I wish to build a computer system to allow me to roleplay with both of my characters at once, ideas?

[Kess Littlebird]

I have two SL toons that I roleplay with in second life, occasionally in the past I was able to log both in using the -multiple tag to allow me to roleplay with myself if no one was around. Recently, I can only surmise because of the Mesh viewer upgrades I am having increasing trouble doing this.

I would very much like to continue doing this and it is about time for my 5 yearly computer replacement program, it would be good if I could have some recommendations/suggestions for hardware specification for this kind of computer?

I'm guessing at least a Core I5 processor and a Geforce graphics card of some variety, but would I need to consider SLi to perform the dual browser trick? I know in most cases the more Ram the better but what should I be looking at, 6? Or 8? Or more?

Any advice that can be offered would be greatly received.

Thanx Kess

[Lindal Kidd]

You don't need SLI.  I can run two viewers with a single GTX 560 Ti.

I'm using dual 24" monitors, too.

Other specs:

Intel i920, 12GB RAM, cache on RAID 0 drive array, Windows Vista 64 Ultimate.  This machine is about 3-4 years old, and you can do even better today.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Basically, all you need is a decent CPU (the i5 more than meets that requirement), a good video card (you don't need two or more for SL to run mulitiple avatars), and as much system RAM as your motherboard will support (8 to 16 GB is best).  Other requirements are a fast Internet connection (stay away from wireless), a 64 bit operating system (Win 7 x64 is good), an SSD hard drive is probably best but for storage vs price they are still little pricey so a 500 GB 7200 rpm drive will work quite well (I suggest two hard drives.....one for you operating system and major programs and one for caches and data (you can partition that drive and have a backup partition in case your computer has major issues), and configure your computer for performance (all those bells and whistles Windows thinks you need can be turned off.......and you'll see quite an improvement for SL performance).

Lindal's GTX560 Ti is a good choice but you can probably find a little higher performing card in the 500 series for a good price now that the 600 series is out.  Even a 400 series card will be a good card for several more years.  Look at the second number in the model number.......the higher that number is the better graphic performance it will be.  If you can find a GTX480 that would be a good choice.....it will out perform a GTX560 Ti by a very long shot.

Editing to add:

With a high performance graphics card you will need a high wattage power supply.  Most high end cards requirem a 500 watt PS (some require 550 watts).  You can't have too much power so go as high as you reasonably afford.  800 watts would be my minimum recommendation.  Power supplies, it taken care of, will last through several computers and they are easy to swap.  The power supply in this machine has powered 3 other machines (this is the fourth).