Laptop Question.

Okay, So I am gettting sick of my <5 fps. I am sick of my stupid faulty keyboard and my dodgy ethernet wire. I am getting sick of having a crappy puter basically. It just keeps getting worse and worse.
So I have decided to go ahead and definitely buy a new one. I have been looking into it for a while, but I have just seen a laptop which could be a very good deal.
Problem is, The specs are making me dizzy. I think I have most of it down, but Im not sure about the graphics.
The notebook is a Dell Inspiron 1525 and the graphics card is a 'Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100' Is this ok? The last thing I want to do is buy a laptop and have it not run SL lol.

Thankyou

Sorry, but the Intel integrated graphics is pretty much a deal-breaker. SL just *barely* runs on any of the Intel graphics configurations. Although it's not complete, there's a comparison chart in http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/11/15/typical-frame-rate-performance-by-graphics-cardgpu/. Also, a search of "Intel" on the jira doesn't produce encouraging results. LL wants to expand SL's compatibility and continue to support low-end GPUs, but I wouldn't want to buy a new machine for the privilege of being on the bleeding edge of that initiative.

get a laptop with at least 2GB of RAM and a dedicated ATI or Nvidia graphics card in it.

poo

ok. so I will keep searching. Im guessing the nVidia and ATI are the best bets? hmmm. more searching...

Is there any practical reason for getting a laptop over a desktop? You can get more spec for your buck if you go for a desktop.

It's a bit rubbish, Claire.

Intel graphics chips are notoriously bad.

I think the X3100 is the G965 in this list:

I don't know, but I'd guess that while it would probably run, it might not be a lot better than you have now.

Someone will be along shortly to tell you that SL doesn't support that card and you should buy a $3000 gaming laptop or GTFO. My thoughts are that it depends on what you can afford. There may be something with better graphics abilities in your price range. I have run SL on a laptop that had nvidia 6100 graphics, which I think is still a kind of shared system thing, but a step up from intel. It worked ok, not amazingly.

Just space mainly. Means I can move around the flat. I have problems sitting still lol.
Not much room for a desktop, its a pretty small flat, but I will have a look at them anyway

I think you should buy a $3000 gaming laptop or GTFO

hmmm.....1500 squids....bit out of my range lol.

Will SL be its primary use? What's your budget? if you prefer not to state it in this thread, feel fre to PM me.

I came across this when I was shopping for a laptop for work. Right now there's a really good deal at Dell for a gaming compatible laptop. The key is you have to get it from the small business section -- they don't really care if you're a small business. They just package stuff differently--usually they don't offer 3d gaming video. This is a weird exception. It's the Vostro 1500 and you want to go to the cheapest version of that and then customize it to upgrade to an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 gigabyte of RAM, and most important the Nvidia 8600m GT video card. Then whatever else you want.

It's not an amazing gaming laptop or anything, but the 8600m GT is a pretty decent video for a laptop and you usually don't see them in a laptop that isn't a lot more expensive. It should run Second Life pretty well even with some of the windlight settings turned on. And the whole thing comes in under $900.

If you want to upgrade it to be even better, you could upgrade to a better screen or a bigger hard drive. But the CPU, memory, and Video are the things that will make a big difference for SL.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1500?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~tab=bundlestab

I hate to throw a monkey wrench into this discussion. But I like monkeys and wrenches.

I was advised that my intel chip set video was crashing SL for me. So I went out and bought a $450.00 video card with 512ram. I added an extra gig of memory to my machine. I haven't seen any difference in the performance of SL. If anything it has gotten worse.

If you can wait. I have an HP stock laptop (non-gamer). I'll load SL onto it and see what happens. It will have to be this weekend, when my daughter brings it home from college.

"CX"

What video card was this that you bought? Did you upgrade your drivers? That just doesn't sound right at all.

If you put a 512mb card in and you see no difference or worse difference - then something just isnt right!! I assume you know that you either need to disable the existing graphics driver or make the new graphics driver the default (depends on the systme). I recently upgraded from a 128mb to a 512mb card and boy! what a differenec. I could actually see the blades of grass!

I disabled the internal card.. I went all through this exercise.

Typically when I log in the entire world is gray or stuff is missing, people are all in white waiting for clothes to rezz. No increase of speed or detail. If I increase any of my settings I just crash faster.

"CX"

You might need to uninstall your old drivers. And if you haven't you should go to the manufacturer of the chipset of your new card (nvidia or ati) and get the latest set of drivers.

Thanks Katie, that looks good so I will look at that. Am in the UK though, so will have to find it from the main page. Shouldn't be much difference.

Hiro, yes, SL will be the main use, though I will be using it for a bit of photo editing. not much though. My budget is fairly low for the specs needed. £400 ish. £450 at the very limit.

A friend in Canada found a PC Clone laptop that was decently priced and actually had gamer-quality graphics - like a 512 MB VRAM Nvidia card. It was under $1000 US, but when I checked the US website for the same vendor, they didn't offer that model in the USA. I can't recall the manufacturer. I think it may have been Acer, or something like that?

So keep looking, as there are a few affordable gamer-quality PC laptops out there.

If the budget is tight, you will always get more performance for your money in a desktop, rather than a laptop.

QFT, while the Vostro is quite the deal for a laptop because they're offering the 8600M-GT with what is otherwise a low end computer, you can get an Inspiron with an 8600GT for around $750. $579 if you don't need the monitor. And that would have a faster processor and the non-mobile version of the 8600GT is a faster card than the mobile flavor.

Bith Dell and HP have laptops that have good graphics cards and lots of memory, pretty cheap.

note that graphics crds use a lot of energy, and therefore generate a lot of heat, and therefoer usually require a good lap cooling pad. (I use a big breadboard. There is a cool looking one called iLap (or something like that) that might be good.

As others have said, buy the best ISP/Netowrk connection you can afford.

I went with a new laptop for christmas, Hp with nvidea 512 and 2 gigs of ram running vista premium. Works like a charm so far

get the BFG 8800GTS OC2, it works well with SL

/me snickers and runs away