Designing a new comp for SL/gaming/school -- advice?

Right, so, sometime this summer I'm going to be building, from scratch, an entirely new computer.

My current rig, a pentium 4 2.6 ghz/1 gig ram/Geforce 6600 is nice and all, but... it's old. By my accounts I think I got the mobo/cpu in January of 2004. Since then I've gone through two power supplies, a hard drive, a CD burner, and 2 video cards.

Essentially it's cobbled together, messy, and rickety. I'm out of USB ports, I don't have SATA, I have one AGP slot. The case is kinda bent a little bit so it makes resonating noises against the power supply's fans. I lost the side a year and a half ago. I think there's a cobweb underneath the hard drives. The hard drives, speaking of, are only mounted with one screw a piece; the case won't fit the other one.

I call it the Frankenputer.

Basically I need a complete and total overhaul.

So, what should I look for? Assume that I use my PC primarily for Second Life; I also surf the web and do email and all that, but that's peanuts compared to SL/gaming. I do the occasional game sometimes, so I'd like it to be good for at least another two years.

I also don't want to get super-cutting-edge top of the line stuff that costs 1000 bucks per processor. A generation behind would be fine, though.

So, what's good? What should I be looking for? I humbly submit this project to the will of the SL technogeeks.

Go forth and have fun!

Geesh!! SO many options to chose from!

Motherboard- So many to pick! Just dont go too cheap on this one. And if you go with an ASUS motherboard, just remember they're picky about the RAM.

On the CPU side- AMD processors. PLUS, they're dropping the prices a bit. You could go with Dual Core, but games/SL/Internet doesnt really make use of the 2nd processor. Also, the single cores are cheaper. Maybe an Athlon64 3200 or 3500? Cheap yet fast.

I'd go into Intel but they lost me when they introduced the LGA775 Motherboards. One mistake, one bit of pressure in the wrong spot & the motherboard is Kaput!

Video cards- Go with PCI-E (PCI-Express). AGP is slowly going away. As a bonus, with an Nvidia Video card, look for one that's able to be run in SLI Mode. Then you buy one and later on, when you have more money to spend, buy another of the same make & model & run them TOGETHER as one. AGP is still good for a while though. If you really have to go that way: GeForce 6800 is not bad at all. They make a GeForce 7800 GS that's AGP. A bit expensive but should hold up for a while.

RAM- 2 Gigs. I went from 1 Gig of RAM to 2 and saw a big difference in SL.
Some people will tell you go for the Big Name Brand RAM, even though cheaper RAM works pretty well, is less finicky. I went with Wintec & havent had a problem.

Power Supply- 500 Watt Minimum. If you plan on using SLI or PCI-E, then consider even higher wattage. I've seen the newer ones that go up to 1 KiloWatt. Not cheap tho.

And as always- Check around on prices.

Dont feel too bad, my DVD Burner is old. Like 1x. Paid almost $300 for it a few years back. Now they're like 16X and $40!

MY rig is going on nearly a year now (could be more my memory sucks).. Asus p4c800 E delux 1gb ram SATA hdd Asus 9800xt on a p4 2.8ghz processor..
one tweak I use is to partition off a space on my hard drive and format it at FAT16 for use as my pagefile.. I havent not had it like this since over a year so I forget wether or not it impacts performance

I play Elderscrools at 1024x768 at full detail exept HD lighting (card doesnt support it) at 18 frames a second in the great outdoors a good 40 indoors.. no hitching.. unbelievable performance IMO.. next PC I build I will go with asus again...
its difficult to gauge a systems gfx pushing power with SL seing as its so Network intencive.. but as youd expect it runs fine on with draw distance on full when Im on private islands or low traffic areas

one problem with them though.. the fans tend to be a bit on the flakey side.. my gfx card fans have gone twice in its lifetime thus far.. but I wont complain seing the performance I get from a moderatly old card..

"On the CPU side- AMD processors. PLUS, they're dropping the prices a bit. You could go with Dual Core, but games/SL/Internet doesnt really make use of the 2nd processor. Also, the single cores are cheaper. Maybe an Athlon64 3200 or 3500? Cheap yet fast. "

Wrong, and I have posted several screenshots of Task Manager to prove it. SL DEFINITELY benefits from a Dual Core Processor if correctly set up.

Personally I use an AMD 64 x2 3800 overclocked to 2.4GHz (runs approx. as fast as an x2 4600) and an NVidia 7800GT, and experience a minimum of client lag.

From a value point of view, especially in the light of your requirements, I would suggest you look at the Intel D805 Dual Core processor ($130) with a motherboard with the 955 chipset (newegg shows an Abit costing around $85. For your Video Card I would recommend a 6800, 7600GT or better. All round, if you want very good gaming/multitasking usage, the x2 3800 is an excellent choice.

Following link is to an article in Tom's Hardware about overclocking the D805, and it is indeed an impressive performance for a $130 CPU.

/111/c2/106697/1.html

Following link shows my system without SL running:

http://baartman.us/General/Control_TM_04292006.htm

And this one is with SL:

http://baartman.us/General/Task_Manager_04292006.htm

Following is a shot of a friend's Intel Dual Core in SL:

http://baartman.us/General/Sazzy_SL_Taskmanager.doc

Now, Do the same with virtually ANY single core, and you will find SL pegs it solidly at 100% utilization.

I'm very happy with my:
which I acquired several months ago with Second Life in mind, and also, I am price-conscious. More info here on why I chose this.

I don't know if you're getting a new monitor, LF, but I recently got a Samsung SyncMaster 204B and it is NICE.

I just go by practical experience and this is what I enjoy.

Hi well in connection with with this post, Im building my new pc tomorrow. Just hope SL will run on it

AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4400
RADION 512MB X1900XTX
500GB MAXTOR HARD DISK
ABIT AT8 32X XFIRE M/BOARD
4GB CORSAIR MEM


Now i do have a question, when i rip my old pc with SL apart. What files to I have to save for SL on my new pc. Or do I just have to reinstall and all my files/objects are kept on your servers.

My only advice when building a pc is buy as much memory as you can afford and the best graphics card if you want to play games for the next few years. They are getting very graphic intensive but look amazing.

I have a 5 years old icomputer as of April 2006 It still runs SL at about 20FPS

I'm starting my research on a new rig right now for SL and also for all my DB design + webdesign and stuff.

This is very over the top and big money, but hey, I like toys! I don't have any exact brands of specs yet... but i'll be sure to keep everyone posted!

Desktop:
Dual dualcore AMD CPUs (64bit if possible $ and tech wise)
Probably Raid 1 SATA 300 (maybe raid 5 if I don't get my 'server' built)
x3 Nvidia capable vid cards with DVI dual monitor out (each)
misc... dvd USB and all that junk
UPS to protect all that $
and last but not least... probably going to start with x1 30inch LCD + x2 21inch side panels, moving up to a total of 6 screen when $ is permitting. (might just stick with 4 though)

Server:
I wanted to build a raid 5 array on a box. (with 1000mbit LAN) People on IRC keep hitting me and getting mad at me for using HDDs instead of DVDs This probably wont happen because i'll be broke after buying 3 giant LCD screen and the video cards to run them

Anyways, this is the dream rig, as I said I ilike toys and overkill! (i've had my computer here for over 5 years and she's still going)

Don't overclock!!! Kinda skews the results. And why overclock for a 0.4 increase??

Saw the pic. It shows 54%. So what about the other core? Is it at 46%?

If the OP has a set budget, then dual core may be out of range.

"If correctly set up"... This is true. However from what I've been noticing, most people wouldn't know what that means.

I like your choice of Processors.
Intel has really dropped prices. If it keeps up my next build will be Intel.


People should also keep in mind Lag has many many many many many factors:
Your system, net traffic, your connection speed, where you're at in SL, where your at on the planet, etc, etc.

Something first, AMD whooooooops Intel Price for speed AMD > Intel Can you tell I buy AMD ;D



I hope net speed doesn't affect your comp I always tell people about the big 3. CPU, Ram and Video card all packaged with a motherboard that can handle the traffic between them. All of these should be in the same performance range, if not you're just creating a bottle neck and wasting your money. (some will argue that HDD should be in this, however HDDs are always slow compaired to the big 3. Prety much, the fast the HD the better. always above 7200 RPM and SATA 300 if you can. If you want more speed, raid it up)

I laugh at people who spend big $$$ on CPU speeds and go with on-board vid cards or cheap out on ram.

All your inventory is kept on the Second Life servers. You don't have to copy anything to make it come over to the new computer. Just put a nice fresh installation of the SL client on the new system.

If you have SL-related files on the old computer that you downloaded (for example, the avatar templates from the SL web site), you will naturally want to copy those.

Thanks Shirley, thats just what I wanted to hear. I dont think ive downloaded any SL related stuff but will check all the same. I'll see you all again in a few days providing I havn't blown myself up building this new machine

Regarding dual-core or dual-CPU - it /does/ help, even though SL's threading is a bit weak - the system's doing other stuff at the same time, and having another CPU to run it on can smooth things out quite a bit. Moreover, if you ever wanna run two instances of SL, having multiple CPUs really helps.

My current setup:

CPUs: 2x AMD Opteron 250
Motherboard: Tyan Thunder K8WE
RAM: 4x 1024MB Crucial PC3200/REG/ECC
Video Cards: 2x EVGA E-GeForce 7800GT 256MB
Disks: 1x 146GB 10k RPM SCSI, 4x 400GB 7200RPM SATA in RAID-5
Audio: Audigy4 Pro
OS: Gentoo Linux 2006.0 AMD64 with Xorg 7.0 Using usually the Linux client, but sometimes the Windows one in WINE. (Linux client == better framerate, alpha works. Windows client == faster rezzing, less bugs)

My biggest snag is my stupid internet connection, which is ISDN (cry!) but otherwise, the setup works great!

How's the Tyan motherboard holding up? Is it any good? Any troubles?

So far, so good. Had one problem which I traced to a broken second video card. RMA'd that, problem solved.

One absolutely severe benefit to getting a dual-core setup is if you multitask a lot. Content creators who run Photoshop at the same time as SL will benefit heavily. I've definitely noticed a lot of positive difference. LF do you run anything else heavy?

with CPUs out right now, its better to build an AMD system than an Intel system for performance. That most likely will not be the case in a few months, as Intles new chips are coming out starting next month. In July they should have the new desktop proceossrs (Core 2 Duo) chips out that are extremely good performers. AMD announced today they will have new designs out to compete with these new intel chips but not until next year.

Mostly winamp, IRC, and Opera. Oh, and instant messengers; AIM, MSN.

So no, nothing obscenely heavy.