What specs does it take to run SL really well?

<boots his projector>
Damn it, 7' isn't big enough! I want a 10' screen! x.@;

I am on this kinda system and I feel it runs SL really well... altho there is always higher to fly! Yes I did it with a budget in mind, and explicitly wanted to experience it so I could help out better.

More info here.

VERY good point and one that isn't mentioned enough round here. Optimise your PC ! set it for performance over appearence, turn off all those unecessary network services, indexing, automatic updates, use a router with a hardware firewall, avoid IE and you can more or less get away without software firewalls and anti spyware assuming your pc is clean already. A fresh install of XP always helps too, don't install piles of rubbish on your machine, regularly defrag the HD.... the list goes on, but I've seen so many good spec machines running like a 286 on downers before any applications were even started from lack of housekeeping.

That said, my personal experience and from observation of the forums, you can't go wrong with AMD64 Athlon processors, nVidia chipset motherboards and nVidia graphics. They just seem to play well with eachother and SL. I don't often frequent really busy places but my fps are usually >30 & pretty much the only thing that slows me down is waiting for the asset server to send me the damn textures.

To those recommending dual core/ hyperthreading processors... unless the user is aware of the requirement to set the affinity for SL to one core, they may simply be making more problems for themselves at the moment.


AMD64 Athlon 3700+ (1Mb level 2 cache)
Asus A8N-SLI motherboard
nVidia 7800GT graphics card
2 Gig Crucial RAM

2Mb ADSL broadband

Deep Thought

I have that case Torley! I'm still trying to find the motivation to place that big stupid black air feeder thing into it. What a pain in the brain that is. I also snapped the door off it while shoving the DVD drive in from the back. I went a bit too far. Flimsy thing!!

Btw. anybody thinking of upgrading - Remeber, there is actually two power connectors for the motherboards now. I knew this freaking idiot that spent a few hours pondering over why his computer wouldn't start up before realizing that there was a 2nd power connector on the new motherboards. I wont tell you his name

Earth.

Craziness, next thing you know sound cards will need a seperate power cord just like some video cards. @.@

Yeah! All those fancy sound cards out there. I still use the integrated sound chips in the motherboards. I'm sure that if I secretly removed somebodies sound card and enabled their integrated sound while they wasn't looking. They'd not know the difference.

They'd be sat their with that smug look on their face and the big fat $400 headphones wrapped around their big fat head. Saying:- "The sound quality of my computer is just beautiful. I can even hear the butterflies fluttering amongst the flowers in the background as I blow people up with my Abrams tank".

Then I'd throw their soundcard onto their desk and call them a cunt. Although they'd not hear me because they'd still have their big fat head squashed by their big fat $400 headphones.

Oh, but it'd fun.

Yeah, my friend's got an SB Live! from back in the day, while I've got an onboard sound card (soundmax I think it is?). I swear mine is just as good, even has environmental audio.

The quality of on-board sound depends on the sound chip. The on-board sound that's on my AS Rock America K7VT4A Pro sounds like it's coming from a tin can, while the SB Live I'm using instead of it sounds beautiful, without any tinny sound.

As for system specs, so far my personal experience is that one's internet connection is generally more of an issue than the local hardware. (Later I'll have to beat on BellSuck^H^H^Houth.net about why my connection hasn't been upgraded yet, it's still a 256kbit connection.)

Recently upgraded my home computer from amd 2400+ nvida 5700 le 256 agp and gig ram to P4 3.2 dual core 3 Gig dual bank mem Nvida 7700 pcie running thru comcast cable modem 6 mps system. Much bettter now 19" LCD in digital makes it nice too.