UK - Laptop

Great info!

Just the sort of stuff I was looking for and, hopefully, should also clarify things for the OP. I can now put a shortlist of laptops together that are likely to run SL. Must admit, the Acer Aspire 5920WSMi looks sweet but I would have to sell all of my internal organs to get one.

Here's a nice gaming laptop:

Sager NP2090C -- $1253.00 USD

Windows XP (or Vista if you really must), Intel Core 2 DUO T7100, GeForce 8600M GT 512MB, 1G Ram (2G for $80 more)

http://www.discountlaptops.com/index.php?section=configurator&regular_model_id=1451&model_id=1452

I'd chose Windows XP and go for the 2nd gig of ram, putting the price at $1333 total. You can get it with a faster processor too if your budget goes a bit higher, I was looking for "best value" affordable gaming rig.

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In the UK, I'd try this one:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php?page=form&&select=intel_laptop2

Make sure to upgrade the CPU from the Celeron to the Core 2 Duo (any C2D is fine, again take more if your budget allows), 256MB GEFORCE 8600GT, again I would pick the 2G ram + Windows XP, and then final price is about .. £718 inc VAT and Delivery.

The ASUS G1 & Dell XPS M1710 listed earlier in the thread are both also excellent, if your budget goes that high.

The ones I linked cost less, are made by highly reputable firms, and have great components. The brands may not be as familiar to some, but Sager actually makes a lot of notebooks that some of the "big league" companies buy, and relabel as their own.

That Acer looks great for the price. I don't think you'd get much for less.

800 quid for a laptop with proper graphics and 2gb of ram sounds perfect for something like SL. Start eBaying those internal organs.

add another £1000 to the price and you have the Rock CTX Pro I have, but I'm pretty sure that Acer would run SL just as well.

I've been using this Toshiba for a few months, Secondlife has been very stable running under Vista. Excellent performance with all graphics options on high. Cool running unlike many other laptops I've encountered...

2ghz Intel Core Duo T7200
2GB DDR2 Ram
NVIDEA GeForce Go 7900 512MB DDR3 Graphics card
17in Widescreen

I've used this laptop for SL over my Orange 3g mobile successfully, however it eats the bandwidth. I have a 400MB a month package which costs about 50 quid and SL could eat that in an hour. If you stay in one location and just use chat it would be ok. There is an unlimited Data option from Orange, but reading the small print, it is subject to a fair usage policy of 1000MB, why can't they just be honest and call it a 1000MB package? It is NOT unlimited. If you run over your allowance it starts to charge at about a quid a MB....Eeeek!!

I tend to try to use BTOpenzone hotspots but a lot of the ones in pubs seem to have a severe lack of bandwidth.

I know there is a lightweight opensource client, SLEEK that may make SL more usuable when bandwidth is restricted but I haven't tried it myself. .

I used SLeek a version or two ago. I think it would make a pretty good "just log in and chat" client for low spec computers, laptops and stuff.