Is this a good laptop for SL

[JenniferGia77]

Hi.

 Looking to purchase a laptop for SL and games. This is what I have been looking at. I want to keep the price around $1000. I am not concerned about ultra performane, just smooth fluid movements and quick loading. I am not a computer person so please be easy on me.

 I was thinking of the Alienware M14x since I would be playing games on it.

 

• 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3210M (3MB Cache, up to 3.1GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
• Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
• 14.0" High Def (720p/1366x768) with WLED backlight
• 6GB3  DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
• 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3Gb/s
• Slot Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW)
• 1 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M with Optimus™

I prefer a laptop due to the portability. I am not looking for ultimate graphics, just medium to high.

Thanks.  

[VRprofessor]

I favor a larger display myself--if I am messing about with things the 15.6" laptop display gets full of stuff pretty quickly.  I imagine that 14" would be even worse.

Other than that running medium settings should give you no problems. 

[JenniferGia77]

Thanks for the reply.

Do I have to be concerned with the video card? I have heard that not all video cards are compatible with SL.

[dd Temin]

The Nvidia 650m will  work fine in sl....should be able to use high or perhaps even ultra mode.

Dont be suprised if viewer says the video card is not compatible or not recognized. on the first launch..)   Just ignore that

and go to viewer  tab ..... Edit........preferences........Graphics   and set Quality/performance to  high or Ultra.

Yes a bigger display  is better for Sl   but   if you need a small lap top for other reasons  its your choice.

Have fun

dd

[Baloo Uriza]

Pretty decent, but I'd save your money and get better performance out of the machine by ordering it with no operating system and install Debian instead.  Windows 7 is a video performance hog, doubly so when you're using OpenGL like Second Life and the rest of the world outside Microsoft uses.

[Nalates Urriah]

The choices for video are ATI, NVIDIA, and the Intel built-in HD graphics. The HD Graphics is inadequate. ATI has weak support for OpenGL, which SL uses. NVIDIA is generally considered the best possible.

With the small screen and a 650 card you should be able to run on ULTRA and get good frame rates.

You need to manually go in and set the graphics card for SL when you install SL. In the nVidia Control Panel you have a choice to run  in Power Save or Performance. Set it to use performance.

Many laptops will force power save mode on and disable the graphics card (chip in laptops) to save power, UNLESS you use wall power. So, if you have performance issues, check the nVidia settings.

[Baloo Uriza]

ATI is the superior choice if you ever intend to use anything other than Windows, which is a good thing to consider if you're picking a machine primarily around Second Life due to the inferior OpenGL performance on Windows.

[JenniferGia77]

Thanks for all the help everyone. Will keep you all updated on what I decide to do.