Dudes,

Need to buy a clue. My son's cheapo Dell (3 years old) no longer suffices to run online games like Second Life. He wants a games-friendly computer for his birthday. I'm assuming a separate graphics card is a must-have. What else do I need to look for? (Note that this doesn't have to be a hyped-up water-cooled machine; just something with fast graphics suitable for current games.)

Here's the Second Life requirements page. I am ashamed to admit it's gibberish to me. Is there a pre-packaged vendor that offers machines compatible with the "comfortable" needs? I'm not up for building one.

[link]

* Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL

* Computer Processor: 1.6GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon 2000+ or better

* Computer Memory: 512MB or better

* Video/Graphics Card**:

o nVidia GeForce FX 5600, GeForce 6600, or better

o OR ATI Radeon 9600, X600, or better

nVidia GeForce FX 5600, GeForce 6600, or better

OR ATI Radeon 9600, X600, or better

You have to get either an nVidia or an ATI. I think the way it works for each company is the higher the number, the better. But you might want to double-check that....

Dell has their "XPS" range, which is pitched at gamers. [link] I have to say that I haven't heard anything good about the XPS machines, and I have heard some very bad about them.

Alienware also pitch at gamers. [link] Their machines are wicked fast, but prone to noisiness. I have one under my desk at work. It's a tiny god, but I had to fiddle with it to make it quiet enough for a work machine. That may not be an issue with a home machine. I believe they have just been bought out by Dell. That may change their quality proposition.

HP probably has a machine that would do, but good luck finding it. It's probably called the z2345i. Not to be confused with the z2345j.

Gateway also has a series of gamer's machines: FX510. [link]

Everyone except for the real budget makers (like eMachines) should have something in their lineup that would do. Just keep an eye on the "graphics" line item. Anything that says "integrated" will be bad news.

That is an enormous help, Tom; thanks.

Alienware has just been bought out by Dell, although the transaction isn't final yet.

Husband did a ton of research before we bought our new computer. Depending on how much you want to get into these things, he was very fond of tomshardware.com for reviews and comparisons.

Muesli to add that tommyrot is correct, the higher the number the better.

However, note the prefix. I believe that the X... cards from ATI are newer than 9... cards.

nVidia has a few ranges going at the moment. The GeForce 4/4mx cards are pretty old at this point. After that, I think you can identify the series based on the first number. GeForce FX starts with a 5, GeForce 6 with a 6 and GeForce 7 with a 7.

They then add all kinds of suffixes to confuse the issue and delight the compulsives.

You can get a basic Gateway DX110X and then install the graphics card.

Like this one: [link]

Or really any inexpensive computer with an available PCI-Express slot (The Gateway lists having one PCI-Ex16 slot free) and then disable the integrated video.

The problem is that you apparently need DirectX 9 support in the Video Card and integrated video is very unlikely to have that. But your processor requirements are pretty low, so to get a computer with a Video card that supports DX9 you'll probably have to pay a lot more since all the other components will be beefed up to.

My other recommendation would be not to skimp on the memory. I would put 512MB as the minimum and 1GB as recommended. It's relatively cheap and you get a good bang for your buck.

Over the years, we have learned that more memory is always worth it, and more disk often is.