What is the cost of the computer you use to run Second Life?

[Phil Deakins]

£70 second hand. (US$88)

 

[Coffee Pancake]

The PC I sit at .. it's a Frankenstein, parts of my home / build server, parts of my gaming rig, all hodge podged together with the drives from my NAS after shuffling PC parts about to donate some upgrades .. that I then stuck a 4080 super in for blender reasons (and am now in limbo as I need a new mobo that has space for a second GPU, only this card is 3.5 slots and insanely big). I have no idea what it's cost or worth a this point. Gentoo Linux with an occasionally used PCI pass-though windows VM (mainly for steam VR->quest3 games)

I'm probably just going to build it into a 19" rack and fill it with water cooling and unicorn vomit leds.

I have spent thousands on PC's and hardware to test, debug and benchmark SL. including a number of original cheese-grater mac pros & M1 laptop, boxes of graphics cards (many of them picked specifically because they had terrible drivers).

PC, hardware in general and restoring stuff is a major hobby and I have computers going back 40 years and all the tooling needed to work and repair them. It's been fun giving some of this junk of a little extra life while working on Catznip, especially when it's been to gain insight into issues that only really show up on actual ewaste.

 

Edited April 26 by Coffee Pancake

[InnerCity Elf]

The current one around 1.5k€, let's say 2k$ to make it simple, so pretty much your amount. The most pricy one I've used SL on was 2k€, and the first one is a bit hard to remember, I think it might have been a 399€ laptop. I need higher performant computers for my job, these years, didn't buy them "only" because of SL (but SL is a "side consideration" in buying, when I do, since my second foray into SL, didn't stick around after my initial curiosity visit). If I'd not need higher specs for work, I'd be fine with anything that does web browsing, email, YouTube and a few comparable streaming sites quickly and reliably enough.

Come to think of it, though, I'd pay not any but a hefty premium to not have to downgrade to "back in the AOL days" speeds, in any case, where you could wash your dishes while waiting for one page to build up, admittedly! People my age and above will remember the excruciating pain and beeps of the early days

[InnerCity Elf]

4 hours ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

lol.  Is this whole thread just a way for people to measure their...?

A mid-range laptop will run SL just fine.  No one needs to spend $3000 to login and have a great time.  It's like those posts bragging about 300fps.

To quote one of our frequent forum posters, "That's nice."

Maybe we could argue about what's most important for a good experience instead of how much we spent.  Video cards? Memory? Int

Personally, I like getting glimpses of which computers people (that I "know" in a vague use of the term, like forumites) use, I also sometimes watch "my desk setup", "my minimalist apartment", and the like on YT. Probably I'm just interested to see how others live, as I don't get into many other people's spaces "in real life". The most interesting aspect for me here is whether people bought their (beefy) computer expressly for SL or not.

[shireena1]

2 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:

£70 second hand. (US$88)

 

Yup, almost same here, mines a frankenstein build, secondhand dell pc, ( checkout prices on a refurbished 10 year old dell pc ), pcie adaptor so i can run a nvme drive, win 10, and  a nvidia rtx 2070 and power supply out of my 8th gen pc that died. good enough for what i do on SL.

[HeathcliffMontague]

Currently on a holdover: older gen i7, 16 GB RAM, GTX 970 while waiting for the mail to arrive with the parts so I can repair my daily driver. Cost me about 300 USD several years ago. Works surprisingly well, for now. Turns out SL isn't that bad with settings just between mid and high.

Edited April 26 by HeathcliffMontague
Spelling

[Rick Nightingale]

9 hours ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

lol.  Is this whole thread just a way for people to measure their...?

LOL - yeah - what's wrong with that?

Seriously though... it entirely depends what aspects of SL you enjoy most. For me, it's mostly about the visuals. A big, high-pixel screen and long draw distance, all graphics sliders ramped up to the max, is what I'm after in SL. My £1500 HP mini, the latest available, can't run SL worth a dime for what I want.

[Anna Salyx]

I custom built mine in 2019 and tried to future proof it as much as possible for several years into the future.  I think I spent around 2000 on it and it's beginning to feel lower mid.  But I've also replaced out the spinning drives for SDDS recently,  and also the video too so that's helped a fair amount.

[Bree Giffen]

I have a Lenovo Legion 5 notebook. Purchased when my desktop computer stopped working. When SL is in low graphics mode the notebook runs silent but if I turn up graphics the fans turn on. It's been running so nicely that I am not too concerned about getting a desktop again. 

[Luna Bliss]

4 hours ago, Rick Nightingale said:

it entirely depends what aspects of SL you enjoy most. For me, it's mostly about the visuals. A big, high-pixel screen and long draw distance, all graphics sliders ramped up to the max, is what I'm after in SL

Yeah I can't imagine SL without a big screen. I like to chat too, but only while viewing the landscape. If you haven't already seen it, Fallen Gods @ Fantasy Fairre has the most amazing region this year if you like the long views.

[Luna Bliss]

14 hours ago, Cinnamon Mistwood said:

lol. 
 

Is this whole thread just a way for people to measure their...?

oh c'mon, let me feel like some super techie person with my big PC   ;0

But seriously, to answer the question @InnerCity Elf posed, I did get a mid to high-range PC for the better visuals in SL, and also for creating mesh and music stuff.

[Istelathis]

I was going to build my own PC, but I found a sale for just under a thousand dollars at Best Buy

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 8-Core Processor (3792.81 MHz)

Memory: 48278 MB

OS Version: Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit (Build 22631.3447)

Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti/PCIe/SSE2

2TB SSD storage.

I then spent an additional $100 on 32gigs of memory

I went against my better judgement and got a credit card, which has no interest for 12 months.  It will be paid off by the end of the summer, a portion of it already has been paid off.  My laptop that I was using, was falling apart.  It would run Second Life, but was showing its age, the 1050 was able to hold up to a lot of games, even SL but at lower settings, and the screen was giving me eye strain, it was pretty terrible actually, I had to enable night mode and even then my vision would get blurry after a while.

I wanted to get a nvida 3060 with 12gb of vram, for AI tasks but settled for the 4060 with 8gb.  I plan to upgrade that next year, along with possibly getting a set of meta 3 goggles for some VR play.  

I play with most of the settings in high, get over 100 FPS in most areas, but it still does drop depending on the location, it can at times spike down to 20 FPS after teleporting to some areas even using Alchemy.  Usually, while driving it is over 60 FPS on mainland though.

I also purchased a 24" monitor for $150, anything larger would be too much for me, I don't like shifting my eyes around the screen as I enjoy playing games and like to have everything in my line of sight.  I don't have enough space to place the monitor further away, it remains less than three feet from me, and having it larger would become detrimental to my gaming experience.  Thankfully the eye strain is gone now, that old laptop screen was just rubbish.

I would love to get a second monitor, but have no room for it.  Alt tabbing to the web and back to a game is a PITA at times, and I like to multitask a lot, with the meta goggles I look forward to having a few virtual screens open at once for a few hours a day.

Anywho..

About $1,250 USD so far.  This Desktop should last me for several years, the laptop I had lasted for about 6 years I think, this should easily surpass that unless technology somehow advances at a rapid rate.  I've been reading of NPUs, and might have to upgrade to one of those, if they become popularized in the next few years.

Edited April 26 by Istelathis

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

23 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

oh c'mon, let me feel like some super techie person with my big PC   ;0

 

What I want to do to my laptop after only 2 pages of super geek-speak

[Dorientje Woller]

Simple combination of an AMD Ryzen5 3600X, 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 3200 Mhz, Gigabyte Windforce RTX 2060 on a MSI X570 Tomahawk Wifi. 2 NVMe 500 gig drives, 1 sata SSD 500 gig, 2 TB HDD. Back up 4TB external HDD. Runs SL on max settings without an issue on a Windows 11 Pro OS.

[Paul Hexem]

At least ten dollars.

[Istelathis]

13 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

At least ten dollars.

Now that is a gorgeous setup, I would love to have something like that.  I miss having a computer room 😔  When I had one, it was in the earlier 2000s and I had a four PCs setup on a few desks, I think three of them set to a KVM switch.  I remember playing MMORPGs on one computer, while having another computer being used to look at maps, quest information, and so on.  Those were fun times, sure the computers couldn't handle as much but it was a nice perk.  

One of the things I like about AR and VR is that multiple screens become possible in smaller spaces, but to have a permanent setup would be so much better.

[Luna Bliss]

9 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

One of the things I like about AR and VR is that multiple screens become possible in smaller spaces, but to have a permanent setup would be so much better.

And the largest screen EVER!

[gwynchisholm]

33 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

At least ten dollars.

This is absolutely a dig as a pc nerd, did you really get a tt tower 900 for a conventional, air cooled build with a single GPU?

This is like buying a humvee to pick up groceries.

One of the most specifically designed cases for elaborate water cooled hardware showcase builds ever made and there’s like, a 2070 and unsleeved cables in there. Bruh

[Istelathis]

Just now, Luna Bliss said:

And the largest screen EVER!

It is pretty amazing, I have a set of WMR goggles that I used to play around with and watch movies at a virtual cinema with, it was such a fun experience.  I also enjoyed having my own arcade, with a bunch of retro cabinets. It even had a little cinema I would watch movies on.

Unfortunately, Microsoft fizzled out Windows Mixed Reality and getting it to work on Windows 11 is a bit finicky, plus the resolution on my goggles are a bit off.  Still, they are fun to play around with.

I was reading in another thread on this forum, that there are applications for cinema where you can join in with other people and watch movies together that sounds pretty immersive, I kind of am selfish though and like having it all to myself.  I used to log into SL with them, lay on my virtual couch  (while laying on my real couch) and watch TV on the screen with them on, that was a bit of fun as well 😁

[Paul Hexem]

4 minutes ago, gwynchisholm said:

This is absolutely a dig as a pc nerd, did you really get a tt tower 900 for a conventional, air cooled build with a single GPU?

This is like buying a humvee to pick up groceries.

One of the most specifically designed cases for elaborate water cooled hardware showcase builds ever made and there’s like, a 2070 and unsleeved cables in there. Bruh

When I bought it I had elaborate liquid cooling plans, with dyes and everything.

Then I just... didn't. And since the air cooling is holding up fine, I haven't been strongly motivated.

[AmeliaJ08]

$1200 laptop + $750 (yikes!) eGPU chassis + $350 GPU + $150 in RAM/SSD upgrades...

Of course stuff from 2020/2021 isn't worth that any more. Maybe $800 worth in total used today.

I think realistically you could SL quite well on a $500 PC today, especially if you go used.

 

 

Edited April 26 by AmeliaJ08

[Luna Bliss]

2 hours ago, Istelathis said:

I was reading in another thread on this forum, that there are applications for cinema where you can join in with other people and watch movies together that sounds pretty immersive,

Yes I've done that and it's really a lot of fun. Was a bit creepy when some creepy-looking sci-fi guy slipped into the chair next to me though one day. As you know, in VR, you really feel like you're there!

[Love Zhaoying]

For the true cost, we'd need to include the human and environmental costs of mining rare earths in countries such as China, etc.

[Rick Nightingale]

21 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

For the true cost...

...and the use of electrical power, one of my (serious) thoughts, especially regarding GPUs now. Some of those could heat our living room!

Edited April 26 by Rick Nightingale

[Istelathis]

56 minutes ago, Rick Nightingale said:

...and the use of electrical power, one of my (serious) thoughts, especially regarding GPUs now. Some of those could heat our living room!

Strangely, I haven't noticed a difference in my room while the computer is running.  Right now it is 36°C and showing 4 - 5 watts of power consumption, that is with Fallout 4 running in the background. 

Then I tried it with SL open, and Fallout 4 running in the background.  The Bellisseria fairgrounds really pushes my computer, I'm getting about 50fps just standing around, whereas it goes into the 100s if I am standing around at my Bellisseria home.  

I think overall, my computer is using less than my older setups, with CRT monitors and all of that.  My room used to get really hot.