a piece of advice for newer, less tech-savvy players

The best you can afford. The very best processor on the market right now is around $1000 USD. Obviously, most people cannot or will not buy that. So buy one for $500 or $400..

BTW I am not a techie by any means. Installing RAM is simple. On my last machine, I upgraded, the HD, Video Card, RAM modem and soundcards myself. I reinstall the OS at least twice a year. Don't be afraid of it...a lot os it is simple..just read the intructions.

Well in theory as long as you have the right time of ram, near exactly the same as the existing ram in the rigth slots, I found a couple of machines with mixes of ram causing quirky intermittent problems when everything otherwise seems to say it's healthy.

Oooooh, my first reply on this thread was a little silly, but it started some seriouse thinkiing in my little head.

So, inspired by Steve's post I've started ordering parts, I'm gonna build my very own atomic super computer! So far I've got a shiny new motherboard and a fancy gamers case in the shape of an alian's head on the way

I can't really afford a great PC, but if I put it together myself one piece at a time I'll end up with a monster with a dual core processor and 2 gigs of ram!

Vale

Oooooh, my first reply on this thread was a little silly, but it started some seriouse thinkiing in my little head.

So, inspired by Steve's post I've started ordering parts, I'm gonna build my very own atomic super computer! So far I've got a shiny new motherboard and a fancy gamers case in the shape of an alian's head on the way

I can't really afford a great PC, but if I put it together myself one piece at a time I'll end up with a monster with a dual core processor and 2 gigs of ram!

Vale

No you do have to match your RAM. Correct. Make sure it is of the same type....DDR whatever..and in matched pairs. My RAM is set up as 2 1 GB sticks and 2 256 Sticks. I recommend Crucial.com for RAM needs. They have all the reading material needed and their prices are good.

When buying a new setup specifically for running SL I thought I was being clever by fitting 4 gigs of memory in..

...then discovered that Vista (and XP?) can only ever find 3 gig of memory? Is this true? Or is it that it only reports 3 gig but actually uses all 4? Bios certainly finds all of it so it's not a memory card problem.....

I was put under the impression it was a known problem?

The assorted parts of a computer have memory "hooks" that the system connects to. Back when the memory map that's currently in use for Windows was created, it was considered unlikely that anyone would have over a gig of ram. Now that we do, the computers peripherals all have addresses in that last gig of addressing space.

When buying a new setup specifically for running SL I thought I was being clever by fitting 4 gigs of memory in..

...then discovered that Vista (and XP?) can only ever find 3 gig of memory? Is this true? Or is it that it only reports 3 gig but actually uses all 4? Bios certainly finds all of it so it's not a memory card problem.....

I was put under the impression it was a known problem?

What I'm about to say may strike you as "insensitive" or "lacking understanding". I completely understand that some of our fellow players cannot afford better computer hardware. I also understand that some players, no matter what I say, will never upgrade their hardware. If you would never upgrade your hardware for "a silly game", then, please, click out of this thread and go enjoy yourself. If there is no way on God's green earth you can afford more hardware, again, please, click out of this thread and go have fun.

Ok, you're still here, so you've been warned. Here are my uber-serious recommendations for playing Second Life and enjoying it:

1- The very best computer processor you can afford.
2- A compatible, late model motherboard, ideally a "gamer one"
3- As much RAM as you can possibly afford. To me, 2 gigabytes is the real amount you need to have fun.
4- The best broadband you can get and afford.
5- The fastest hard drive you can afford. Believe it or not, many times a slow hard drive (like a 4200 rpm one) will be the major bottleneck for players.
6- The best video card you can afford. You do not have to spend $600 to get a decent video card for Second Life. The processor is more important in SL than the video card.

I could go on but I don't want to completely overwhelm you. If you're not into tech stuff, get a knowledgeable friend to help you. Shop long and hard and smart and you can get some good deals. I had mine custom built with my parts I bought and saved a huge amount of money. If you are persistent and shop wisely, you can get a pretty decent machine (custom built) for about $1500 USD. Note I did not say "the best possible machine". Custom built means you buy the parts and get a competent person to put it together for you.

Good luck and have fun, as always

Haha............I thought this thread was for us technically challenged folks!! Actually, I've been able to follow along pretty well.........except those "hooks" thingies (aren't those used for fishing?).

I'm not in any way a computer whiz so the fact that I can follow along says I believe this thread has been very helpful to a lot of us........Thank you everyone for keeping it relatively simple.

I would like to offer one other thing almost anyone can do to help keep their system running smooth. Keeping you case cooled properly. Fans are your friend. Proper placement of fans are crucial. Some draw in air and some exhaust air.......keep them in the right place. But fans have one major drawback. They suck in dust and blow it around all the components inside the case! That dust traps heat........heat destroys electronics. Open your case up once in a while, get a can of compressed air (from any office supply store or even Wal-Mart) and blow that stuff out. But take the case outside or somewhere that you don't mind getting tons of dust on.........from experience. LOL.

1- The very best computer processor you can afford.
2- A compatible, late model motherboard, ideally a "gamer one"
3- As much RAM as you can possibly afford. To me, 2 gigabytes is the real amount you need to have fun.
4- The best broadband you can get and afford.
5- The fastest hard drive you can afford. Believe it or not, many times a slow hard drive (like a 4200 rpm one) will be the major bottleneck for players.
6- The best video card you can afford. You do not have to spend $600 to get a decent video card for Second Life. The processor is more important in SL than the video card.
QUOTE]

First off, the processor-
Actually, an Intel Celeron (or AMD's equivalent, the Sempron) will do. The only difference between the P4 and the Celeron is the hyper threading architecture in the P4, that aids multi-tasking on processor intensive applications (editing live digital video for example). I use a P4 2.8 single core 32-bit processor - pretty decent but hardly top of the range. My processor usage never exceeds 25% while using SL. SL is not processor intensive. Recent tests by Custom PC magazine showed that the Celeron actually outperformed a P4 of equivalent clock speed in games (as I said, they're the same thing but without the HT), and celerons exist up to 3.2ghz now (although there are no dual core Celerons). It's good to have a good processor, but if you are on a budget and need to prioritise, do it in this order; RAM, Graphics Card, Processor, Hard drive.

I agree with the rest. If you are using XP you need atleast 512mb - preferably more. The Secondlife.exe file uses approximately 280mb of RAM according to my Task Manager, and don't forget that windows uses roughly the same in the background. If you are using Vista (and I can't think why you are, you sick freaks, since it's really not finished and won't be finished for atleast two years) then a minimum of 1GB is needed. Don;t forget, RAM dimms have different speeds and bandwidths too. Try to get at least pc4200 (and, naturally, a motherboard that supports this) if you can.

This doesn't have to be expensive. Checkout www.crucial.com for some of the best deals on RAM (no, I don't work for them, I just like them a lot!).


And for god sake learn to use Task Manager and TURN OFF SOME OF THOSE BACKGROUND APPLICATIONS!!! Explorer.exe is a good one to switch off - that just deals with the start menu and icons in the windows desktop - which you don't need if you're just running SL and nothing else. If there's only one piece of advice I could pass to a Windows user - it's this; "Task Manager is your friend, get to know it."

It probably depends what graphics card(s) you're using, too. My 480W was perfectly adequate for my FX5200, but it's not enough for my 7300GS (with nothing else in the machine changed). They say (or did a year and a half ago, anyway) to allow 50W for a graphics card, but I'm sure it must be more variable than that.