adec

Ok I bought the Asus G73SW for SL and shadows ... knocking a glass of red wine over the keyboard wasn't a great idea.. its toast ...

This has kept me out of SL for nearly 5 months ... so time to buy a new machine..

Do I really need a laptop .. probably not .. the asus was so big it never moved...

I don't want a whole PC desktop solution either....

Compromise seems an iMac... anyone out there withe the basic iMac, and able to run shadows ?

Amazon.com: Apple iMac MC309LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop (NEWEST VERSION): Computers & Accessories

I don't need to run shadows all the time... I just turn them on for photos then off again ..

thanks!

Adec

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Sea Warcliffe

ouch. I have basically that iMac but with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB
And I can run shadows on ultra - but only on Firestorm for some reason.
Well to be fair - it might also work on SL viewers, but call me a sissy....

PS - I just upgraded my 4 GB RAM to 16 from here: http://www.macsales.com/
woooo fast bootings and zippyness

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Han Held

That's the model I'm using -same video card and it looks like the same everything else; I have a hell of a time staying logged in to sl with firestorm under OSX (though it works fine in windows/bootcamp).

The body gets hot, which they tell me is the way that it cools itself, and that heat makes me a little nervous running SL. But I'm able to use shadows -though I normally have them turned off because it makes the difference between having FPS in the forties instead of in the teens.

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Anya Ristow

The iMac is overdue for an update. You'd be buying a machine that is more than a year old.

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Joshua Nightshade

Yeah, I would wait until later in the year, or pick up a MacBook Pro if you need OSX earlier than then.

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Sea Warcliffe

My MacBook Pro runs SL quite happily - even on wifi. But I havent tried shadows. I bet it could with the right viewer.

Saint Pipra of Peevington

Why only the iMac? There are an awful lot of all-in-one non-Mac machines out there which I'm pretty sure could run SL with shadows too. Nothing against the iMac, it's a perfectly good choice -- I'm just curious.

Ash Rothmanay

Because most people prefer and are loyal to one system. I for instance is PC all the way. The only mac ware I have ever owned is my Ipad I got this summer. Others touch nothing else but macs and some don't want anything except lynux.

But anyway I am just posting to have an excuse to post. Unfortunatly I can't give any advices but I just like to offer my condolences on the red wine spillage. I've died a several keyboards, 2 mices and almost killed my lap because my hands can't hit my mouth

Lutrai

I feel you. I knocked a pint of cider on my netbook once. It sounded like it exploded and never turned back on again. May yours rest in computer heaven.

Saint Pipra of Peevington

I do know this is true for most folks, but since it was an Asus that got accidentally enwined, I figured that wasn't the situation in the OP's case.

Sorry to hear about your peripherals and lap, though! I prevent these things by drinking solely out of a sippy cup insulated bottle with a built-in straw, these days.

adec

@Saint Pipra.. true it doesn't have to be an iMac, there are a lot of all in one PCs out there.. but with boot camp it gives me the option of using Windows or Mac for other things away from SL.

@Anya thanks for that link.. if I go that route I'll def wait now!

I did really like the Asus.. but their support desk / small print on their accidental spillage warranty has put me off that company for life..!

Eris

Apple won't cover that, either.

Saint Pipra of Peevington

As far as I know, basically no one will. 'Liquid damage' voids just about every gadget warranty I ever saw.

Cristiano

Sadly, Mt. Dew and HP laptops don't mix well either.

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adec

..actually Asus did you give you 1 years spillage warranty... just a matter of small print and having to register the product on 2 separate websites which ruined that route..

@Cristiano *sigh* another piece of equipment heading to the big ewaste in the sky..

Inu Piedpiper

Dell covers liquid damage. I can put it under a tire and back over it and they will fix it for free for me. I paid extra for it but i have it. They also gave me a number of someone local who comes to my home and fixes it. I cant say i paid to to much for it. It has come in handy a few times. I found that while my laptop recovered from wine, it didnt like the coke. Something about eating the copper off circuits or some techy thing like that. =) Good luck to you.
P.s I know a lot of people dont like Dell but they have bought out Alien ware and i think they laptops have improved.

Saint Pipra of Peevington

Two separate websites? Ugh, bad design -- that should definitely be streamlined. Unless they did it on purpose to cut down on people being able to claim, but that just turns people off buying from them again in the end. As you've mentioned. But it's nice to know it exists anywhere at all, I s'pose.

Ash Rothmanay

Doh!! Asus!! Yeah I really should READ before posting and yeah I now only drink from a bottle or my lidded coffee cup, although I have stopped drinking anything in front of the lap as she starts to growl whenever she sees a liquid near her, poor thing

Kara Spengler

Thanks for that. Maybe I can convince my 2007 iMac it still has some more life in it.



I use parallels. In addition to natively booting snow leopard I have virtual machines in lion, 2 or 3 linux distros, and the windows 8 preview.

I got a kick out of the fact that the parallels box just assumed you were buying it to run windows. Meanwhile the only reason why it is running ANY version of windows on there is because it was free.

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adec

So last night, finally got to unbox and run the new iMac.. had the ram upgraded to the 16GB, and the i5 has become an i7...

And SL now looks beautiful again!!

Changing the graphics pref to what I need for day to day stuff gave me 90+ fps using the standard SL beta viewer...

Turning on all reflections, shadows, something beginning with 'amb..', and DOF for photo sessions, I was still getting 30+ fps...

am happy!

time to get back to slpics this weekend!

Atashi

Congrats on the new machine!

Which new iMac did you get? I'm on a "late 2009" 21.5" iMac and the only way I can get a decent SL experience is using Cool VL Viewer. Everything else runs too slow and frequently crashes on me, so I'm interested in alternatives.

Cheers!

adec

It was the 21.5" with a couple of options to make it :

3.1GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core
16GB of 1600Hz DDR3 RAM
nVIDIA GeForce GT 650M

bought from b and h photo video, as I am in SoCal it was tax free and free shipping..

*edit ..it's nearly 5pm.. time to get out of here so I can go home and do some more extensive testing!

** had to install a new beta version tonite.. fps went down a bit when just hanging around, but seemed steady between 30 - 40fps when I turned things up for a photo.. tomorrow off exploring and really testing!