Synge Takacs

That will run SL, but poorly on anything but low settings on account of the Intel integated graphics. Intel graphics have historically been terrible. They have improved a lot recently but they still don't come close to Nvidia and AMD dedicated chips. For a thin and light laptop in that price range to run SL, look for something with a Core i5 and the best Nvidia graphics that you can afford. If you don't mind a 15 inch laptop, your best bet at $600 is probably the Acer Aspire V3-571G-6602. I think the best bet in a small laptop for SL will be a little more expensive. Take a look at the 14" Acer Timeline M5 Core i5 with 4gb/500gb HD/20gb caching SSD and a Nvidia GT640M LE for $779. It's a bit more expensive, but it may be right up your alley. It should run SL on medium settings quite smoothly and if I were buying right now, that's what I'd get.

After years and several rounds of upgrades, I run a high end system and am pretty obsessive about SL performance. I thought I'd spec out an ultimate SL system based on my experience. What you list is overkill on the CPU side, but underpowered graphically. This goes for most games - SL especially needs the fastest video card you can give it to max out its settings. Even then it won't be quite enough to completely max out everything smoothly at 1080p and up resolution. SLI and Crossfire in Second Life are pretty useless, so you want the fastest single GPU card available. You also want a SSD for fast zoning, and faster memory would probably also help. Based on my experience, here's what I would recommend for a price-optimized high-end build that's built specifically for Second Life, with everything you need and nothing you don't for the very best possible experience. Of course it will also be great for any other game, too! Prices are current on Newegg as of this writing. CPU: Intel Core i5-3470k Quad Core (3.4GHz / 3.8Ghz Turbo) $229 Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo $35 Case: Antec 302 Black $68 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 $129 Memory: G-SKILL Ripjaws X 16GB (2 x 8gb) DDR3 1600 9-9-9 $95 SSD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB $119 Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $85 Video Card: Galaxy Geforce GTX680 SOC White Edition $555 Power Supply: Seasonic M12II Bronze 620W $89 Monitor: ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms GTG 1920x1080 $179 Keyboard and mouse: Microsoft Comfort Desktop 5000 $59 Speakers: Logitech Z523 $79 OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit $99 Total: $1820 Obviously corners can be cut if need be to meet a price point, but this is a no-compromises SL system with no extra 'fluff'. I've been through several rounds of upgrades and learned a lot about SL performance. Currently I'm running a overclocked Core i5-760 with 12gb RAM, 128gb SSD, and a GTX670. Hope this helps.