Laptop advice

Im looking to buy a new laptop and wondered if any residents ( or Lindens) have any advice or could recommend one that covers all the sl requirements and specs - I would greatly appreciate any advice as im mindblown by the variety i have looked at lol.

Hoping for good info also as I hope to get a new laptop for the holidays (rubbing hands together )

You might need to consider how much you are willing to pay for a notebook first. SL can run on any of todays recent models. But some important things to look out for

i) Go for one with an Nvidia graphics processor.
ii) At least 1Gb of RAM. More if you are a content creator working with Photoshop and such. You'll need the RAM to run both SL and other applications at once smoothly.
iii) If you always use it in an environment with lots of bright ceiling lights, try and avoid the glossy LCD screens. Nothing to do with performance but may affect your comfort.

I like this but it can be pricey. The FE series are okay too, at a more affordable price point.

http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/subcategory/notebooks/ar-series

Much to my chagrin, I recently bought the new HP Pavillion d/9000. Dual core processor, 2 Gbytes memory, nVidia 7300 (iirc) vid card with 256 mB. All in all, it's running SL better than my old desktop (an Inspiron 8200 with 1 Gb memory), and absolutely the best performance in SL I've seen on any laptop. FPS averages around 25 (with a 128m draw distance) and has peaked at over 105 fps (standing in Korea looking at the ocean). Damned good for a laptop, IMHO. Problem is that this puppy isn't one of your cheap 500 buck laptops. Be prepared to spend around 1500 USD for this beast. (But personally, I find the 17" widescreen to be worth the extra money in and of itself. LOL)

Kam

ty so much for advice - im aware i will have to spend a lil extra and being in the uk prolly more than u guys in the usa Im willing to do this as it willl be used for work as well as play , anything to not have the kids moaning that they want to get on the net LOL i know the specs i need but having advice like uve given - personal experiences and recommendations are invaluable. ty

I don't have a specific suggestion, since I'm not a specs kinda gal.

Dell's laptop's have been very good to me for gaming, the... XPS I believe runs SL fairly well and comperable to about a 12-18 month old high end computer.

Alienware bad. Yes, I know Dell bought Alienware, but they have not yet currently changed anything about the brand. All Alienwares that are supposed to be for gaming are horrific for SL (and many new games).

I was thinking probably around 2k for the laptop. I have a great system now but it's time for an upgrade in general as I can't run SL with any other fat applications....

Thanks for the advice

I'll second Kamael. I bought an HP Pavillion 9000 series with 2gig, 17", etc. except it is a nVidia 7600. It's a beauty; puts my two year old desktop, and it's video to shame in every possible way.

But my initial thought for a new laptop was going to be a $500usd one to do writing and programming... then decided one to allow the wife and I to play games together and to use for Second Life.

The temperature definitely runs hot, though, especially running SecondLife. Even a hard surface does not always give me enough cooling air flow; Straight on the lap is a no go. (Targus has a USB air-flow laptop holder that I'm going to get.)

If you are doing mail order, Dell has a customizeable one with the nVidia 7900 available. I priced that out trimming the edges for around 1200, the HP from Best Buy was > 1500

Don't go for less than an nVidia 7300. ATI has some higher end graphics cards, too, but I'm not sure if they are achieving the same price points.

I also have an HP notebook (ZD 8000 series), and aside from the ATI graphics adapter, it was exactly what I needed in a computer.

The HP's and the Dells are both good, and both have product lines that let you choose between ATI and nVidia graphics chips.

As others have commented: the more RAM and disc space, the better. Also, if you can, make sure you get a graphics adapter with dedicated memory, NOT shared memory.

I use several lollipop sticks (clean of course) to prop up the laptop off the desk about 1/2 inch when it's getting hot. Seems to do the trick.. I suppose you could use pencils, or um... other woodenish stuff.. god it's late...

Similar to the others I am atlast in the process of upgrading my laptop.

I currently run a powermac G4 which obviously struggles to cope with SL at the best of times.

I have priced up two machines with dell and was wondering what ppl thought would be the best to go for. There is not much difference in price between the two.

The Inspiron comes with Due Processor (2ghz), 2bg memory, GeForce Go 7900 (256mb) and the XPS with Duo Processor (2,16ghz), 1 GB memory GeForce Go 7950 GTX (513mb)

Specifically, should I go for the XPS and sacrifice a Gb of ram for the better graphics card or should go for the Inspiron?

Thanks in advance

Hi Miles, not sure what configurations you are comparing. From Dell's website, I can't get the XPS (M1710) and the Inspiron(E1705) prices to match up. Just upgrading to the 7950 takes the XPS to $2700. But the Inspiron hits around $2100 with the 7900. That's starting from base configuration on both and matching processor and hard drive. Dell's so-called "gaming enthusiast" bundle on the Inspiron tucks in some items that don't really make sense.

Ignoring that for the moment and presuming I'm looking at something wrong... I'd lean towards the 2gig memory, it'll get used. Especially if you plan to follow the Vista software upgrade down the line. On the other hand you could maximize video now and catch up the memory later.

Maker, I am looking at the UK website, hence the price difference (I think) and slightly diff spec.

Thanks for the advice, will be taking the plunge soon and looking forward to an improved SL experience.

Sure thing, Miles;

I had pounded every site I could doing my research and was mostly concerned that you might be getting some unneeded software snuck in on you for the Inspiron or that maybe you were looking at the smaller screen size for the XPS and not realizing it.

p.s. I was curious to see the UK site, I think their upcharge on the 1gb memory is brutally high. At the US site it is 165 dollars compared to 212 pounds ($400). Based on that I'd go XPS w/ 7950.

I just got the same, last Friday. Mine is a 512 7600 nvidia card, though. $1450. I shopped pretty hard, to get the right one, and this is the one I ended up with.

I personally recommend Dell if money is a factor in your decision. I've looked around, Dell pricing is hard to beat, especially if you find a good coupon. (Weekly coupons are posted at www.techbargains.com)

If I had to buy a new laptop today, I like the Inspiron E1705. I have the last generation version of it, which has treated me well, other than the Sony exploding battery issue. (Mine didn't explode though

I'd skip on the XPS's - it's a bit more kit for a lot more money. You really pay a premium for the performance. And as far as SL goes - SL is a lot more CPU constrained than graphics constrained - you won't get your money's worth out of an XPS if you primarily want to play SL.

What Maker said about memory at Dell is correct - what a lot of people do is to get the machine from Dell, and order memory seperately. (Even going to Dell parts is often cheaper than having it included with your machine - go figure)

Maker, Francis - thank you for your time and comments.

Decision time soon, good old UK pricing - may well retro fit the addtional memory.

I've doubled checked the spec and am going for the 17" machines and have got software etc that I need (have to use it for a little work!), no apparent 'hidden' extras.

thanks all for the help - was particularly grateful for the advice on the dell -'gaming bundle' as to my untrained eye thought that might be the one to go with - so am i right in persuming even if i buy one of the dell ones i need to upgrade it?

lol miles im uk to - do you fancy buying urs first then telling me if its ok? rofl

So this machine in the link would be acceptable for SL? http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/VGN-AR250G

OK - how about these specs for the Dell Inspiron E1705?
- Intel® Core™ Duo T2250 (1.73GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB)
- Windows XP Pro
- 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
- 160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
- 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS

Gillian,

That Sony would work, but has only 128mb of video memory.

OK - but the Dell specs beneath that would be OK?

Yes, the Dell looks solid to me.

Thank you!

Yeah, I checked, mine's the 7600 too.

As for heat issues, yeah, mine does run hot (as I found out when trying to use the thing on a flight home from Thanksgiving this weekend). So I bought one of those laptop cooler thingys (you sit the laptop on top of it and it ventilates the computer) last night. Haven't tried it in my lap yet, but it's kicking the heat out across my desktop quiet nicely. (And this time of year in Ohio, that's a really nice thing that's made my cats extremely happy.)

Kam