Help, computer upgrade for sss use?

[thrasher]

I don't know much about computers, mine is rather old by todays standards and doesn't even have a usb port. The family friend that works on computers says it's not worth puting a usb port in. Budget is very tight. Any recomendations for new computer and what the cost would be. Primarily intrested in slope soaring simulator, occasional video downloads and posting and e-mailing pictures.

[thrasher]

sss requires hardware-accelerated open GU, what is this and what should I look for in a new computer?

[bluesky123]

Search for "New computer" thread in this forum, all your questions are answered there.
In short, what you should get depends on how much $ you are willing to spend. The most important component is, of course, the video card. Look at hardware web sites, like tomshardware.com, for comparison of video cards.

Fortunately, SSS is not as demanding as, say RealFlight G3, to video cards. Even a low mid-range card (like my Radeon 9600, which I bought several months ago at NewEgg.com for $70) is more than enough for SSS.
:)

[lotus]

I know I'm probably late, but I think about anything you would buy new would run SSS prefectly,
I'm running it on a (originally cutting edge) laptop that I've had for two years now, 2Ghz PIV mobile, radeon 7500 mobile, 1400*1050 resolution and it runs perfectly fluid save for the maximum detail version. Lowering the res. to the normal 1024*768 solves the problem, but I prefer having the highest resolution possible and if necessary fly it with flat shaded 3D... I run it at high detail however and there's no jitter whatsoever.

I'm pretty sure anything recent would do, i'll try it on my mom's "new" sempron 2.4 with onboard graphics to see how well a real budget PC from these days (februari) performs. maybe I could have a go at it on my old Linux Power beast :) PPro 200 with a vast amount of 64MB of memory... i'm sure I can get it to run!!!

wouldn't recommend trying to run it under win98 or lower because their OpenGL drivers suck.

Good Luck!!