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.
Kaylee: H-how did you... g-get on...? Early: Strains the mind a bit, don't it? You think you're all alone. Maybe I come down the chimney, Kaylee. Bring presents to the good girls and boys.
'Objects In Space'
Buffistechnology 2: You Made Her So She Growls?
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TomW - Mar 30, 2006 7:48:37 am PST #7741 of 10003
"The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."
Betsy HP - Mar 30, 2006 7:52:10 am PST #7742 of 10003
If I only had a brain...
Over the years, we have learned that more memory is always worth it, and more disk often is.
Gudanov - Mar 30, 2006 7:52:19 am PST #7743 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
You gotta look out for the letters after the numbers too. An ATI card that ends in "LE" is going to be a crippled version that costs less.
TomW - Mar 30, 2006 7:52:29 am PST #7744 of 10003
"The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."
But your processor requirements are pretty low
You always want to overshoot the recommended specs, I think. I'm not saying that publishers lie through their teeth when they write them, but they certainly have a vested interest in not scaring people off.
Gudanov - Mar 30, 2006 7:55:11 am PST #7745 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
I don't think you can buy a new computer that isn't going to overshoot the processor spec.
Gudanov - Mar 30, 2006 7:59:02 am PST #7746 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
Actually, looking at the Gateway DX110X
You can upgrade the video from integrated to an NVIDIA 7300LE for $60. The question is, is the NVIDIA 7300LE any good? The "LE" at the end means the performance has been downgraded in some way.
Betsy HP - Mar 30, 2006 8:00:52 am PST #7747 of 10003
If I only had a brain...
Second Life may not run on graphics/video cards other than the ones listed above. Unfortunately, if your graphics card includes any of the following words, it's NOT compatible with Second Life:
* nVidia cards that report as a RIVA TNT or TNT2 The following cards have not been tested with Second Life, and compatibility is not certain:
* nVidia cards that report as Quadro
How can I tell what a card reports as, for the love of Mike?
TomW - Mar 30, 2006 8:05:58 am PST #7748 of 10003
"The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be."
How can I tell what a card reports as, for the love of Mike?
If somebody sells you a computer with a TNT or TNT2, then report them to the Better Business Bureau. They are quite ancient and no new machine will have them.
Quadro cards are specifically for high-end graphics workstations. Again, unlikely that anybody would try to sell you that for a home machine. They're quite expensive.
Having said that, TNT and Quadro are names that would appear in the description of the "graphics" for a computer, if they applied. Which they won't.
NoiseDesign - Mar 30, 2006 8:06:39 am PST #7749 of 10003
Our wings are not tired
How soon do you need the machine? If it can hold until the mid-april I'd be happy to build one for him and it could be in a custom case like the Bat Computer I built for Joe and Aimee.
Gudanov - Mar 30, 2006 8:07:28 am PST #7750 of 10003
Coding and Sleeping
RIVA, TNT, and TNT2 are really old chipsets, you might find TNT2 in some generic $25 video card, but generally they aren't available anymore. Quadro is the Nvidia workstation video card, it will be branded that way and won't be in any mainstream computer.
Edit: Nvidia chipset crosspost.
The 7300LE looks okay, it has DX9 support according to Nvidia. The 6600GT and 6600 are probably faster, but I have no idea how much difference it would make.