Building an online poker machine

Since you're reading this you're already online and, we assume, you're interested in online poker. Whether you end up playing right away or downloading software to play you'll want to stop for a moment and ask yourself, "What do I need?"

When it comes to the computer hardware and software there's an old bad habit that you may run up against, low-balling. Low-balling is saying that you only need a Commodore 64 and a rotary phone to run a piece of software. While the software in question may, technically, run on that fossilized piece of hardware, no one in their right mind would have any interest in doing so. It'll run too slow and you'll never see the nice graphics, hear the dealer's voice or the clicking of the chips. The show is part of what makes things fun.

Performance and feature capability are routinely neglected when it comes to making "minimum requirements." Yes it will run an older machine, but the experience will be less than colorful.

So how do you decide what you really need? The complicated answer is "try it and find out". The simple answer is "read on".

Take Me To The Show

Of the hundreds of poker sites I've visited, and dozens of software packages I've downloaded and installed, I'd have to say that multimedia is where it's at. Almost everybody offers sound and animation and in order to enjoy these things, you need a system with a reasonable amount of power and capability. So what's the absolute bare minimum that will get you up and playing and allow you to stay up and playing?

Baseline System

A lot of people probably have an old computer lying around their houses. The following configuration will allow you to play on some online poker rooms, but anyone serious about playing should get a better machine than this:

• 200 MHz Pentium

• 64M RAM

• 800x600 screen resolution with 16-bit color depth (High Color)

• 100MB of free disk space for download (You will need more space to do other tasks)

• 56k dialup Internet connection

Windows 98 or later

What won't you have with the Baseline? The software industry is constantly changing. Yesterday's "good enough" machine is today's boat anchor and that's just the way it works.

Realistically, the following configuration is required to have an enjoyable online poker experience:

• Pentium 3 600 MHz or faster CPU

• 256 MB or more for best performance

• 800x600 or 1024x768 screen resolution with 16-bit color depth (High Color)

• 100MB of free disk space for poker download installation only

• 128kbps or faster DSL or Cable Internet connection Windows 98 or later

Buying a New Computer

Any Windows based computer purchased in the past 4 years should be able to run poker software easily. Any new computer that runs Windows XP will be fine. You don’t need anything fancy. Even the cheapest $300 computer with integrated video and audio will do the job. Save your money to buy a bigger and better monitor.

For players looking to play at multi-tables at the same time more computer memory will be required and a screen resolution of 1280x1024 should be the minimum. 1280x1024 is the standard resolution of most 19” monitor.

Of course, we can keep climbing the scale, but the truth is you've met the needs of modern poker software and if you go higher it's because there are other things you're looking for besides the ability to play poker online.

Sum it up

If you have purchased a computer within the last 4 years, you should be able to run the software without any problems. If you are looking for a new computer, the basic ones are for less than $500, the better ones around $1000. You’ll find that even the basic computer will satisfy your other computing needs too.