Dell Laptop? Any Good?

[Rolig Loon]

The AMD Radeon HD8730 chip is brand new, so there's nothing but the company's own specifications on the Internet.  It looks like a faster chip than previous generations, and it's designed fo gaming, but there's no way to tell how well it will behave with SL until someone tries it.  I am looking for a new laptop myself and am avoiding integrated chips on principle, because they have had a spotty history.  The technology is maturing, though, so who knows what this new wave will look like?  If you wait  while, I'm sure that Peggy or Nyll, our hardware experts, will have something to say.

[Rolig Loon]

The AMD Radeon HD8730 chip is brand new, so there's nothing but the company's own specifications on the Internet.  It looks like a faster chip than previous generations, and it's designed fo gaming, but there's no way to tell how well it will behave with SL until someone tries it.  I am looking for a new laptop myself and am avoiding integrated chips on principle, because they have had a spotty history.  The technology is maturing, though, so who knows what this new wave will look like?  If you wait  while, I'm sure that Peggy or Nyll, our hardware experts, will have something to say.

[Baloo Uriza]

Should do fine with the ATI.  As usual, you can squeeze more out of it and save money by ordering it with no OS and putting your choice of Linux distribution on it.

[Nyll Bergbahn]

So difficult to access the website tonight with the issues LL is having but finally made it with Opera.

The AMD Radeon HD 8730M is a brand new Mars video card and there are no reviews that I can find. It's a 2GB card with a 128-bit memory bus but only uses GDDR3 memory which is slower than GDDR5. As well as that it only has a PCI-E 8x slot instead of the more usual 16x. AMD have included Boost Clock, which enables it to rev up its clockspeed within its power and temperature limits. Unfortunately, it's also at the very bottom of the 8700 series (8730/8750/8770/8790). It will be interesting to see how it fares in SL.

The Nvidia GTX 650M is a 1GB card with a 128-bit memory bus and also only uses GDDR3 memory (the desktop version has DDR5). However It's a proven performer in SL with many users.

Until the 8730M proves itself with gaming reviews, especially in SL and with only £70 in the difference I suggest you opt for the higher priced laptop with the Nvidia card but that's just a recommendation, the decision is yours.

[Baloo Uriza]

Hadn't noticed issues tonight; sure it's not localized to your ISP or your computer?

[Rolig Loon]

It's grid-wide, and on the web sites and Marketplace, according to the grid status reports. LL has been doing "unscheduled maintenance" most of the day.

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Yes, as Rolig said, there were serious issues for many residents last night and I've yet to check this morning. I've never seen Smith and other Linden sims so busy with people trying to sort their avatars out. It was actually worse that the Grid Status page indicated. I couldn't get a full outfit on me even after a character test as library avatars weren't even loading properly. Inventory loading was horrendously slow and would stop before fully loaded. In the end I gave up and logged wearing bits of four outfits and ruthed. Internet Explorer still won't log in to Answers/Forums but I can use Opera.

[Baloo Uriza]

Well, you probably shouldn't be using IE to begin with anyway.