What kind of laptop/pc do you have?

[ElizaAnnaBeth]

And does it work well with second life? And blender?

 

I'm looking into getting either a laptop or a pc soon. Around 500 dollars or lower....

 

I saw one of them a desktop called cybertron (which was pretty cheap.) But has mixed reviews on their website.

 

I have read a previous post saying that you can get your computer personally built for you or build it yourself but to me that seems a bit above my price range :)

 

So what kind of laptop/desktop do you have 

 

And have any of you ever used cybertron?

 

(Sorry for a noob question haha.)

 

 

 

[arton Rotaru]

It might be more constructive you lookup some models in your price range, and post them here. And people could tell you if that's any good for SL and 3D modelling, or rather not so much.
Otherwise you will most likely see most people posting their high end rig specs, which isn't really helping you much.

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

I took a quick look at that Cybertron site and it looks like anything in the sub $500 range runs some pretty sad video cards.  In each case, you'd have to run SL on pretty low graphics to stay out of slide-show FPS. (>_<)

On the other hand, your question made me curious.  I'm a builder.  What would make for a good SL system for under $500(assuming US)?  I took a tour of Newegg and filtered for all non-reseller parts and came up with the list below:

Item	Name	Price
N82E16819113378	AMD A4-7300	$40.00
N82E16813157578	ASRock FM2A68M	$46.00
N82E16820231486	G.SKILL Ripjaws X 16GB DDR3	$52.00
N82E16814121896	ASUS GTX 750ti STRIX	$0.00	$120.00
N82E16814125807	Gigabyte GTX 960 2GB	$190.00	$190.00
N82E16814487154	EVGA GTX 960 4GB	$0.00	$200.00
N82E16811353050	DIYPC MA01-G Case	$20.00
N82E16817438015	EVGA 430W PSU	$30.00
N82E16820173072	Sandisk 240GB SSD	$60.00
N82E16822235070	WD 2TB HDD	$57.00

As such, with the Gigabyte card chosen, that hits a grand total of $495US.  Mind you, it's a bare (no keyboard, mouse, monitor) and tacking on another $140 or so for Windows, it's not exactly under $500.  But, it'll be a smooth SLer, for sure. =^-^=

Please take note that the configuration I've listed above is based on assumed compatibility, so don't run out and buy the lot without a touch more research.  ()

You may also note that the graphics card is the most expensive item on the list.  Most pre-built machines use a graphics card priced on par with the rest of the components.  As such, they're typically the bottom of the barrel cards and only truly suitable for Facebook and Email. (>_<)

Your question is far from 'noob', and arguably a rather advanced question most people fail to ask or even consider.  The fact that you have a functional target (work well with SL and Blender) and determined a price cap ($500) leads you down a path which could result in a higher performing system than 80% of Sl users. =^-^=

As for my own system... My CPU alone is over $1K.  One could say it's a bit over-the-top. =^-^=

 

[Ilithios Liebknecht]

First of all, do not get a laptop. I can't stress this enough. laptops are for portability, not performance. So unless you go on a lot of business trips or something and need to move your computer around to different places constantly, cross laptops of your perspective new computer list right now.

Second, the thing that is going to be the most important to your performance with 3D applications like SL and Blender is your graphics card. 50% of the price of my computer was just the graphics card. The other 50% was everything else. I make 3D games for a living though, so you probably don't need to go that extreme. Just know that the first thing you should be looking at is the graphics card if you want performance with 3D applications.

Next behind the graphics card is memory. Make sure you have at least 8 gigs of memory. Memory just isn't that expensive. There's no reason to have less memory than that.

After those things are taken care of, pretty much any decent modern computer will do the trick.

[Alwin Alcott]

---

Ilithios Liebknecht wrote:

First of all, do not get a laptop. I can't stress this enough. laptops are for portability,

not

performance. So unless you go on a lot of business trips or something and need to move your computer around to different places constantly, cross laptops of your perspective new computer list right now.

---

that's totally ... too easy to say this, because it's simply not true.

There are lots of laptops totally able to run SL in a decent way, going on business trips is also a total non reason, some people simply don't like a tower in their living or on the table.

So OP... do not take laptops of your list, only look very carefully ...

[ChinRey]

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Alwin Alcott wrote:

There are lots of laptops totally able to run SL in a decent way....

---

There definitely are lots of laptops that can handle SL but remeber we're also talking about a budget here. A laptop will nearly always cost a lot more than a stationary computer with the same performance so if you want max power for your money, you probably want a desktop computer.

There's also the question of monitor size. There are limtis to how big a screen you can fit on a laptop of course.

[Devriv]

That laptops are for portability, not performance, is not controversial; Ilithios is perfectly correct.  Laptops capable of running SL exist but cost twice their desktop counterparts.   But even then they are not equivalent systems:  A laptop graphics card like, say, the 980M is slower than the 980 desktop card; a laptop CPU doesn’t have the cooling hardware available to desktop processors…

[Alwin Alcott]

it is not about better, best or not... it's about if it's possible  and  it IS.

Even on lower budgets. The newer Intel graphics can handle SL pretty decent.

Of course not as a 980 but it's acceptable when you'r on a budget.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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ChinRey wrote:

---

Alwin Alcott wrote:

There are lots of laptops totally able to run SL in a decent way....

---

There definitely are lots of laptops that can handle SL but remeber we're also talking about a budget here. A laptop will nearly always cost a lot more than a stationary computer with the same performance so if you want max power for your money, you probably want a desktop computer.

There's also the question of monitor size. There are limtis to how big a screen you can fit on a laptop of course.

---

Yep. There are some amazing 'gaming laptops' out there... But in general you will pay 2 to 3 times as much for the same quality as a desktop.

My Macbook Laptop ran about $3000, and my iMac Desktop ran about $1000. If I factor out that one is newer... in the years I bought them, they were about the same range of quality in terms of both performance and graphics...

While its cheaper in the PC realm for 'gaming graphics' - the same notion holds... laptops cost more, especially if they are gaming viable.

(For the same $3000, I could have gotten an absurdly amazing gaming PC, but then it would have been useless for all of my other needs. I work in technology in the Silicon Valley / San Francisco; which is almost exclusively a Mac world unless you work for a legacy company or non-mobile-gaming. Otherwise most of the .Net people (PC), are up near Seattle instead).

The last PC I bought though, was about $500 and a laptop. I got it the year I came to SL, and it was pretty decent for a while. A laptop too... but it started having issues even before mesh went live. To get a laptop in the under $500 range, even in 2009, I had to grab the 'bottom level' laptop that still had a GPU... If I had been going for a desktop, I could have stretch my money a lot further...

...

One of the key takeaways though, should be to realize that if you go for the low end machine... you will need to replace it much sooner. My 2009 PC laptop, was of no use for most of my needs by only 2011...

- For most people, it could have gone maybe till about 2013 or 2014... but if you're here in SL you're already participating in something that needs a lot of graphical and computing resources... you are no longer 'most people'...

Get the desktop... you will get about another 2 years out of it before needing to replace it.

(And I still use my 2011 iMac for SL all the time. Just not for anything that requires moving around at a high FPS. But its perfectly fine for hanging out places where I chat with people, or being on my own land and streaming music. So its remained viable, a little more than twice as long as my low-end old laptop did... except that the iMac is also still going).

[Luxen]

Personally, i prefer the laptops. I bought one 2 years ago. I'm not a designer or a gamer so it's perfect for me and for SL (for me).

Not easy to do a choice. I know that you can find many laptops with a good price. And yes, it's possible. Some Laptops have a reasonable graphics card. It will be ok for Second Life but is not recommended for Gamers (well not perfect and not perfect for 3D designers...).

PC are the best choice if you want to play at the newers 3D games... And perhaps, it's true yes, more easy to find a good price...

[ElizaAnnaBeth]

Thank you this was very detailed and thanks to all the other answers also

[Jim Crisp]

FWIW, a couple of years ago, when I was entering a period when I could only use a laptop for several months, I bought a laptop that was specifically marketed for gaming because I wanted to use it for SL, and got the best options offered for processor and graphics adapter.  It was expensive.  It never came close to running SL as well as my desktop.

[Rhonda Huntress]

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ElizaAnnaBeth wrote:

What kind of laptop/pc do you have?

And does it work well with second life? And blender? 

 

---

I have an Alienware that is about 18 months old.  It has an Nvidia 680 and handles SL or Blender very well

It is a bit over budget, tho.  It was for me too when I bought it but I did get 15% off.

Hubby's PC is an off the shelf Gateway with i5 CPU and an added Nvida 650.  I think we paid about 500 USD for the computer and another 150 for the card. I have used it for SL before and it does fine.  He is all about Overwatch now and from what I have seen it does not have any problems keeping up.

 

[Bree Giffen]

I have a desktop pc that's 6 years old. It cost $555 at the time. It has an i3 processor and an nvida 550ti. It runs SL and Blender very well. It has been upgraded over the years by adding ram, another hard drive and changing the video card from the original radeon to an nvidia. That's another good thing about desktops. If you buy one with a good motherboard, when the software starts needing better hardware, you can upgrade it instead of buying a new computer.