New PC

I have seen a hundred threads on this but none anywhere near new so I'll be a pest and start a new one
I'm looking at buying a new pc and want some advice as to what will run sl without being a total pain.
I have been playing on a site that lets you start from the ground up and build but i'm slightly pc illiterate so was looking for some suggestions on CPU, RAM, and such oh and power supply.
Any advice would be appreciated thanks.

Your country of origin? Budget?

Pep (These are small but important facts which suggest you may need more help than you realise.)

US, and budget is 1500-2000US

sorry meant to put that in there
/me still rubbing sleep from eyes

So your budget is $2000 US then. The $1500 is redundant.

Pep ("Up to 100% off" can mean nothing off.)

PS I'm in the UK so I can't help with the purchasing recommendations, but I would suggest that the most important thing for SL is a high-spec graphics card, then lots of RAM; the rest is fairly irrelevant.)

Adding to what Pep said: a high-spec *NVIDIA* graphics card. ATi cards do not work well with SL. The rest of the machine doesn't have to be cutting edge, but plenty of RAM and an up-to-date CPU are a good idea.

A lot of the time you'll find your machine isn't the bottle-neck and other factors slow you down, so having a fast PC won't always cure lag.


edit: at a very rough estimate (I'm not in the US either) a GeForce GTX260 with around a gig of video RAM, an Intel i7 Quad-core CPU and 4-8GB of RAM should be well within your budget. That should include a good 24" monitor for the price, and make sure the PSU is good enough to support the rest of the hardware (600W+).

Thanks very helpful. those are the ideas i was leaning to anyway. I prefer the Nvidia.

In addition to the usual Newegg and Tiger Direct (even CompUSA) sites try Magic MICRO:

http://www.googlebb.magicmicro.com/pricelist.asp?cid=88&gclid=CP_02dS255gCFRwDagod-3wrcw

On that site you can play around with different components to build your computer and it will give you a running total as you add/substract devices. If a budget like yours you can put together quite a hefty machine. Unlike some I suggest you do go for a high performance CPU.......true a simple dual core CPU will work for SL but with a $2000 computer you might as well make it as obsolete proof as possible (you never know what requirements might in the works later in the computer's life expectancy). As stated, a high end GPU, a high wattage PS (stick with major brands), motherboard with plenty of expansion slots (not less than two PCI-e slots), as much RAM as you can cram into it (most high end MB's will accept 8 gigs), and something a lot of people overlook......a GOOD case (for cooling).

You can get pretty glitzy but remember most of that glitz is just added expense with no performance attached to it......neon lights, fancy buttons with LED's are non performance add ons (pretty? yes.......necessary? no). There are components in your existing computer that can probably be moved to the new one. Things like hard drives, monitors, keyboards, mice, network interface cards, etc. All those things can be purchased later if needed.......those devices can be trade offs when you get over budget or nearing your limit. If you go with the old HD there are free wiping programs to wipe the drive of all traces of data before installing in your new computer (as close to a new drive as can reasonably be expected without actually getting one). Another thing you can do with your HD is to get a new one and install the old one as a second drive. You will need to know the interface of the old drive (EIDE or SATA) to make sure it will work with your new motherboard.....high end MB's mostly support both interfaces but check that to make sure if you want to use your old drive.

On the video card, I'd go for nothing less than a 250 nVidia...........however remember video cards tend to get outdated pretty quickly. Getting a $400 video card will not guarantee that next year it won't be a $50 card that a "new" $150 card would put to shame in performance. The nVidia 250GT is a rebranded 9800GTX+................the 250 is probably 50% more than a 9800GTX+ with no performance increase. Since video cards seem to be the devices that get obsoleted the quickest I would say get as high end as you can reasonably afford.......shop around but stay away from the really expensive ones (they might be better, but there is a point where your eye will not see that "better"......not in SL anyway). $200 bucks (maybe a little more) is about my limit.

Video cards bring up power supplies. Get a BIG wattage one. For performance you need lots of power..........and there is no such thing as too much power. The minimum I's suggest is 800 watts...........but, if you can afford 1000 (or more) then go for it. Power supplies are realively cheap and they transfer to new machines quite easily............get a good one with lots of power and it can transfer to several new computers down the road saving you money in the long run. Also, a 1000 watt PS will run cooler with a load of 500 watts than a 650 watt PS loaded the same.....heat is an electronic device killer.

Those are my thoughts. Hehe........wish I had a $2000 budget for a new computer.

Good luck and have fun putting your dream machine together.

A good suggestion. For a Core i7 system, the RAM is triple-channel, so I would get 6 GB as 3x2 GB cards. 12 GB is overkill for anything aside from heavy rendering (video and CAD work) and at the moment isn't really worth the expense. If you have 6 memory slots, you can always increase memory when the prices come down if you need it.

I would also suggest looking carefully at the cooling for your system. I would avoid a mini-tower case (many of which are too small for the GTX 260 anyway) and get a mid- or full-tower with a 120mm+ inlet fan that pulls air from the front over the hard drives and another large exhaust fan. The more air it moves, the cooler your system will run.

It's NOT SL!! Heaven forbid. It has to be YOUR computer!! LMAO.

I know someone who owns multiple sims and is about to ditch them all and leave because of your problem. They can't stay in the game without crashing..they lose music continually...packet loss...they've paid a fortune for computer techs to check their system. It is NOT their system which is state of the art. It is SL.

I suggest you start liquidating your assets in world if you have any. It's obvious your money isn't wanted.

Someone needs a hug. And more RAM. More RAM always helps.

I'm not buying the pc FOR sl i just want it to run smoother, the pc i have is 6 yrold. so its time for a upgrade.

Blue Mars employee?

BOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!