one is large, low-rpm, and you won't hear it. That's the whole point of getting a video card without a fan.

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218
Probably overkill, but this is a nice, quiet drive.

DVD Burner: SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151154

OS: Win Vista Home Premium, OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485
Be aware that OEM copies can not be moved to a new computer. If you make too many simultaneous upgrades to your computer Microsoft will refuse to authenticate it. Full versions are more expensive.

You probably won't build this system, but I thought you'd like to know you can get premium parts (in this case optimized for silence) for the low end of your price range. Use that to compare what you'll get from Dell or whatnot.

Edit: The easiest place to save money here is on the case and power supply, if silence isn't your goal. And even if it is. The Solo/Enermax combo is pretty expensive, and Antec sells cases with perfectly good power supplies for $130 or so.

You have asked a very open-ended question, so it's hard to give a precise answer. But here are some guidelines anyway...

QUOTE]

my problem is figuring out (1) Is there any upgrade I could do that would improve my SL experience, and (2) Which upgrade would give me the most improvement for the money. I have read everything I could find that might address these issues, and I am still in the dark.

My computer:

Antec 650 watt PSU
EVGA 780i motherboard, which supports:
Quad core processors with up to 1.3 gHz FSB
8 Gb DDR2 1200 mHz RAM
SLI with up to 3 graphics cards
Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU
Nvidia 8800 GTX grapics adapter with 768 MB
2 7200 RPM 3.0 GBps HSs in RAID 1 array
64 bit Vista Business

I have a 6 MBps DSL connection; it isn't unusual the see file downloads at 6 mbps.

I know this is a pretty good system already, but I don't know that my SL experience is as good as it can be. If, for a reasonable amount of money, I can improve it, I want to. OTOH, I don't want to spend a lot of money for nothing.

Obviously, there is a big choice of possible upgrades, and I don't know if any of them would help. I could get a faster quad core CPU; I could get 1 or 2 more graphics cards (and maybe a bigger PSU) and run SLI; I could get a more advanced graphics card (or 3); I could expand RAM to 6 or 8 GB; I could get faster RAM; I could ger faster HDs.

Can anyone make a suggestion about ehat would help, or about how to figuire out what would help?

Thanks.

My computer:

Antec 650 watt PSU
EVGA 780i motherboard, which supports:
Quad core processors with up to 1.3 gHz FSB
8 Gb DDR2 1200 mHz RAM
SLI with up to 3 graphics cards
Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU
Nvidia 8800 GTX grapics adapter with 768 MB
2 7200 RPM 3.0 GBps HSs in RAID 1 array
64 bit Vista Business

I have a 6 MBps DSL connection; it isn't unusual the see file downloads at 6 mbps.

OS: unless you're having something custom built, you're pretty much stuck with Vista, though you might find some old stock systems with XP. Fortunately, by now Vista works OK; you'll need more RAM than an equivalent XP system would need, but if you have 2GB or more you'll be fine.

While it is a myth that you can build a cheaper computer than buying one,