Vista unsure.

OK I didn't know where to post this so I hope this is ok here. I've been saving to buy a computer for awhile now so that I can play Secondlife again and I looked at the system requirements before going shopping and wrote them down and noted that I couldn't get vista. No big deal I don't care as long as I can get a computer to play with. Well Ive been to three different computer stores and all they carry is Vista!. So now what am I supposed to do. I'm really annoyed because i've been waiting awhile to play but they don't sell computers anymore in stores that you can play SL on. Why havn't you updated yet! With all the updating you do I would think you would be able to keep up with the computer market. Sorry to sound aggrevated but I've been waiting for almost a year to buy a computer so I could play again. It's kind of dissapointing.

I think in this case it's Microsoft and the video card industry who need to stay backward compatible.
Why not grab an XP CD for approx. $50 on eBay?

i also had the same problem...solution...try first views, it works for now...my hard drive fried and when they sent a new one i was stuck with vista and screaming bloody murder...thank the linden gods, i have a ton of friends...they suggested first views for voice and it worked! i got xp on this one now...so good luck to you

SL will run in Vista. The big issue is running SL in Vista with an ATI video card. From what I've read in the forums, ATI and SL don't get along well in Vista.

If you do decide to get that new computer soon, make sure it has a Nvidia video card. Nvidia cards have always worked better than ATI for SL. Go for at least a GeForce 7600GT card. If money is an issue, a 7300GS will work too, but not as well. Avoid anything that has GeForce 6100 or 6150 graphics, because they share system memory and just plain suck for anything more than business applications.

Most of the off-the-shelf systems you find in a Walmart or such, will probably be Compaq/HP systems preloaded with Vista. And they usually are designed for "home entertainment" rather than gaming, meaning they often come with onboard video etc, and are usually preloaded with a ton of gunkware, resource-eating programs that Hewlett Packard and other discount dealers get paid to preload onto the systems and which severely affect performance in games.

I am not sure what your budget is, but there are plenty of highly reputable *online* companies that build computers specifically for the gaming community, and quite a large number of those still offer Windows XP, as much of the gaming community is less than thrilled with Vista.

An example, if you are on a budget, is this $699 prebuilt system by ABS Computers and sold thru New Egg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883102028

AMD Athlon 64 4000+
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR400
EVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3
OS: Windows XP Professional

Both ABS & NewEgg (actually owned by the same company) are highly regarded among computer enthusiasts. The computer does not come with a monitor, so if you don't already have one, that would cost more. Or you can often pick up a 17" CRT monitor for under $50 secondhand someplace, that would work just fine too.

I tend to build my own systems so I can get exactly what I want, but if I were to have an outside company build one for me, then ABS would be my first choice. HP/Compaq/Dell would be my last choice (some of the toprange XPS Dell models though are good for gaming).

As said, try to avoid systems with onboard video, or really any card ending in the numbers "300" or lower, which usually designate the business economy line. Most gaming cards end with the digits 600 or higher, with the 800/900 digits usually signifying the expensive top of the line gaming enthusiast cards. If you want future proofing for DX10 down the road, I'd try to find a system with an 8600GT or so. If you find a system with a PCI-E slot and onboard video, you can usually upgrade the videocard yourself, it's one of the easiest upgrades a beginner can try and NewEgg has some 8600GTs as low as $99 after rebate.

I recently switched to Vista when I bought a new computer and SL runs better than ever. Buy a decent NVidia card and you won't have many, if any at all, problems with Vista.

i got an HP Vista in February. works GREAT with SL.

I have a brand new laptop that came with Vista. SL runs great on it, better than my desktop on XP. It has the geforce 7600 with 256MB. The same day, I purchased 2-1 gig memory sticks to upgrade it, they were on sale.

As others have said, stick with nVidia and you should be fine.

Love Vista, runs great. I have only one problem with Vista -- my fps (frames per second) is too high, often in excess of 120 fps (no joke, and that is at 2560 x 1600). This is a *serious* problem because it appears the SL client updates its networking every frame, meaning I get amazing framerate but lag. So I figured out how to slow it down to a more stately 30 fps, and it runs like a champ. I don't really think this is a problem with Vista, but a flaw in the client design.

In other words Vista runs SL really well. I use an NVidia card, don't know how the ATI folks are making out. But the SL client just can't handle the super high framerates and saturates my poor little DSL connection, so I slow it down. If this is a problem for anyone else, IM me in game and I'll explain my fix.

So buy Vista, but I do recommend an NVidia card. Meanwhile, fix this, ok LL?

I recently bought a Dell XPS 410 (love it by the way), running Vista, 2G RAM, and ATI X1300 card. I will admit it did not run SL when I first loaded it. I had to upgrade some Catalyst thingy (related to the ATI card) but it runs just fine since then. My only issues is my cable connection seems to fluctuate highly, and therefore my speed. I still have lag issues like everyone else, but for the most part, things are pretty smooth.

I just bought a Dell also, but what I liked was that I was able to get it installed with XP.

That was real nice!

All this Vista talk was scaring me.

I just bought a Dell also, but what I liked was that I was able to get it installed with XP.

That was real nice!

All this Vista talk was scaring me.

I bought a new Dell pc with vista. Was ripping my hair out for days b/c I could not get into SL. I was upset, I had spent a fortune on a new pc and couldn't get in SL. I have an ATI card, like Teeny said, ATI and SL don't get along w/ Vista. I called up Dell and finally got someone in tech support that knew SL and was familar with the graphics card issues. I went to ATI's site and they had released new drivers. I downloaded and was able to get in SL!

SL has never ran smoother, I never crash anymore. SL runs awesome on vista though

I have been running Vista for about three months now. SL runs great.

I did have a little trouble with the windlight first look viewer and vertex shading, but that’s all!!

Unless I’m in an overcrowded sim (50+ People) I have almost forgotten what lag is, I here people complain about it but I haven’t experienced it since March when I replaced my aging computer.

Lag? What Lag?

Seems quite a bit is rendered by the client……

Home assembled computer with Intel core2 duo, 2 Gigs Ram, ATI Radeon 1650xl, 2 WD 250gb serial ATA drives with raid level 1.

With over six month since release, LL should list Vista as a supported OS and perhaps even drop anything below Win 2000 or XP (7 years is VERY old for a computer, IMHO)

LL dropped support for Win 98 and earlier at least 2 years ago.

yes, my mistake, never the less, Vista should be officialy supported by now.

Thankyou all very much for your feedback. Now I know what to look for. I was getting so annoyed there for awhile, but now everything is ok again. I will be going shopping soon

Vista is better then XP on multicore systems. No longer have to set SL to only use one core on startup.

I'm getting 90-130FPS in a sparse sim.