VRprofessor

Peter is correct, that isn't a lot of information to go on. My laptop got wonky with SL a month or two ago. I uninstalled SL viewer, deleted all that cache files, then reininstalled. Not sure if this is even remotely appropriate for the problems you are having, but it will only take you about 10 minutes to do and will narrow down the range of plausible problems if it doesn't work.

As I read the answers I think I am still not being clear. I currently have two monitors (23" @ 1920 x 1080 resolution. This is a recent upgrade from two lower resolution monitors representing an increase of ~62% in the number of pixels being displayed.) Both monitors are currently being driven by a single graphics card. Monitor 1 is SL; Monitor 2 is everything else that I am doing. I am hoping that with two cards Card 1 would drive Monitor 1 (and SL) and that Card 2 would drive Monitor 2 (everything else). If that doesn't work I will need a better card. As I look at some information about my motherboard it appears that I can set some programs to use onboard graphics, reducing the load on my video card. I'll fiddle with that a bit and see if it helps.

Sorry about poorly wording my question. Thanks for the info. I'd like to take credit for forethought but the simple truth is that I was advised by a PC gamer when I built my current desktop. I have the slots that I need for dual cards and I have a big power supply. No problem there. I am concerned that SL might not play nice with dual monitors. I'll dig around and see if I can learn anymore. Because I alread have a 550 card installed purchasing a second one is the cheaper option.

Sadly many of the logical fallacies that we experience are pretty well hard wired into the brain. Even folks who study decision making and understand these fallacies more deeply than most find themselves making many of them at one time or another. Gerd Gigerenzer why our brains tend to work that way in Gut Feelings, which is highly readable. Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow is a nice introduction to how our brains actually think (not rationally) and discusses some of the resulting problems.

Thanks for the link Nyll, but that's not quite what I am looking for. What I am trying to work out is whether purchasing two GTX 550 GPUs (one per monitor) or one GTX 560 GPU makes a difference. The number of "core processors" would be identical in either case (for higher end 560 cards). It is just that in one case the same processors would be shared by two displays while in the other each display would have dedicated processors. The argument that I have heard, and I am wondering if it is valid, is that when you have two displays driven by a single card, there is substaintial memory swapping going on as the card switches from rendering one display to the other. With two cards each display has a dedicated set of processors that render the displays in parallel. The claim that in this case two cards are better than one makes sense to me....but that doesn't mean it is right.

"...My question, two cards better than one, " Hooray, I don't need to hijack the thread. I have a dual monitor system with a single GTX 550 card. I've been told that adding a second 550 card (one per monitor) would be better than purchasing a single 560 card to run both monitors--moving the current 550 card to a different computer. Anyone know anything about this?

Make sure to check and see if the power supply will support a graphics cards. Many off-the-shelf PCs have a power supply with very limited capacity to support upgrades. The other factor is how well do you want SL to run? If you are going in world for meetings or classes where you'll be largely stationary while listening/chatting you don't need very good performance. If you are going to be role playing or clubbing or other stuff that actually uses graphics you really will want a solid graphics card.

and a follow on to Peggy's comment...I rarely go into SL on my laptop without the AC plugged in. SL on battery only drains the battery really, really, quickly.

My laptop is similar to the first one you listed: 8gb ram i7-2670m nvidia gt 550m 2gb (so a tad slower graphics card) 15.6" monitor I run SL with mid level graphics. I can run high, but the system gets really hot and I worry about burn out something. I am not running super fps speeds--in a busy sim I still get around 20-25fps most of the time so I'm pretty happy. The last one you added doesn't list a graphics card. That will slow SL down. I'm not sure what you do with 12gb of ram and a 1.5tb drive so I wouldn't spend the money.

I don't have an answer, only an addtional anecdote. A week or so ago I was trying different skins from the same package and noticed that the face on one of them was fuzzy while the others were clear. I'm really curious as to why that would be the case.

So, you have option A or option B? In this case I like option Asus. You won't be running on high or ultra settings, but you should have enough for medium. If you are primarily chatting or hanging out this should be good enough. Busy sims or dance clubs will be less than satisfying.

Simplicity is the enemy in this case--but I will try. There is a difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable. It is sometimes hard to know the difference because one person's pleasant debate topic is another's core belief. I've been on both sides of this one. I prefer to get to know someone a bit before I question their taste in pickles or engage in lively debate. I still run into misunderstandings and hurt feelings, but much less than I would otherwise. The best you can do is make a point of not being intentionally rude and own up to it (appologize) when you realize you screwed up.

The others have correctly stated that this deal is more expensive than annual billing if you stay for a year. The only point I see in taking this deal is to try premium for a quarter and then either go to annual billing or return to a basic account. As a newbie I've seen this deal either once or twice already so if you remain unsure wait a couple of months and it will come around again.

I was using an intel T4200 cpu with whatever graphics are built in. On low settings I would get as high as 20fps on relatively empty sims and even 12fps with several people standing around. A prim heavy sim would effectively shut me down. The computer you have spec'ed is better than that, so you should see better fps. How good? Not honestly sure, but I have read several of the threads on this topic and my new laptop has better specs than you are looking at---putting it all together I would guess you'll see a boost of 50% or so over my T4200. 30-35fps on low settings, empty sim. Probably at or below 20fps on medium settings, empty sim. If you have the option a desktop does indeed give a bigger return on investment. I know a lot of folks are trying to buy one computer for multiple uses, often requiring something portable. If you absolutely need the portability then understand that you will be paying a premium for good SL performance. (Good, not excellent.)

The inability to add clarifying information the last time I posted a question was enormously frustrating. The responses I received made it clear that my question was not being understood as I intended--and re-reading my question I could see why. I tried to add some clarifying comments to my original post, but could not find an edit option. Tried to add to the thread and was told I cannot answer my own question. Sigh. Fortunately I was asking the question well ahead of actual need. I feel bad for those who tried gallantly to answer an ill-formed question, but I was not badly harmed, just frustrated. I will re-post at some point in the future as a forum thread where I can clarify my meaning when I muck up the original question.

Listen to Peggy, this is an older computer that you need to buy pretty cheap for it to be considered a deal. Really cheap. You can get much better specs for $500 - $600. (Not great specs, but a lot better than you are looking at.)

Spring 2009 I was recruited to teach a game studies unit in an Honors course at my university. Had a blast. The course was canceled in 2010 and revived for fall 2011--with a somewhat altered theme. A theme very different than I had planned on when I agreed to teach a unit. In mid-august 2011 I came across some materials about Second Life (I, Avatar) and a book summarizing our current understanding of how people respond to virtual reality environments (Infinite Realities). Not sure what I was thinking, but with less than two weeks until I had to teach something I was ready to try anything--so I did. A few weeks into the unit, as we were reading I, Avatar, one of the students looked at me in frustration and declared that she and the others were not getting it. Having no virtual world experience they were simply lost trying to understand much of what the author was talking about. In frustration she declared that they (my students) needed to get some experience in SL or something similar if they were ever going to learn anything useful! I had heard the stories about the bad parts of SL and had chosen NOT to use it. But as I informally polled the rest of the class there was a level of frightened agreement. (My classroom presence is, I am told, rather intimidating and I suppose students were frightened I was really going to go off having been publicly criticized.) No fire works erupted from my head. A few moments of contemplation and I simply declared that two weeks from that date class would take place in SL, location and topic to be announced. Class dismissed at 1:15SLT and VRprofessor was born shortly there after. I managed to find a number of helpful folks along the way and my first SL based class was closer to success than failure. None of the students in that group, or the next, found SL personally compelling so they've not come back since class. That's okay..They all seem to have developed at least a bit of understanding that SL isn't weird. I, on the other hand, made enough friends along the way that I just keep on coming back. I've made personal connections with a couple of other college educators and I have managed to find some relevant groups--time to start planning for Fall 2012!

RE: Explorer groups. I typed "explorers" into SL search, selected groups and got 2100+ hits. explorersrus is one that I think I have gotten some notices from that seem to suggest a reasonable group.

I really can't complain. I've had exceptionally good luck with the people I've met. My name and profile probably help with that. I also tend to frequent places where I am more likely to run into the sorts of folks I would get along with. As others have already pointed out sex and complaining are two of humanity's favorite hobbies. As long as folks are well mannered about it I have no objection. (Hit on me, take "no" for an answer, and I am mildly flattered. Keep hitting on me and we won't be getting along.) I have noticed a lot of profiles with "no sex" or "no romance" type messages--no guarantee that you won't land in the middle of a complaining session, but these might be good folks for you to start up a conversation with..Especially if they peek at your profile and see a "no sex" type message. (Make sure to include info about things you might want to talk about. It seems that a lot of the older residents scan for that sort of material: "What? Another model railroader? I should tell them about zzz!" People love to connect with other hobbyists.) Knowing what I know now I would start by searching out groups that seem to have interests similar to your own. I rather randomly joined one group because someone I was talking to invited me. I haven't had time to do anything with the group, but the group notices are intriguing--they sound like things I would be interested in.

A bit of a follow-up: with just a bit of searching I found an i7 laptop with a gt540m graphics processor for $830 http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod3620047&navAction=push This isn't going to be the best for SL, but it isn't terrible either. Certainly better than the computer you asked about.

What Peggy said. For $1000 you can do much better. I think that is the normal street price for the computer I am currently using: Asus n53s with an i7 processor and a gt550n video card.

A virtual poster session or mini-conference would be easy enough to arrange if there were interested presentors. I know that there are enough academic types running around that we could arrange a proper conference format so that presentors could claim a presentation on their vitae.

Are you happy with it? That's all that really matters. I have a shape/skin that a friend picked out that I like very much. I have one that I picked out that is sort of meh for me. It is a perfectly good shape/skin and my wife, who does not play but watches over my shoulder sometimes, rather likes it. If I posted the look I would expect a number of people would think it looks good. But to me it just doesn't feel right for me. FWIW I like your look.

I have a GT55m in my laptop and I am happy enough. That said, I don't feel a need for really high graphics settings. I use med settings tweaked a bit, but no shadows. I can run on high if I want to, but I don't get enough joy out of the high settings to justify the extra load on my card. Just out of curiousty I put my settings to "high" and turned on shadows...sun & moon...went to a newbie site (nci kuula) and got about 23fps. If I remember correctly the benchmarks on the GTX560m are about double those of the GT550m so you should do at least as well as I do with less work for your card.

Don't start creating alts yet. I have already made a couple of friends who constantly change their looks--one who changed 5-6 times during one conversation. I find it amusing. I had a handful of different looks in my first 2-3 months, I am still exploring different shapes and skins, but when I find one I like better than what I have, all my outfits get updated. For me different looks isn't a reason for alts. Different lives is why you would want alts.