Using Laptop For SL

I was wondering if anyone knows of any laptops in the $600 range tht will run SL. On my one HP Laptop SL wouldn't even start. My fathers, which i'm borrowing, SL starts up but crashes after approx 5 min. I now in both cases it the graphics cards. I know some of the more expensive laptops will run SL but i can't find any cheap one that will and $600 is the most i can afford. Thank you for any help you can give.

SL generally runs the processor and graphics card at their full capacity. They generate a lot of heat, and this can degrade and eventually damage components, especially batteries. So, a laptop isn't a very good choice for a primary SL machine, IMHO. That said, I do SL on a Powerbook G4 with few serious problems. The battery was already cooked

I've read that Intel on-board graphics chipsets don't do well with SL, nor do ATI graphics currently. So I'd look for something that mentions GeForce graphics. Good luck!

Thank You for the Reply. All The ones i have looked at so far have ATI but now i know to look for geforce thank you that helps. I'm not to worried about the battery because i never use one, i always plug into the wall.

load SL on a thumb or jump drive.
ask the store clerk if you can try it out - just tell him/her you need to know if the program will run "for work". if they say no then find another store or salesman.

ATI or nvida, either work with the correct chip and driver.

Always remember, if it doesnt say it on the box, it probably wont work (my rule of thumb) so check the SL RECOMMENED specs, print them and bring them along.

as a note - Vista works just fine with SL on a new computer/laptop as long as the most current drivers are installed and the chipset is compatible with SL.

Unfortunately, pretty much everything in the $600 class has integrated graphics. Intel integrated graphics are officially Not Supported, they may or may not work at all in any given release. (When they do work, they seem to be reasonably fast but suffer from visual anomalies.) Recent ATI integrated graphics work reliably with SL, but they're horribly slow (and yes, I really mean HORRIBLE). I haven't tried SL with any NVidia integrated graphics setups; those might be better.

If you can afford to get up more toward $1000 and get a laptop with a separate GPU, it will work much better for Second Life. I've been eyeing the new Dell Vostro 1500 (new series of laptops for the small business market, but they'll sell one to an individual if you want it), which can be had with an NVidia 8600GT. But with 2GB RAM and the 8600, it's over $900, not $600, even with the slowest CPU.

It's easy to find a $600 desktop that will run SL without no trouble, but finding a $600 laptop is going to be a lot tougher because of the issues fitting everything into a tiny chassis without heat issues. Laptops are still going to give you a lot less "horsepower" for the money spent than desktops (though not quite as huge of a difference as 5-10 years ago).

If a desktop computer is an option at all, it will be very easy to find a nice gaming desktop in the $600 range, but for a laptop you are really looking more in the $1200+ range. You MIGHT find one close to $900, but I'd doubt a $600 one is going to have much luck.

One other thing about laptops: It's a huge win if the graphics driver can be from the graphics card manufacturer, not customized by the laptop manufacturer. Some manufacturers--Lenovo comes to mind--work too hard to integrate the graphics with their power-saver and docking features, so develop their own drivers from the GPU manufacturer's code base. This introduces all kinds of incompatibilities and delays indefinitely GPU-manufacturer driver updates.)

That's kind of assuming you'll be stuck with a Windows laptop. If you're up for Linux, you can probably save enough on the OS license to upgrade the graphics card... and the Linux alpha client isn't bad these days--unless you plan to use voice.

I just looked at that Dell Vostro 1500 the person above me had mentioned -- that's not a bad deal at all.

If you upgrade the celeron processor to a core 2 duo, go with 1Gig ram, Windows XP Home, it's possible that the 128MB 8400M GS videocard option would work for SL -- not my first choice for a gaming laptop but it would keep the final price of the laptop at $679, which is pretty darn cheap for something that will run games. You'd have to turn some of the inworld graphics options down but it should run.

(Starts thinking REALLY hard of all the reasons she really doesn't need a laptop ...)

Anyway you can try starting here:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bqcwkxs&s=bsd

Again, I strongly suggest at an absolute minimum, upgrading to the 1Gig ram, the 1.6ghz Core 2 Duo cpu, and the 8400M GS videocard. If you can afford the 8600 & 2gigs ram, it will make it a much better little gaming rig.

I have a Dell 1405 - I did have to upgrade the RAM - went 2 gigs - and that solved my crash and burn problems. Things run great now and I can have multiple woindows open at the same time. My laptop cost under $600 but the RAM was about 150.00.

Why do people think that a $600 laptop is available that will run SL ( a game in technological sense ) when $600 will barely get you a gaming desktop PC?

Evening $1000 is pushing your luck, I was able to pickup a Compaq Presario F500 for £500 and that truly is about the lowest spec that will run SL properly.

My laptop is a IBM Thinkpad T41 and it runs SL better than my Dell desktop.

I am not sure what they are going for but mine is a couple of years old.

Chas

Ditto above - my Dell Inspiron E1705 runs SL far better than my desktop. However, it was not $600. I believe it was around $2000.

Thank you all for the replies i really appreciate it. Now that i know what to look for hopefully i can find somthing. I will have to review our budget though so i can go up to 1000. oh well. Thanks again.

Your task (if you sould decide to accept it) is to convince your father that what he absolutely needs is a topnotch laptop to run SL because if you can't run it from the coffee shop or the front porch why bother.

Because SL doesn't need a DVD burner or a 200 meg HD or (?) just how many perks can be cut from a "standard PC" in a DIY system just for SL?

I refrain from getting deeper with this cuz i dearly love blazing fast graphics, which would bias recommends to the highest end. Anyone else care to give it a whack?

1200$ will by you a baseline pimp rig laptop @ ibuypower.com, half that, 600 your range i dont think it can be done

altho you can get pretty darn close, altho please dont expect it to pull off miracles

get something with a decent cpu and a decent supported gfx chipset from where ever you choose, get the baseline ram and middle of the road hard disk

if theres any options you need in the cd-dvd department go ahead and do that

avoid any extra software unless you absolutely need it, or theres just such a good deal you have to snag it

!!!DO NOT BUY RAM FROM THE MANUFACTURER!!!

example hp:

you can get a v6000z laptop for 499, i bumped the (64 bit) amd chip upto 1.8ghz
it comes with a 80gb hard disk, geforce 6150 mobile video, 15 inch display, and 512mb of ram for 549$

now if i push that ram up to 2gb the price jumps to 749, but WHY THE .... would you pay compaq 200$ for 2gb of ram, its litterly 1 little screw and 5 seconds of your life to do it yourself for 100-150$ (tiger direct has a rebate on 2gb which puts you down to 99.99)

thats 659$ + tax and shipping for a half way decent SL laptop

Because people are running SL even on Mac Minis?
It doesn't have to be amazing, it just has to work tolerably well.

That is exctly what i was thinking. I just need to be able to transfer money around, upload new designs, put outfit together, and return IM's from customers. Thanks so everone that posted since I figured out what I needed to watch out for I think I can get a laptop that will work for around 700.

An easier solution for you migth be install a linux partition on your laptop or your new laptop and try to run SL in Linux. I heard that SL can run on Linux with a lesser machine.

I have the same machine, and it runs SL quite well. I did cough up the extra bucks to upgrade to 2 gigs of RAM, and it really increased performance.

I actually have five laptops and one desktop (don't ask!):

Dell 1405--Good performance, useable.

Dell 1705--Excellent performance, two gigs RAM and 256mb GPU. I have two of these, and I think you can get them with minimal RAM for around $725. (These both run Vista, and have had no problems. You might be able to get a barebones version for even less).

Dell M65 Precision Workstation (Laptop)--basically, the best laptop you can get. Expect to spend at least US$2000 for one, add more RAM (four gigs!) later.

If you're savvy, you can play the Dell website. They run specials all the time on machines that they have a surplus of in stock, and you can pick some things up with hundreds of dollars off, seriously.

Also, check www.notebookreviews.com for Dell coupons. These actually work.

All this being said, I have to tell you that, although I have faith in Dell, I'll probably buy a full up MacBook Pro pretty soon...or maybe I'll just get a high-end Linux Dell????!!!!

Those parts don't add much to the cost of a desktop system. A DVD burner is $30 these days; you pretty much have to have at least a DVD-ROM drive in any PC these days, because lots of software comes on DVD now (including Vista if you choose to install that), and that will cost about $20, so you're only out another $10 for the burner. Similarly, with careful buying, the 200GB drive will probably only cost about $20 more than an 80GB or 100GB drive (the smallest new drives you can get now).

A laptop will probably have a smaller hard disk; 200GB is still pricey there. You might be able to save a few bucks without the DVD burner, but it's probably only still $20 or so.

I run SL on my Gateway laptop, which I paid a little over $600 for, and have had no problems at all with it. Been running it daily, hours at a time, for months. I am happy with the performance.

And don't neglect the Broken Monitor type used laptops which go for real cheap, yet most are still useable with an offboard SVGA

If this is all you want, surely the best route is to get something used - something that used to be decent 4 yrs ago but is now dated w/ parts that are no longer for sale new. I bet you can get something with more than the minimum requirements but much less than the recommended requirements for 500 bucks or less.

I have Lenovo E390A with installed Fedora Core 7 Linux, and it runs SL quite well.

Little tip for reducing heat in your laptop.
The first laptop i had developed a prob with the fan, I could not get a replaccement. I bought one of those bendy usb fans and pointed it at the vents, worked great. I still use the fan with my current laptop along with the internal fan my lappie never even gets warm.