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Very specific laptop requirements question
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Question
Ellie Heartsdale
Before writing this, I read prior blog inquiries re "laptops for SL", then checked Knowledgebase. I'm still uncertain on a few things, hope y'all might advise?
I got surprise $1200 yesterday , want to buy a configurable or off-the-shelf laptop offering decent Second Life performance. CANNOT use a desktop pc. Weight is irrelevant, would never run on battery, and can go back to LAN instead of wireless if it would help. I spend 2-3 hrs max time on SL, so hope to avoid overheating graphics card. I prefer 14",15" -15.6" screen. Budget is $1500 max. Questions:
1) Will SL run okay on a 64-bit Windows 7 O/S (w 4GB memory)? It seems like MS Office suite, and other PC apps smoothly transition from 32-bit (I hope...).
2) No more integrated graphics! After reading Knowledgebase entry for laptops, I need to know: Are there any mid-range cards that I should avoid, that is, any Class 2 or 3 cards (per notebookreview site) that will NOT work for SL? There were footnotes on the Knowledgebase page, warned against use of various graphics cards. Reason seemed to be that they hadnt been tested for SL, most were older cards, like Radeon Xpress, Fire cards. But footnote also warned not to use certain newer cards e.g. all "Quad"-named nVidia. Then I noticed a different Knowledgebase page which did include some of these cards in an FPS perf chart! I'm confused....
3) CPU: in Dec 2009, HP was selling a Pavillion model DV6t, quad-core with an i7 processor, price approx $1100, now unavailable. Should I try to get Quad core and i7? Is the SL viewer (as well as the O/S, clock etc) able to effectively utilize all that processing power? Do I need to look for anything particular regarding FSB speed or L2 cache with Quad core and i7? Assuming I can even get it at my price point. And what speed is appropriate for quad core vs core duo? Lots of questions, I'll be grateful for a partial or general answer.
I have access to the HP, Dell and Lenovo EPP plans, and Fry's Electronics too. One more thing: I don't want to buy Acer or Asus brand, but am indifferent between AMD vs Intel, nVidia vs ATI Radeon (I can't even spell them correctly ).
My current config for for Second Life: XP running on Toshiba Satellite L25 laptop, single core Celeron 1.50gHz, Radeon Xpress 200M onboard graphics , total RAM is 512MB upgraded it from 256MB) and a 40MB hard drive, my little bro bought it new in June 2005.
Any suggestions will be appreciated. I can't wait to depart the grey non-rezzing world of my current laptop. Thank you!
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