Explanation of Sim 'Class' plz

I'm considering buying an island and can't seem to find information on what the classes of sims mean 3, 4, 5 etc. Any info is appreciated.

LL doesn't just go down to the local computer shop and buy hardware that looks good - they've got pretty specific specs for what the servers that run SL look like. Class 5 is the latest hardware recipe that runs sims. Class 4 a bit older. Class 3 is even older.

AFAIK, you can only order class 5 sims from LL now. If you want a class 4, you'd have to find somebody with one and buy it from them.

Fear not. All Islands are Class 5 sims. This means they are on Class Five servers. All I know about that is that they are the newest available and have less lag and can allow more avatars to be on them at once. You needn't worry about the other classes as they refer to older servers supporting sims on the Mainland.

thank you Sindy, so newer is better then?

Buying a new sim from LL is a better deal than buying a used sim for a cheaper price?

thanks Lord!

If you can get an island at the old price and lower gradfathered monthly tier level, go for it. You won't notice the performance difference unless you plan on holding raves with lots of blingy avatars on your island.

AFAIK, the Mainland is all Class 5 now, there are no more Class 3, and Class 4 is only for the older island owners who are paying the old (cheaper) island tier fee.

As of a month/so ago, there are still a number of class 4's on the mainland.. From the way my home behaves, I think they're still there..

edit: /me finds the blog post here - http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/03/22/temporary-outage-affecting-160-regions/ - which mentions a reboot of a rack of 160 class 4 servers. My mainland home sim is on this list.

All NEW islands are class 5. Old-rate islands (the ones that pay $195 tier) might run on the older classes of servers.