Looking to buy a new computer

I will be looking into either building one or just buying a new system this weekend and was curious of what would fly like the wind on sl..mainly because if i can get sl to fly then everything else i use is going to really fly.

i know i want to stay with nividia because just about everything is compatable with nividia
and AMD processor because they have never let me down.the rest i am unsure of because of the changes that have taken place in computers since my last one was built..

i'm looking more for gaming speed but also something that i can run some programs while sl is running..
something powerful and with speed i guess hehehe..

any suggestions would be great
Thank you
Ceka<3

Dell 720 with dual video and max RAM

do NOT get the HC/hydrocooled. they overheat.

I can run background apps with Windlight on full render with minimal hiccups. (unless SL is borky, which means once a month I can do it...)

Any machine with a half-decent dual or quad-core processor, 2gb of RAM (ideally with room to expand) and a NVidia 8800 series graphics card should make a good machine for SL and gaming.

I've shopped for these described and I think I can swing getting a system like this, but -- I can't seem to find one that doesn't come with Vista as the OS. XP does not seem to be an option. Is there a trick to that?

Dell online let me configure with XP last month.

I am running SL on Vista and it works fine... So just make sure you get good Graphics Card and lots of memory.

.d

I've just got a new computer and SL crashes way too much. I'm using SLI and Vista 64 bit. I hear they're not a wonderful combination. But I really want the extra memory that 64 bit OS's provide and it has nothing to do with the nice shiny aero interface. Honestly it hasn't. *polishes my aero glass*

Crysis works fine though. So it must be LL's programmers pushing vista to breaking point.

my eyes just rolld out ofmy head and I cant type any futrher. brb

i just found out we have a place close by ..it's like a pawn shop but it is a place that people build really nice systems and soon as they are done put them in the shop..i heard the prices are great also..so i am going to take a look there saturday.

my brother inlaw was there and phoned me saying "you have to see this place it's awsome *heheheeh so i think it's worth a look..=)

Ok you may think this is silly, but as a result I have a very good game machine that runs SL brilliantly for about $500:

Bought an eMachines T5246 at Best Buy for $409
Upgraded the video card for $80

It has 2Gb of RAM. This option is way cheaper than configuring one for games from Dell. And did I mention it was cheap?

Also: Vista 32 is installed and runs great.

I recently built my own as follows:

-e6300 core duo 1.86 ghz processor (w/1066 fsb)
-nvidia 680i motherboard
-2 gigs ram
-2x nvidia 8600 gtx vid cards in SLI
-250 gig HD
-680w power supply

using windows xp cause i prefer it and already had it.

put it in a nice 5 fan antec ninehundred gaming case for decent cooling.

this is a budget build for the most part, right around $1000.

I run SL on ultra graphics using the windlight veiwer and have other applications running in the background quite frquently like my SAM3 broadcaster for DJ'ing and sometimes i-tunes or even limewire. Has not let me down yet. And on top of it the motherboard gave me lots of room for expansion.

Good luck with whatever u decide!

That was pretty cool! (I prefer XP Pro myself). It is great that people can see how low you can go with a new system and still get good performance with SL, thumbs up for that!