Peggy Paperdoll

Write a letter to: http://lindenlab.com/contact I'm sure they would know the answer........but will only tell a serious buyer. That is, of course, if Second Life is for sale.........and I've heard nothing to indicate it is for sale.

Okay..........go for an nVidia GTX 680 card. That's just about as high performing nVidia card money can buy........and the price reflects that. The problem is you also need a system and a connection that will support that card. And I'm not going to try to explain to you the what else is involved in order to realize the card's potential. You can get by with much less of a card (such as a GTX550 Ti.......about $100 USD) but that card will lag at ultra settings. There are very few video cards on the market that can run SL at ultra settings without noticable lag. If you want to build a system that can come close to do that, it probably can be done..........but you are going to absolutely have to abandon off the shelf systems and you are going to absolutely have to learn more about what you are asking for. You didn't ask what video card would run SL well without much lag. You asked what video card would run SL at ultra settings with no lag.....then you proceeded to list some computer manufacturers plus one CPU chipset manufacturer (Intel). That shows you do not know what you are asking for. You can go out and buy some $3000 desktop gaming rig and still won't be able to run SL at ultra settings unless you also know what is required in order to get that performance out of any machine. Take a step back and do some research.........or go out and spend a lot of money in the hopes of getting what you want (good luck on that).

The easiest way is to not deal with them at all. I'm sure you can find some place where the jerks don't exist.........unless, of course, you happen to like jerks. Flippant answer, I know. But this section of the forums isn't for silly disputes people might have with other people and owners of some "role playing" sim. Try General Discussions over on the "Forums".

Well stated, Indio. Much too often people will toss out the "hate group" for opinions or positions that the person taking offense simply disagrees with.

Ok Just want to say thanks for those who answered my questions but it seems you guys know more stuff than i do so I am looking to get a few insights about what specific kind of graphic cards will work best to run sl in ultra settings and have no lag. I am deciding on brands like asus, lenovo, alienware, hp with intel processor. Please be specific if you can if u cant than dont bother to answer this. ------------------------------------------------------ I'm going to be as specific as I can (but for SL, it's almost impossible to be specific). There are quite a few graphics cards that are technically capable of running SL at Ultra with little or no lag. But that's in a perfect world and the whole design of SL is far from perfect. To run any heavily graphics program at the highest settings possible everything has to be near perfect....like the graphics textures, the graphics data being acessed as fast as your graphics card and CPU can process that data, and the settings one has for the computer doing all that graphics processing. Let's take the graphics textures first. Almost none of the graphics in SL are anywhere near perfect. The whole idea surrounding SL (and it's main draw for users) is that the content in SL is user created. There are but a handful of expert graphics artists the provide textures and content to SL........the vast majority of the content is created by amateurs who do excellent work but the content is not optimized for performance (your graphics processing has to deal with textures that are many time larger than need be and/or textures that are uploaded at the improper color bit depth.....that slows things down considerably). Access to the data needed to present the scene on your monitor is something that, in SL, is completely different than any other online game or any other graphics program you might run on your computer. All the content (textures, objects, other avatars, scripts, chat, IM's, and anything else that makes up the SL world) is housed on remote servers. That means your viewer has to request the data to be sent to it depending on what you are looking at, where you are in the world, and where you want to go in the world. It's not housed on your hard drive where that access is almost instantaneous........it takes times to get to the servers, for the servers to find the content, and then send it back to your viewer (that's before your computer even has a chance to process that data). Your Internet connection is extremely important in that area......slow or glitchy connections will raise hell with SL. Your computer settings are just as important as anything else for performance in SL. SL, being as graphically intensive as just about any program you can run on a computer, requires that you have your computer set up to run using the best performance possible.....turn off all that glitzy stuff like Aero Glass on Vista and Windows 7 (that pretty, eye popping cheesecake takes resources that SL needs for best performance). That email checker takes more resources than you might expect. Having YouTube running in the background, your MSN or Yahoo messaging program, playing music from your iPhone..........all that takes resources from SL and will slow you down. Run your computer "lean and mean" when using SL (turn off as much as possible.....but leave critical things like anti-virus/malware and firwalls running. Here's where I'm not going to be very specific. You asked what is the best graphics for SL to run Ultra. Then you mentioned some computer brands (along wtih Intel...........a CPU chipset manufacturer) as what your considering for your purchase. That says to me that you really don't know what a graphics processer is. There's shame in not knowing that but you asked for specific.........and I can't be specific if you don't know what you really want to know. It's been mentioned that nVidia graphics cards (nVidia is one ot the two top graphics chipset manufacturers in the world......AMD'/ATI is the other) are best for SL. I'm not going to agree with that..........AMD/ATI cards are every bit as good as nVidia for graphics processing. I happen to use nVidia but not because it's really better than AMD/ATI.............I just use nVidia (I also drive a Ford....but there is nothing wrong with Chevorette). You want a high performance card no matter which manufacturer you use. I'm not going to recommend any card that is more than about mid-level gaming card.......that refusall to recommend be because you can spend $500 or more on a video card that is the highest gaming card available and , because of the design for SL, it won't run any better than that mid-level card. If you got money to throw at a rig that has bragging rights then go for it............but you'll need to get away fro off the shelf computers and go with a custome built or home built machine. And I don't think you are quite ready for that.

To follow up on iCade's answer (which is probably coirrect) I just want to say that a computer rebooting (or restarting) unexpectedly is never a good sign. There are a number or things that could cause the problem.........and none of them are particularly good. Some hardware device malfunctiing, failing or overheating (which iCade is referring to) is a very common cause for such an event. There are others though...........like a virus or spyware. Run a complete system anti-virus scan and a complete anti-spywarre/malware scan. The other (sort of common) cause is some system file being corrupted or damaged......that would entail a system repair or re-installation to fix unless you are very computer savvy with the operating system you are using and can find the damaged file and fix it without repairing or reinstalling the operating system. Any time your computer does something like rebooting unexpectedly you should take serious notice.........don't just keep doing what you are doing hoping it was some one time thing (it seldom is.... it's almost always indicating something is seriously wrong and needs fixing immediately or you run the risk of causing even more damage to your computer).

The first name for accounts that have the "Resident" sir name will be unique. Peggy Resident is different than Peggy1234 Resident. However, I do see the problem with naming 3 friends for identification purposes. If you wait for a longer period of time before you change your password (as I did the first time I went to reset my password) some of those friends are long forgotten or they might have left SL (deleted their account). Also your friend might have some common name with some random chosen characters to make it unique..........I tend to ignore the characters after the name and only remember the name that I use when talking to them (or about them). Such as I'd probably only remember "Peggy" when thinking of "Peggy1234.

Updating a graphics driver can be "tricky" but not really scary or difficult. You just need to do it properly. Most people don't update their drivers correctly by simply finding they need or want a driver update then go to where ever it is they found that has the driver and click on the driver........and if they get a choice to save the driver or run the installation (which Windows usually gives you in a pop-up) they choose the "Run". To be honest, that works most of the time but it's fire trap for potential problems and you should never update any driver (printer, audio or any other driver) using the "Run" from a website. AMD has a set of 4 short video tutorials that discribe exactly how to properly update your graphics drivers. You should watch them (more than once if you aren't completely sure you understand) before updating your driver. Those video tuts are at the bottom of the driver download page for AMD. http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx I what a suggest you do is to download your driver again and go through the process discribed in the tutorials to reinstall the driver. Don't skip any steps. Hopefully that will fix your problem. Make sure you are getting the correct driver for you computer. There is one more catch. You are using a laptop and a lot of laptops require specialized (custom) drivers specific to the make and model of the laptop the video card is installed in..........the best place to get those drivers is at the manufacturers website and not AMD/ATI. But you still need to follow the directions in the tutorials I linked to.

Why do people with $500 junker put a $3000 stereo system in their car and think I want to hear only the bass notes for some god foresaken rap song when we both are stuck in traffic (and I have my windows up)? I can't answer that question.

File an Abuse Report. Your neighbor can restrict sound to his/her parcel, and in this case, it appears they have purposely not done so. It could be (and, in my opinion is, a violation of the ToS.......harrassement comes to mind). If you are on estate land I would try contacting the Estate Manager first......if no help then the AR. On Mainland, go the AR route directly..........LL is the "Estate Manager" for all Mainland.

Support has always worked for me........sometimes it takes a day or two but most of the time it's pretty quick (24 hrs or less). I'm sure the reason why some get good support and some don't is the way the Support Ticket is presented. First, your request for support has to be something that is in the realm of LL's support capabilities..........they cannot troubleshoot your computer for you if you are having issues that are centered around your computer. Second, you must tell them everything pretaining to your problem (you couldn't log in and you knew exactly why you couldn't log in so you told them why.......that gives them a place to start). I'm also certain you were polite and not demanding with your request for help (some people just think that being an "irrate" customer right from the start will get more attention........the truth in that tact is almost always the exact opposite). I'm glad you took the time to post your good experience.......so few ever do. But I'm disappointed that you posted this thread at about 9:45 this morning and it's now a few minutes after 4:00 pm (SLT) and I'm the first to comment after nearly 6 hours (I just got off work and did my normal email stuff and checking my favorite news sites before coming to the forums). Imagine what the response count would be if someone had come to forums with guns blazing about how crappy LL"s support is. It happens all the time. Your thread is refreshing. I wish more would take your lead. Thank you. And no, I'm not a secret Linden Lab employee. And yes, I've had issues that LL did not resolve to my liking. I'm also realistic about what anyone can do to help if I (or anyone else) has problems. This is the Internet.......it's full of problems and some of those problems are very technical in nature (it's my job to fix my problems.........and LL's job to fix their's).

Heck when I started dancing the clubs took 0% of my tips. I actually quit dancing when everyone seemed to want some of my tips.......even just a 5% take. The way I figured it was that I (along with all the other dancers) were the single reason for the patrons coming to the club.........without us dancers that club would have a very tiny group of patrons (if they had any patrons at all). Sure they invested some real money in the club.........but they absolutely had to know a club in SL is a labor of love (there is no money in it and there never was any money in it..........which is why most of the more popular an sucessful clubs had shops adjacent to the club). Times have changed..............heck I don't even go to clubs anymore let alone dance in one.

It is a violation of the ToS to disclose any information without the express permission of all involved........file an Abuse Report whenever it happens. I'm not going to agree with you about "locking" chat logs. I don't think you understand much about what you are asking for. Chat logs (open chat or instant messages) can be very important for completely legitamate reasons........notes on a meeting, the ability to read the logs later for your very own personal reasons (I can think of many reasons where the chat logs, both public and private, have been extremely important for a project I was involved with in SL just a few months ago.........without being able to re-read those logs it would have been impossible to come up with any solutions or direction for the project). You are looking for a quick solution to what is really a pretty small percentage of people who use the logs for reasons other than what they are available for. I've been SL for a really long time compared to most people here on these forums (over 7 years now). I've had a note card with copied/pasted logs passed to me, uninvited and without the permission from the person(s) involved maybe 3 or 4 times................it just isn't a big problem at all (and yes, I AR'd it each time). I'm also a little vocal about people who do things like that.........I do everything I can to embarrass that person in front of as many people as I can muster. Is that nice? No it's not.......but I'm not worried about being nice to anyone who violates someone's privacy. You might give that a shot next time someone passes you a notecard with private conversations in it (it works......but you are very likely to lose that "friendship" over it. Such is life. I wont remain a friend to anyone who does crap like that anyway). You also might want to find better friends...........friends who aren't a$$holes behind other people's backs.

You can change your payment plan anytime you want. A lot of people start monthly then later move to quarterly or yearly.

Check your Internet connection. What you are discribing is a classic symptom of a weak or failing connection. If you are using a wireless connection, stop that and use a wired connection (a Cat5 Ethernet cable directly to your router or modem. If you are already using an Ethernet cable reboot your router and modem (unplug them from the electrica source for 3 to 5 minutes then plug them back in........reboot your computer to re-establish your Internet). If you've never been able to connect to SL without these problems then it might be that your computer is just not quite up to the task of running SL. If you have been able to use SL without these problems then you need to give us some computer specifications.....launch the viewer but dont' worry about logging in and under the "Help" menu click "About Second Life (copy the specs given and paste back here). Don't start a new thread. Use the "Options" at the upper right corner of your post and "Edit" to add the specs or any other comments that might help people help you.

@ Rolig: I know what a UV map is but I've never been able to discribe so concisely as you just did..........the dress pattern comparison is so simple yet discribes it near perfectly. Geeze, I wish I could say things so simply. Thank you. @ Chip: My god it's been years since I've seen a post by you..........please, come back more often. And to Jacki: I think you got your answer by two of the best.........good luck with your texturing.

That's a lot of questions and I'm not going to attempt to answer them all. What I do want to tell you is that it is actually easier to make friends in SL than RL. I'm not an introvert but I am somewhat shy in RL (maybe more than somewhat but not so much that it's crippling). I can relate to meeting people with that shyness in the way. My main problem always has been "what do you talk about when you meet someone new?". The people I've met in real life that I've become friends with have always centered on something in common......it could be work or some other interest like maybe a scenic view or fun ride at an amusement park. It's easier to find something to talk about in that scenario. It's the same in SL but so much easier to find that "common" interest because all it takes is a TP to some place that interests you (or a walk if you want to do it that way). The trick is to find those places. I was lost when I first came to SL in 2005. I didn't know where anything was or even what was out there (what I sense you feel the same way). I did meet a person who later became my best SL friend (and that actually moved in RL after about a year......we live less than 10 miles from each in RL and didn't know that untl almost a year had passed). She was lost like me and we leaned on each other to find stuff to do in SL. That got me started in exploring SL (what your friend you mentioned was saying). We found one of the most fun ways to "explore" was to open the big map, find a bunch of green dots (avatars) and TP to that location. That often put us in clubs where people were dancing. We learned how to use the dance balls so we could join in the fun........once we were there people starting acknowleding us and talking to us. We both were honest and told them we were clueless......most helped up with little tidbits of information and tips to make life easier (such as freebies for clothes, skins, and fun things). We gathered lots of landmarks to other places. Before a week had passed we had so much to try out it was an adventure just to log in. At that point we were the friends we had (just Gina and I against the whole SL world so to speak). But it got us both mixing with the other residents and suddenly I wasn't so shy anymore.......no one thought much about your mistakes or your little quirks about life. That's how I got over my "shyness"........but exposing myself to the residents of SL and refusing to take anything personal and making a determined effort to be friendly even if the response from some was not so friendly (just shrugged my shoulders knowing that most people are in the same boat when they come to SL and learned as much as I could about what's to do in SL). I don't explore SL that way anymore. I just find a Linden road or Railroad and start walking in some direction following wherever the road takes me..........and I've found some of the most fantasitc places that way. I would suggest you give that a try.....you'll get an idea of what there is to do in SL by seeing what others have done. To find events you can check the forums.......there are dozens of events "advertised" daily. Check them out. Another way is to try some of the "Destinations" on the log in screen. You can search for things like "Live Music" (that is probably my most favorite event in SL). Just go......don't worry about not knowing anyone there. Most live music goers are all alone when they go........but many leave with friends (Live Music attenders are probably the friendliest of all groups in SL........join their groups for announcements about up coming events). It won't take you long at all to become one of the "regulars" and find you'll have more friends than you can keep track of. When searching for events search for things that is interesting to you....if you like art then search art. If you like gardening, search gardening. You're going to wind up in some places you probably didn't really intend to be but just TP out........no one is going to say anything to you (and if they do the simpliest answer is just "Oooops. Wrong place"). There are events for almost any interest imaginable..........just search for them. Building in SL can be as complicated as you want it to be but the basics are very easy once you get a grasp on what it takes. You might try searching "Ivory Tower of Prims". That's a sim where newbies can read tutorials on building.......you go at your own pace and you can start from the most basic to the advanced. It's where I got started in building a long long time ago. I also used to go to sandboxes (after going through the tuts at the Ivory Tower) and watch others build..........I learned a lot by just observing. But, like everything else in life (RL or SL) it take time for it to sink in.......but it's not hard, really. My greatest interest in creation for SL wound up being textures (which is heavily related to building since a box is a box until you put a texture on it to make it something else). I got GIMP (I just could not see me spending $600 to $800 for Photoshop to indulge in a "hobby") and struggled for a long time until I finally got what a high end image editing program is all about...........I did learn eventually (with the help of a book I found on Amazon.com) and that became my passion in SL. Creating textures for clothing and building. I could spend hours on end just playing around with textures or editing some real life photograph, then uploading it to SL and get my rush when someone said it looked great or otherwise complimented my "art". You make friends that way too, by the way. You can do almost anything you want to do in SL. That's why it's impossible for anyone to tell you what the purpose is for SL. For me it's a number of things........textures, building, listening to live music, going to a fun rock and roll club or just walking some Linden road around a continent looking at all the sights to see. You have to find your "purpose"........and I'm sure you will once you find the sky's the limit on what to do in SL. Second Life started out as a 3D virtual world. It never was a chat room that grew in what SL is today. Google Philip Rosedale (the man who came up with the idea and founded Linden Research, the company that owns Linden Lab which created Second Life). Philip is a weird guy.....but, in many ways, genius. SL was developed by Linden Lab (Philip Rosedale) but the content of SL was (and continues to be) created by the residents with their builds, textures and scripts. LL provided the tools for residents to build the world. That's the main reason so many people have been here for so many years.......it's made by us. What you see was not created by LL, it was created by many residents (some who are regulars here on the forums), me and most likely you when you get basics learned. No other virtual world exists quite like SL (except some of the Open Sim grids which are clones of SL.........Second Life is the grand daddy of them all). And that fact that SL is user created is the answer to your question about how come SL runs so "crappy". All that content that makes up SL is user created.........and probably 95% (or more) has been created by amateurs. I know I created some very bad content myself until I learned what I was doing.........I know most creators did too. Most to that bad content is still around in SL. Practically nothing in optimized for graphics performance. Textures are several times larger than they need to be or they are 32 bit color depth when 24 bit is the proper texture. There are literally thousands (probably millions if it was possible to count them) of unoptimized textures. Those larger than necessary textures with the improper color depth are the biggest contributor to that "gray" object or clothing item you see on your monitor screen. It's not anything to do with OpenGL......it's the amateur texture that your graphics card has to render. Hundreds or thousands that in your angle of view.........it will put the best graphics card ever made to a test to render everything quickly. You don't have that problem with your online games Crysis 2.....it's all professionally made and optimized for performance. Which leads to another reason SL runs like *bleep*. Everything you see in SL is sent to your computer from LL's servers.....nothing about the world resides on your computer. With the real time 3D graphics that is constantly being changed by the residents (uploading, deleting, moving around, adding, etc) it would be impossible for SL to be user created and housed on anyone's computer. You got gigabytes and you got terrabytes......what comes after terrabytes? Because I think it's entirely possible that it would take that much storage space to save all the content that makes up SL (your house is not big enough to house the disks required to store all that data). And it's being added to constantly (I know there were evenings when I uploaded 20 to 30 textures......I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that occassionally). The comparison of SL to any game is just not a valid comparison. The graphics quality varies with the creator (some excellent and some really bad.....but it's all there and contributing to the crappy graphics). For what's happening when you see anything in SL, it's amazing it even gets sent to your viewer. So amazing that, to date, no one has come close to competing with SL in the virtual world with user created content.........and there have been attempts (no one has succeeded yet).

What have you tried so far to fix your problem? There are many things that could be causing your problems and most of those things are on the user's end......computer settings, needing hardware driver updates, security software improperly set (or set to too restrictive for use with a program like SL), connection issues, almost anything you can imagine. It appears you've done nothing so far and the attitude displayed by posting a thread like this stating that you're ready to "delete sl for good" indicates to me that you have no desire to find a solution..........so here's my answer: Go to your account dashboard. Under "Account" click on "Delete Account". Once you do that there is a waiting period before the account is deleted (it used to be 30 days in case you change your mind). If, by chance, you are a Premium Member the account will be deleted at the end of your billing cycle (up to that point you will have full Premium privileges. Good luck.

Now it gets somewhat complicated. It puzzles me that your Qaviamator runs properly on a flash drive but not from your hard drive. That sort of makes me suspect you might have a hard drive going south on you (hopefully not. You might be able to get a hint by looking at your Windows Experience Index (for Windows 7 or Vista........XP doesn't have that feature). Open your Control Panel (Control Panel - System and Security - System - Check Windows Experience Index). At or near the bottom of the hardware that Windows checks you'll see "Primary Hard Drive Transfer Rate". Hopefully you've run the check before so that you will have that score as a base (if not then this is probably a futile exercise). Make a note of that score then run the test again........your score should remain the same unless you've changed your hard since your last test. If it's lower, then there's something going on with your hard drive or the registry. There's two things you might want to do to check the HD. First go the "Computer" and right click on the drive that contains your operating system (usually drive C if you have more than one hard drive in your computer). That opens a dialog that has several tabs. Click the "Tools" tab. You'll see "Error Checking.....click "Check Now" and follow the instructions. It can take a while for the check to complete (and Windows can fix some minor errors with the check). Then the other thing that you might want to do is to defragment your hard drive (open Computer again and go the same path to get to the option to defrag your drive). You probably know a defrag can take a very long time so you might want to make sure you won't want to use your computer for a couple hours (depending on how large your drive is and how long ago you've defragged the drive). A defrag may just fix your problem, by the way. Those instructions on how to get to the tools are for Windows 7 (for Vista I forget exactly now to get there but it's very similar to Windows 7). And one more thing you might want to try. A registry problem could be your problem but messing with the registry is pretty scary (even for experienced users). There are free registry checkers/repair utilities that are quite good (well, they get good reviews anyway). I use Avanquest's "Disk Utilities Professional"......but it's not free. I also will often just do a clean re-installation of my Windows if I suspect registry problems (most people don't do that though). I found one free registry checker/repair program on CNET that gets pretty high reviews. It might be worth it to give it a try if the Error Checking and Defrag doesn't work for you. I would only mess with the registry as a last resort. http://download.cnet.com/Free-Window-Registry-Repair/3000-2086_4-10606555.html

Why are we arguing? I stated what I thought might work for the OP. I made a very logical (and correct) suggestion about getting as much system memory as the motherboard would support and go with the i5 CPU and HD 3000 graphics chipset. I know that combination will work. It won't work very well at anything over low settings (probably it will give acceptable performance at medium settings but lag is going to be an issue). I was asked why I said more memory and I answered as clearly as I could. That's it. I'm not trying to taut anything..............the OP wants a laptop for his wife in the UK (I think). He does not want to spend more than $700 USD (but because he said $500 first and said he might go as high as $700 I searched for laptops in the $500 range to get him started). I know for the same performance and comparable hardware in a laptop vs a desktop you are looking at roughly twice the price. You can't get a desktop that will run SL worth a flip at less than about $400 USD (yeah, some serious searching you might find one lower but it's going to be a real stripped down desktop). That means in order to get a laptop comparable to a $400 desktop you are going to spend about $800 minimum. I try to keep it simple. I'm done arguing with this derail. I answered the OP as best I could. He seemed to understand and thanked me. I told him good luck. So I'm done with this thread..........all that's happening now is some people trying to discredit what I said. You and the other poster have both failed on that point. Argue among yourselves if you want...........I'm done.

649 Euros is 1 Euro less than 650. 650 Euros is equal to just over 849 USD. I believe I stated pretty clearly that I was talking about US Dollars. You missed the upper limit on the budget of $700 USD by almost $150. Maybe you should Google Euros to dollar conversion like I just did when you find those good deals like that. http://fx-rate.net/EUR/USD/

Usually when I've experienced a program start doing crazy things that it didn't do before I take a look at the task manager to see if there is more than one instances of the program running (occassionally that will be the problem and all that I needed to do was to kill all instances and restart the program). I have to tell you that that only happens very rarely but it's an easy thing to do so that is my first step. If everything is okay in the task manager (or, if killing the instances doesn't fix the problem) then I shut down my computer (not restart, but a complete shut down for a few minutes) to clear out any residual memory issues. Then, if that still doesn't fix the problem I will uninstall the program, shut down the computer, then search my computer for any left over files from the program (if you have CCleaner on your computer, run that along with the registry checker). Then get a fresh copy of the program and install it again. Once the installer is done it might ask if you want to run the program when you click "Finish"......say no or uncheck the box and close the installer before trying the program again. Those are the basic things I've done in the past for strange problems that crop evey now and then. It doesn't always fix the problem but if does fix it enough that it's worth a try.

I'd rather spend an extra 100 or so bucks on a laptop with a dedicated graphics card which will both speed up the graphics and free up about 1GB of RAM than spending half that on something that doesn't make a difference. -------------------------------------------- I was just speaking about a laptop in the $500 to (possibly) $700 USD range. For a laptop that's a pretty low end machine. A laptop in that price range will almost certainly not have a discrete graphics card in (nor will it have the capability of adding one later......not only does the laptops mainboard have to have some slot for a graphics card but it also has to have a battery pack and cooling system to handle that upgrade. And, because of the space available in a laptop's case and the additional power comsumption requirements, after market video cards are built specifically for the laptop they are installed in...........that makes those cards pretty expensive (compared to desktop hardware). When you find a laptop that is capable of all that and remain in the $500 to $700 USD price range let me know..........I don't think you're going to find one (and absolutely not for that $100 more in a video card with that 1 GB of system RAM savings you mentioned. You would have to do some serious shopping for a recent card like that for a desktop). We're talking about a laptop that is to be used in SL but the OP is not expecting (and, as far as I can tell, not really interested in running SL at settings much above low). I mentioned system memory only because I was thinking about a price lower than the upper $700 range and memory is just about as cheap as you can get for an upgrade in a laptop. It will help, especially when you're on the low edge of being able to run SL decently. Windows allocates memory for itself. Meaning it reserves that memory for it's use regardless of whether or not it uses all that's allocated. Windows 7 consistantly uses right at 500 MB on my machine.........but the memory reserved is over 1 GB (but I have 16 installed so it's not an issue for me). Back before I added memory I was at 8 GB and Windows 7 used the same 500 MB but it only reserved about a GB (not the nearly 1.5 GB it reserves now with the added memory). I don't know what the OS uses for determining how much memory to reserve............but I do know it's quite a bit more than it actually uses. Windows also does the same for all programs (if you have your settings set to allow Windows to automatically set the memory for your programs......which most people do. You really have to know your stuff to manually set memory allocation. And I'm not to that level so I leave it up to Windows). If the memory is allocated (or reserved) then Windows will not allow another program use that allocated memory even if it's not being used. That's why more RAM is allows helpful. Do you absolutely need it? In most cases, no you don't. But if do wind up needing that memory, Windows will use the virtual RAM (paging file on the hard drive) as a substitute. When your graphics rendering requires graphics RAM it gets if from Windows...........whatever is left over after all that reserved memory for all the programs that are running (including Windows and all it's processes). SL, on many occassions, wants a lot of memory for graphics rendering..........and if the graphics adapter does not have it's own onboard VRAM it gets it from Windows. But only as much as Windows can allocate from what's left over. Then it goes to the page file to make up the difference......and that's often too slow for most people in SL. I know of no onboard or on CPU chip intergrated graphics accellerators that have dedicated VRAM.............they all get it from the system RAM. That was my point in suggesting the OP get as much RAM as possible. It's easier to get it upfront when you purchase the computer than to add it later because you must match the upgraded RAM to the existing RAM and more often than not you don't know what RAM to buy..........unless you physically remove the memory modules and take them with you when you go to purchase more RAM (that can be a pain in the butt). And, one more thing..........the manufacturer of the RAM is often important too (and I've found it hard to find the same manufacturer as the existing modules........which is why I always toss the old modules and buy a complete set when I upgrade my RAM. It costs more when you do that I because of that I try to just load the machine up at the time I purchase the computer. I didn't do that with this machine and it cost me almost $200 to get 8 more gigs of RAM where I would have saved at least $100 if I had done it when I purchased the computer. Live and learn).

My thinking on memory is the same as my thinking on power supplies. Both those components of a computer are cheap compared to most all other components that make up a computer. Both are about the easiest components for an amateur to install or replace. And, for both components, there is no such thing as "too much" (you can't over do it and cause problems). Not to mention that with a healthy amount of memory availabe and plenty of power available you can do so much more later with upgrades and not have to worry about whether or not you have enough memory or power. No I don't think you have to install the maximum memory your motherboard will support (but I do anyway......it's just something I do). And no you do not need a 1000 watt power supply either (PS's make a big jump in price at about the 1000 watt range.....but an 800 watt PS is only a few dollars more than a 500 watt PS). Those are my generic thoughts of memory and power. For SL it comes into play more rapidly than other programs with LL's constant introduction of new features that require a higher level of graphic rendering capabilities. That means, as time goes along, you find your graphics cards are not quite what you need anymore (the most recent feature is mesh..........a lot of those graphics cards just could not handle the viewers required to experience the mesh content. People had to look at upgrading their graphics cards (or purchasing a new computer) in order to see what all the fuss was all about. Buying a new computer every time LL puts out something like mesh is a rather expensive way to enjoy SL. Upgrading the graphics card is much cheaper. But, often, upgrading the graphics card requires a computer with more power available. Having a big PS in the computer takes that worry away. On the memory for SL. There is a lot of stuff going on when you are logged in. The graphics are the most noticable since that is what you see on your monitor (and the reason you need a decent graphics adapter). But there are other things that your computer must deal with constantly. Positional stuff.......that big build that awes your senses have to properly placed in the scene for you to see it. Every time you move or change your camera angle that stuff has to positioned properly on your screen. Someone walks (or flies or TP's) into your field of view, it has to be positioned properly. Particles, scripts, chat, IM's voice, streaming media..............all have to be dealt with by your computer. Your system memory is what makes all that stuff happen in "real time"......if you don't have enough then your computer starts using your hard to suppliment and writing the data to your disk then recovering it when it's necessary is very slow compared to RAM. For SL RAM is just as important as graphics. Now back to why I said what I did to the OP. It was clear to me that the OP is purchasing this computer for someone else and price is a concern. The computer needs to be a laptop (not the least expensive type of computer available.......about 2 times the price of a desktop with comparable specs). In order to do that it's pretty much out of the question of going with a laptop that has a discrete (dedicated) video card. That means the graphics will be intergrated. I suggested the i3 CPU with the HD3000 intergrated chipset because I know, first hand, that an i3 with the HD 3000 chipset will work...........not well but it will work. Since the intergrated video has not dedicated video RAM it will be getting what is needs for rendering from the system RAM. 4 GB is probably okay (Windows 7 needs about a half GB but Windows reserves about 1 GB so you have to say Win 7 uses a gig.......even if it really only uses half that). Second Life wants close to a gig (it will work with less but with a performance hit). Everyone has background programs running (some are necessary, some are for convenience). It's not out of the question to have memory reserved for those background programs to be near or more than another gig. That's 3 GB to run SL without considering the video RAM your graphics adapter is going to need just to render the scene for you. That's putting you close to what you have installed in a 4 GB system. Yes, you can do it (and probably have issues that can be avoided with more RAM...........such as unexpected log outs or viewer crashes. Getting another 4 GB of RAM is a pretty cheap and effective way to avoid some of those potential problems. Did I shed any light on it for you? (I always wonder about that, maybe you could shed some light on it.)

I see what you are saying.........and you are probably right. But specs are specs. Windows is Windows. The country where the computer and/or software makes little or no difference (well licensing might be different but the hardware and software code remain the same no matter where the computer is used). Try some sites in the UK (I know there are plenty from some of the forum regulars posting here). My problem would be the currency exchange conversion to see if I'm getting ripped off. I also don't know any of the more reputable sites. I see a computer prices at 500 Euros or pounds and I have no idea of how that compares to $500 USD...........it could be a great deal or it could be very expensive. I'm sure someone from the UK will chime in. But, as you probably know, it's the wee hours of tomorrow morning there right now Good luck.