New Laptop suggestions

[Sammie Kiyori]

Hello🙂 It is time for me to get a new laptop. That is the good news but looking at the system requirements makes me confuse on which one to get. The operating system and memory is easy but the graphic card is very confusing and not sure which lap tops have good enough graphic cards. This is Linden's suggestions: The column on left is minimum requirements. I am looking for something in the $800 range. to give you an idea looking at  or Asus with Intel® UHD Graphics 620Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive + 128GB Solid State Drive (i like this one touch screen and 2 in 1)

Samsung - Notebook 9 Pro - 15” Touch-Screen Laptop – Intel Core i7 – 16GB Memory – AMD Radeon 540 – 256GB Solid State Drive - Titan 

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better OR ATI Radeon 9500 or better OR Intel 945 chipset

NVIDIA Graphics cards 9000 Series: 9600, 9800 200 Series: 275 GTX, 295 GTX ATI Graphics Cards 4000 Series: 4850, 4870, 4890 5000 Series: 5850, 5870, 5970

[Lindal Kidd]

At that price point, I would consider something like these as being a better choice.  However, there are many others that will be suitable as well.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-g531gt-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-512gb-solid-state-drive-black/6335589.p?skuId=6335589

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-256gb-solid-state-drive-abyss-black/6358090.p?skuId=6358090

[Nalates Urriah]

First, the Lindens are in the process of updating the System Requirements. So, the current requirements are insufficient. 

The laptop you list more than meets the current and probably coming revised requirements.

There are Pro AMD and PRo NVIDIA people here. The AMD will work. But, SL is based in a graphics system named OpenGL. AMD is notorious for their poor quality OpenGL support. You can search this forum for AMD problems. They far and away exceed the NVIDIA problems.

The i7 Intel CPU may be more than you need but you have to see the rest of the CPU model designator. Intel labels the CPU chip as i3, i5, or i7 with a following number. I run an i5-6600K. The 6600K denotes a huge difference in performance and chip age. The first '6' in the number tells us it is a 6th generation CPU. The latest is 10th generation. The 'K' suffix denotes a chip that can be overclocked, think running faster than the speed limit built into CPU's. You can look up the Intel suffixes for CPUs. Just know the K model tends to cost a bit more.

Your link shows the unit has a i7-8550U CPU, 8th gen and U= Ultra Low Power, think longer battery life. But, they do not give us the speed in the ad. Since SL while multi-threaded, meaning it can use numerous CPU cores (core is sort of an independent CPU in a CPU allowing the computer to do more than one thing at a time), primary uses one core for most of the rendering. CPU speed is way more important than the number of cores.

The i7-8550U runs at 1.8GHz which is way slow. My i5 is rated at 3.5GHz and because of the K suffix I can run it at 4.1GHz. The model will run SL but slowly. There are too many technical factors not mentioned in the ad to know well or poorly the unit will run SL. I suspect more poorly than well.

[cheesecurd]

Don’t bother referencing the system requirements page, it’s absolutely useless.

For a kinda base line on what will play SL well, anything with Intel HD 620, try to get an 8th gen Mobile i5 quad core or better processor. Look up the processor names on google and check the Intel Ark website to see the details, i5-8xxx, look for quadcores. 
HD 620 being the common integrated graphics for these mobile processors, it’s good enough, it’ll handle the graphical side of SL decently well. 
16gb of ram is ideal but 12 or 8 will still work, just with 8 you might have some difficulty multitasking or running multiple viewers at once. 
If you’re looking into something with a dedicated GPU, you won’t find many AMD mobile gpu options that aren’t Apple or some rare few mobile workstations anyway, and the dedicated gpu options for AMD are kinda out of date. There’s a little bit more going on there, but the reason say a Radeon 540 mobile gpu exists is not for gaming performance but for things like gpu acceleration in 3D rendering. It’s better at a task like that, but otherwise those mobile RX video chips aren’t that impressive.

On the Nvidia side you’ll find the more common options, anything with a Mobile GTX 1050 or better, that will vastly outperform Intel HD620 on the graphical side, might not be a necessity though and depending on your budget, a dedicated gpu in a laptop tends to increase the price a lot. Avoid the MX110/130, don’t get a 940MX, a GTX 1650, 1660 or 1660ti are good options.

 

tl;dr look for anything with a quadcore 8th gen i5 or better, 16gb of ram, HD 620 or a mobile GTX 1050/1650 or better

 

for the un tl;dr if you want to get really picky, IPS 1080p displays only, don’t buy anything you can’t upgrade the ram in, don’t buy anything with a mechanical hard drive, read customer reviews extensively to find if there’s a common problem with whatever laptop you go with 

[Sammie Kiyori]

Thank You! SL pple are the best 😀 I will have some explore to do this weekend.

[Sammie Kiyori]

Sooo human to human would anyone tell me the steps and what i need to do to transfer from one laptop to another. I know this isn't a sl question. you could IM me if you want? NO worries and thank you so much I am on the right path and i should get it all in my price range.

[Alwin Alcott]

56 minutes ago, rtthgrls said:

Sooo human to human would anyone tell me the steps and what i need to do to transfer from one laptop to another. I know this isn't a sl question. you could IM me if you want? NO worries and thank you so much I am on the right path and i should get it all in my price range.

nothing more than installing the viewer, all your inworld content is on the LL servers, nothing on your own.

[Sammie Kiyori]

2 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

nothing more than installing the viewer, all your inworld content is on the LL servers, nothing on your own.

I was more interested in copying my whole hard drive, all programs, pictures, software like Microsoft office etc.

[Alwin Alcott]

2 minutes ago, rtthgrls said:

I was more interested in copying my whole hard drive, all programs, pictures, software like Microsoft office etc.

that's indeed not SL related, but if it's windows, there's a explanation comming with your new lappie, or to find online

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-transfer-your-data-old-pc-new-pc

also fresh install of programs can be wise .. most people don't upate their programs all the time.

[Lindal Kidd]

When I transfer things to a new PC, first I call the Resident Geek: "Honey, can you help me with this...?"  Then he:

• copies my Contacts lists, web browser bookmarks, and email archive files.
• copies all my data files...documents, music, data, pictures, videos, tax files.
• makes sure I have a copy of all my passwords, product keys, product registration codes, and most importantly the master password to my password manager copied and backed up.
• Backs up everything in my Downloads folder, just for safety
• Makes a list of all the software packages I want to re-install on the new machine
• Double and triple checks to make sure everything is safely backed up
• THEN he wipes the hard drive(s) on the old machine.  If it's going to be re-sold, he'll do a triple overwrite to make sure none of the data is recoverable.

It's like painting your living room.  The preparation and masking takes longer than the actual painting.

Then, on the new machine....

• Set up and customize the BIOS
• Install Windows.  Set up user account(s).
• Turn off all the snoopy Windows options
• Install network and chipset drivers, usually from a disk provided with the motherboard.  (If you are using a pre-built PC, this has already been done)
• Format hard drives, SSDs.  Configure other Windows options like page file management, screen saver, power management.
• Install other needed drivers...RAID, SSD management, graphics card, audio.
• Do a Windows update cycle.  You may have to repeat this three or even four times, as installing one update will often cause Windows Update to "find" even more updates.
• Set up Backup and Restore software...Windows, or your choice.
• Install needed utilities...a PDF reader and/or writer, a web browser, password manager, VPN, graphics and CPU monitoring and tweaking, antivirus, etc.
• Download and install software packages.  Get them re-enabled, re-registered, etc.  Customize them to look for and put files in the folders I want them to use.
• Move all my backed-up files to the fresh new PC.

The Resident Geek does all this manually, one step at a time.  He says he doesn't trust those "migration tools", and even if they work, they also haul along a lot of junk you don't need or want.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Lindal Kidd

[Sammie Kiyori]

On 3/14/2020 at 9:42 PM, Lindal Kidd said:

When I transfer things to a new PC, first I call the Resident Geek: "Honey, can you help me with this...?"  Then he:

• copies my Contacts lists, web browser bookmarks, and email archive files.
• copies all my data files...documents, music, data, pictures, videos, tax files.
• makes sure I have a copy of all my passwords, product keys, product registration codes, and most importantly the master password to my password manager copied and backed up.
• Backs up everything in my Downloads folder, just for safety
• Makes a list of all the software packages I want to re-install on the new machine
• Double and triple checks to make sure everything is safely backed up
• THEN he wipes the hard drive(s) on the old machine.  If it's going to be re-sold, he'll do a triple overwrite to make sure none of the data is recoverable.

It's like painting your living room.  The preparation and masking takes longer than the actual painting.

Then, on the new machine....

• Set up and customize the BIOS
• Install Windows.  Set up user account(s).
• Turn off all the snoopy Windows options
• Install network and chipset drivers, usually from a disk provided with the motherboard.  (If you are using a pre-built PC, this has already been done)
• Format hard drives, SSDs.  Configure other Windows options like page file management, screen saver, power management.
• Install other needed drivers...RAID, SSD management, graphics card, audio.
• Do a Windows update cycle.  You may have to repeat this three or even four times, as installing one update will often cause Windows Update to "find" even more updates.
• Set up Backup and Restore software...Windows, or your choice.
• Install needed utilities...a PDF reader and/or writer, a web browser, password manager, VPN, graphics and CPU monitoring and tweaking, antivirus, etc.
• Download and install software packages.  Get them re-enabled, re-registered, etc.  Customize them to look for and put files in the folders I want them to use.
• Move all my backed-up files to the fresh new PC.

The Resident Geek does all this manually, one step at a time.  He says he doesn't trust those "migration tools", and even if they work, they also haul along a lot of junk you don't need or want.

I owe you some Linden Chocolate haha but thanks for everyone still researching getting close to buy...