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[SRG01]

CS majors get 'em legally free. =D

Any department with MSDN-AA should get free operating systems for their students. You'd be surprised at how many departments have this.

 

[Esperado]

CS majors get 'em legally free. =D

I'm thinking about taking an IT course just to get in and get free software and get out. My CS department isn't enrolled in the MSDNAA for some reason. Right now I'm using Server 2008 from the Dreamspark program and it's pretty much Vista so I'm probably just going to save my money.

I hardly see mention of OS cost -_-

I hardly see any mention of software in general.

 

[K.Jack]

question: I'm looking at a laptop.

Reason for laptop: I can play games at work if I bring a laptop. My job has a lot of free time some nights.

Should a 2.4Ghz dual-core, 512MB graphics card, and 4GB ram be sufficient (running Vista) for mid-end games such as Elemental or Team Fortress 2 to run like butter?

Or will the 512MB graphics card overheat too much?

You need a 256bit GPU to run games without lowering settings. There are 128bit mobile cards with 1GB of vRAM (9650M GT) and can't even use more than 256MB of it.

That'll be one of these Nvidia cards (weakest to strongest):

9700M GS - 48 shader processors, 512MB DDR3
9700M GTS - 48
9800M GS - 64
9800M GTS - 64
9800M GT - 96
9800M GTX - 112 shaders, 1GB DDR3 RAM

ATI:

Radeon Mobility 3850
Radeon Mobility 3870
Radeon Mobility 4850 (unreleased, but soon)
Radeon Mobility 4870 (announced with no said date)


Cards like the 9600M GT and lower aren't going to cut it going into 2009.

A link to your notebook would be great. Asus?

 

[arstal]

Was looking at HP, either their 16z or 18z lines. The graphics card was the 9600 with 512MB.

Those Asus ones look pretty good, though slightly outta my price range. I may just bite the bullet. I have the feeling this laptop could go any minute so I want to upgrade while convenient.

 

[Salazar]

I don't know if I need a PC - I'm hoping to get away with running some stuff on my brother's imac.

 

[Minsc]

I don't know if I need a PC - I'm hoping to get away with running some stuff on my brother's imac.

For gaming there's no equal.

 

[Salazar]

For gaming there's no equal.

Please don't mock me. It's 2.66 Ghz (meaningless to me), and I'm curious as to what it can do.

 

[K.Jack]

Was looking at HP, either their 16z or 18z lines. The graphics card was the 9600 with 512MB.

Those Asus ones look pretty good, though slightly outta my price range. I may just bite the bullet. I have the feeling this laptop could go any minute so I want to upgrade while convenient.

Are those the same as the HDX 16t/18t? Do you have a link? Regardless, I know for a fact that all of HP's 9600m equipped notebooks use DDR2 video memory.

Questions I should've asked before:

What kind of games do you play?
What's your budget?
How long do you want it to lastas a viable gaming platform?
In what country are you located?

Please don't mock me.

No, seriously. If you're gaming, it's PC all the way. I think that's what he meant by that.

 

[arstal]

My budget is around $1500, but it's not absolute. I'm doing well right now so I don't mind taking a hit. I am located in the US.

I'd want it to be viable for 3-4 yrs

Games I play right now on PC:
Gal Civ II
Civ IV
Team Fortress 2

My current laptop runs those fine. I'd keep my old laptop for home use, and the new one for work (I do most of my PC gaming at work- yeah, weird job situation)

Elemental I was told by Stardock I'd have to pare down settings. I generally get a new comp with each Civ game, but I'm switching to Elemental this game due to Stardock being more awesome.

Generally, with the type of games I play, RAM is very important.

As for gaming, the only reason I own a console is fighting. For everything else, it's PC. Even for fighting games- if the games I liked were emulated with good netplay, I'd play it there over PC. I know SFIV and KOFXII are getting ports, but I'm not sold on KOFXII's gameplay yet.

That's the situation I'm looking at.

 

[Minsc]

Please don't mock me. It's 2.66 Ghz (meaningless to me), and I'm curious as to what it can do.

I took the post as an opportunity to reaffirm a PC rig's superiority for gaming, sorry if it was out of context.

 

[Baloonatic]

Hmm, maybe I should go for a E8400 rather than a quad...

 

[Gremmie4]

While you would see an improvement with a new card and be able to crank out 1680x1050, I would put off the purchase until you can replace your mobo+cpu+ram. As chances are, by that time you will be able to buy a better card for the same amount you would spend today.

I was thinking about this, but I don't know if I want to wait that long since I was probably going to build the new machine sometime next fall. My thinking was a 4870 would help my current machine enough to play the games I want to play now, and then when I build the new PC, it would perform well enough for a few years with better hardware.

Thinking about building a new one though, it is right for me to assume that ddr2 800 ram would be a better buy than ddr2 1066? I'm looking at the e8400, which I would overclock the FSB to 400Mhz, putting it 1:1 with the ddr2 800. I'm thinking there wouldn't be any noticeable difference between 800 and 1066 ram in this case. Is this correct?

EDIT: Is a Fallout 3 demo ever going to be available? I want to see how my machine would handle it before buying any hardware, but I wouldn't want to buy it if my machine can't handle it. My current machine struggled with Bioshock at 1440x900, so I'm thinking it won't handle Fallout 3 as well as I'd like.

 

[TheHeretic]

I was thinking about this, but I don't know if I want to wait that long since I was probably going to build the new machine sometime next fall. My thinking was a 4870 would help my current machine enough to play the games I want to play now, and then when I build the new PC, it would perform well enough for a few years with better hardware.

Thinking about building a new one though, it is right for me to assume that ddr2 800 ram would be a better buy than ddr2 1066? I'm looking at the e8400, which I would overclock the FSB to 400Mhz, putting it 1:1 with the ddr2 800. I'm thinking there wouldn't be any noticeable difference between 800 and 1066 ram in this case. Is this correct?

Its correct in a real sense. You could run the ram above 1:1, but you wouldn't notice a difference.

As for what do now, you can't just throw in a dated CPU with a new GPU and expect miracles, since the CPU feeds the GPU the information it needs to process. A 4200+ is a pretty ghastly CPU to be putting in with either of those video cards.

 

[Gremmie4]

Its correct in a real sense. You could run the ram above 1:1, but you wouldn't notice a difference.

As for what do now, you can't just throw in a dated CPU with a new GPU and expect miracles, since the CPU feeds the GPU the information it needs to process. A 4200+ is a pretty ghastly CPU to be putting in with either of those video cards.

I'm definitely not expecting miracles with buying a new vid card. I know that my CPU and RAM will bottleneck, I'm just wondering how much. For right now, I would just like to play games at medium settings at a high resolution, or high settings with a lower resolution. Then, when I build a core i7 or a phenom II PC, I would get the luxury of both since the bottleneck would be removed. I was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with a vid card that this level with a dated system to see how it performed.

 

[M3d10n]

I'm definitely not expecting miracles with buying a new vid card. I know that my CPU and RAM will bottleneck, I'm just wondering how much. For right now, I would just like to play games at medium settings at a high resolution, or high settings with a lower resolution. Then, when I build a core i7 or a phenom II PC, I would get the luxury of both since the bottleneck would be removed. I was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with a vid card that this level with a dated system to see how it performed.

Screw the waiting game and go for it. It's not like you have a P4 and is rocking DDR1.

I put a 4850 on a X2 4000+ and everything but Crysis runs like butter at 1440x900. Bioshock runs at vsync'ed 60fps, as example. You might feel more of a difference in games that really stress the CPU, like RTS'es or if you try running TF2 servers on your own.

 

[Gremmie4]

Screw the waiting game and go for it. It's not like you have a P4 and is rocking DDR1.

I put a 4850 on a X2 4000+ and everything but Crysis runs like butter at 1440x900. Bioshock runs at vsync'ed 60fps, as example. You might feel more of a difference in games that really stress the CPU, like RTS'es or if you try running TF2 servers on your own.

Yea i'm going over some options right now. I could pick up this 4830 for $90 or this 4850 for $120, both would beat the pants off of my 7900gt and would probably play Fallout and Left 4 Dead well enough to make me happy. Then I could sell either card when I build a new PC next fall.

I'm also thinking about springing for a P45 board, with an e8400 or e7300, and 4 gigs of ram with vista 64-bit just to upgrade everything now. I'm thinking this would probably run everything nicely for a while, then I could upgrade to a quad core or something on the cheap a few years down the road.

 

[Tenks]

Trying to gather opinions. My buddy at work says its worthless.

Should I spend ~$120 to move from 6 jigawatts of RAM to 10 jigabits? I already have 2 jigs of memory on my SLi graphics cards so I'm not sure if it'd be overkill and completely worthless or not.

 

[Minsc]

Trying to gather opinions. My buddy at work says its worthless.

Should I spend ~$120 to move from 6 jigawatts of RAM to 10 jigabits? I already have 2 jigs of memory on my SLi graphics cards so I'm not sure if it'd be overkill and completely worthless or not.

Isn't there a way to watch your memory usage in your OS? I'd say it's entirely dependent on how you use the 6 GBs you have now. If you're tapping it out by have a half dozen editing programs open (or whatever), then absolutely. If you're barely pushing 2GBs out of the 6, then not so much. Shouldn't you be upgrading from 6 to 12 GBs anyway?

 

[Tenks]

Isn't there a way to watch your memory usage in your OS? I'd say it's entirely dependent on how you use the 6 GBs you have now. If you're tapping it out by have a half dozen editing programs open (or whatever), then absolutely. If you're barely pushing 2GBs out of the 6, then not so much. Shouldn't you be upgrading from 6 to 12 GBs anyway?

Nah the computer has 2GB x 3 on it and I haven't been able to find a decently priced 3 pack of 2GB. Seems they only come in 2 packs (DDR3-1333)

 

[Salazar]

I took the post as an opportunity to reaffirm a PC rig's superiority for gaming, sorry if it was out of context.

No worries. Any words, though, on what the imac will do / manage ?

 

[K.Jack]

My budget is around $1500, but it's not absolute. I'm doing well right now so I don't mind taking a hit. I am located in the US.

I'd want it to be viable for 3-4 yrs

Games I play right now on PC:
Gal Civ II
Civ IV
Team Fortress 2

My current laptop runs those fine. I'd keep my old laptop for home use, and the new one for work (I do most of my PC gaming at work- yeah, weird job situation)

Elemental I was told by Stardock I'd have to pare down settings. I generally get a new comp with each Civ game, but I'm switching to Elemental this game due to Stardock being more awesome.

Generally, with the type of games I play, RAM is very important.

As for gaming, the only reason I own a console is fighting. For everything else, it's PC. Even for fighting games- if the games I liked were emulated with good netplay, I'd play it there over PC. I know SFIV and KOFXII are getting ports, but I'm not sold on KOFXII's gameplay yet.

That's the situation I'm looking at.

Okay, if you're looking for something around 17 inches, this Sager NP5793 is the best deal right now.

 

[Chiggs]

I sold my Q6600 to a friend and picked up a Q9550 at a local pc shop. Have to say that I'm fairly impressed with the performance. Really noticeable when I'm doing rendering and video editing. I'm not sure what's causing the performance improvement; the Q9550 isn't that much better of a processor, right?

Anyway, I don't think I'll even be upgrading to a Core I7 until late 2009. I just really see no point unless there is some amazing game that requires a lot of power. I think I'll probably just pick up the first DX11 card and Windows 7 and see how things progress.

Now is such a great time to build a pc. If you spend around $1000.00 you can get a really killer system that will be overkill for 95% of what's out there. My current specs:

Q9550
8 gigs of OCZ DDR2 800
Audigy XiFi
Powercolor Radeon 4870 1gb - Factory OC'd

This thing pretty much slays anything in front of it. Been such a great year for pc gaming, too. Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Dead Space, The Witcher: Enhanced, Warhammer, Wrath of the Lich King, Mass Effect, Prince of Persia, Call of Duty: World at War, GTA IV, Spore, Lost Planet Colonies, Devil May Cry 4, and a whole lot of other titles I'm surely forgetting.

Kind of rambling here, but I can't wait for what awaits us in 2009 and I hope this thread is as lively as the last.

 

[zoku88]

well, if you're noticing differences in video rendering, it could be the new SSE4 instruction set. I forget which encodings take advantage of it, but I remember that at least DivX is one of them. I forget the others.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Link here.

 

[Chiggs]

Link here.

Nice.

 

[GQman2121]

I just picked up this HP notebook and have been wondering what kind of performance I could expect to get out of it.

Here are the specs:

* Core 2 Duo T5800 2GHz; 4GB DDR2; Blu-ray ROM DVD±RW
* 17" WXGA+; 320GB HDD; Wi-Fi Link 5100AGN; Wecam+Mic
* GeForce 9600M GT 512MB; HDMI; Imprint glossy finish; 7.6lbs
* 1.7" thin; Gigabit LAN; Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1


I've been playing Pro Evolution on it and so far it's been amazing. I would love to see how L4D would play, but I doubt it could handle it.

 

[Chiggs]

I would love to see how L4D would play, but I doubt it could handle it.

?

I think you'd do just fine. That's a nice little notebook.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I just picked up this HP notebook and have been wondering what kind of performance I could expect to get out of it.

Here are the specs:

* Core 2 Duo T5800 2GHz; 4GB DDR2; Blu-ray ROM DVD±RW
* 17" WXGA+; 320GB HDD; Wi-Fi Link 5100AGN; Wecam+Mic
* GeForce 9600M GT 512MB; HDMI; Imprint glossy finish; 7.6lbs
* 1.7" thin; Gigabit LAN; Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1


I've been playing Pro Evolution on it and so far it's been amazing. I would love to see how L4D would play, but I doubt it could handle it.

That looks like a pretty nice deal for that laptop. Too bad it isn't a 9800 instead of a 9600, though, but a 9600 will be fine for a lot of games.

You really have nothing to worry about in regards to running Left 4 Dead on that computer. At 1400x900 that computer should probably tear through any Source game even with fairly high settings. I could play L4D on my old Laptop (Pentium M 1700mhz; 2GB DDR2; Radeon Mobile X700) and get a good framerate with most settings on low.

 

[Chris R]

CS majors get 'em legally free. =D

I wish I would have known this when I was building my system, but since a) I've now graduated so I couldn't "legally" use it anyways, and b) all they had was Vista Business 32 bit, I'm not that angry that I had to pay just over 100 for a new OS.

 

[Kadey]

I'm doing a full upgrade next summer/fall. My Alien HK super PC 3.0 will be fine till then. Just got another Lacie drive.

 

[Kite]

That looks like a pretty nice deal for that laptop. Too bad it isn't a 9800 instead of a 9600, though, but a 9600 will be fine for a lot of games.

I just bought an Asus laptop with a 9800M and was wondering how well it'll run the latest games and at what settings.

Processor
Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile
#
Processor Speed
2.26GHz
#
System Memory (RAM)
4GB
#
Type of Memory (RAM)
PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
#
Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS
#
Video Memory
512MB

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I just bought an Asus laptop with a 9800M and was wondering how well it'll run the latest games and at what settings.

Processor
Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile
#
Processor Speed
2.26GHz
#
System Memory (RAM)
4GB
#
Type of Memory (RAM)
PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
#
Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS
#
Video Memory
512MB

Now that computer will probably do very well. "Mobile" versions of video cards are always a bit underpowered when compared to their desktop counterparts, but the 9800 cards are still very powerful. Assuming you keep your resolutions around the 1400x900 / 1400x1050 area then you can probably expect great framerates at high graphic settings for most modern games. You will probably even be able to run Crysis fairly well with a lot of the setting on HIGH / GAMER.

I just put together a new desktop and I am really satisfied with it, but I will probably end up getting a mid-to-high end laptop as well because I really enjoy the portability. My current laptop that I picked up in September of 2005, while decently powerful at the time, is really starting to show its age on most games released in 2006 or beyond.

 

[GQman2121]

That looks like a pretty nice deal for that laptop. Too bad it isn't a 9800 instead of a 9600, though, but a 9600 will be fine for a lot of games.

You really have nothing to worry about in regards to running Left 4 Dead on that computer. At 1400x900 that computer should probably tear through any Source game even with fairly high settings. I could play L4D on my old Laptop (Pentium M 1700mhz; 2GB DDR2; Radeon Mobile X700) and get a good framerate with most settings on low.

Good to know. Thanks.

I'm new to this pc gaming stuff, and only really picked up this notebook because I got what I thought at the time ($800) was a good deal on it.

 

[Baloonatic]

Can someone tell me why this computer seems to have such a decent price tag?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....3187&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab=Watching

Is the motherboard or RAM rubbish or something?

I'm really confused with buying a new PC at the moment, if someone could point me in the direction of a good gaming rig for around 500 pounds then I'd be really grateful.

 

[otake]

so I got the asus p5q3 motherboard for xmas. I have 2 500 Gb's hdd's and I'm debating whether to go raid 0 or 5.

I'm particularly worried about cpu usage in raid 5 and I wonder if I'll see gaming improvements or not.

 

[Apharmd Battler]

You need a 256bit GPU to run games without lowering settings. There are 128bit mobile cards with 1GB of vRAM (9650M GT) and can't even use more than 256MB of it.

That'll be one of these Nvidia cards (weakest to strongest):

9700M GS - 48 shader processors, 512MB DDR3
9700M GTS - 48
9800M GS - 64
9800M GTS - 64
9800M GT - 96
9800M GTX - 112 shaders, 1GB DDR3 RAM

ATI:

Radeon Mobility 3850
Radeon Mobility 3870
Radeon Mobility 4850 (unreleased, but soon)
Radeon Mobility 4870 (announced with no said date)


Cards like the 9600M GT and lower aren't going to cut it going into 2009.

A link to your notebook would be great. Asus?

Thanks for the breakdown!

 

[bitq]

My mom needs a new PC and I need to decide between:

Pentium 4 2.2Ghz, 1GB ram, 80gig hard drive
or
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz, 512mb ram, 40gig hard drive

RAM is so cheap right now, and we already have a pretty big hard drive to put in it, so the second choice seems a little better. However, it would be a big hassle to get the second one, and I have a feeling that the extra 600Mhz wouldn't make any difference. All she really uses is IE, email, Office, and maybe burning CDs or something. What does GAF think?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

My mom needs a new PC and I need to decide between:

Pentium 4 2.2Ghz, 1GB ram, 80gig hard drive
or
Pentium 4 2.8Ghz, 512mb ram, 40gig hard drive

RAM is so cheap right now, and we already have a pretty big hard drive to put in it, so the second choice seems a little better. However, it would be a big hassle to get the second one, and I have a feeling that the extra 600Mhz wouldn't make any difference. All she really uses is IE, email, Office, and maybe burning CDs or something. What does GAF think?

What is the price difference? If it isn't massive, then definitely go with the first one. You want at least 1GB of RAM even for XP. 1GB should really be the bare minimum.

 

[bitq]

What is the price difference? If it isn't massive, then definitely go with the first one. You want at least 1GB of RAM even for XP. 1GB should really be the bare minimum.

Okay I should rephrase this. The ram and hard drive really aren't a problem because RAM is so cheap and we already have a big hard drive. The issue is whether or not the extra 600Mhz would make a difference, because it would be a hassle to get that one instead.

 

[zoku88]

Why not just go for an EEEbox or wtv it's called?

EDIT: and your mom prolly wouldn't notice any difference.

 

[Cday]

Can someone tell me why this computer seems to have such a decent price tag?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....3187&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab=Watching

Is the motherboard or RAM rubbish or something?

I'm really confused with buying a new PC at the moment, if someone could point me in the direction of a good gaming rig for around 500 pounds then I'd be really grateful.

It doesn't come with an OS and the power supply may be iffy but everything else looks good. Anyway, as I'm sure you noticed the feedback is nearly spotless.

 

[Baloonatic]

It doesn't come with an OS and the power supply may be iffy but everything else looks good. Anyway, as I'm sure you noticed the feedback is nearly spotless.

Yeah, I already have a Vista disc anyway so OS doesn't bother me.

I think I'm gonna go for it, it seems like a great deal and has the exact processor, graphics card and amount of RAM that I'm after. And like you say, they have very impressive feedback. Wish me luck...

Oh yeah, installing an OS to it would be easy right? Just insert the disc at boot-up and set the DVD drive to primary in the BIOS?

 

[ghst]

It doesn't come with an OS and the power supply may be iffy but everything else looks good. Anyway, as I'm sure you noticed the feedback is nearly spotless.

9.6mhz processor?

 

[Chiggs]

Anyone going to spring for the GTX 295 in January? I'm so tempted, but I almost want to wait for DX11 tech.

 

[_PM]

Can someone please help me decide between these two laptops?:

ASUS N80 Series N80VN-GP011C NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8600(2.40GHz) 14.1" Wide XGA 4GB Memory DDR2 800 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT - Retail

MSI GT735-024US NoteBook AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82(2.20GHz) 17.0" Wide SXGA+ 4GB Memory 320GB HDD DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3850 - Retail

I like the portability and power of the ASUS, but if the MSI has better performance then I'm ok. I just don't trust that AMD processor.

If someone has a suggestion for something similar or better around 1000$~1100$ I'm willing to hear it too. I'm fine playing games on medium settings.

 

[Baloonatic]

A 4870 is better than a 4850, right?

 

[GHG]

A 4870 is better than a 4850, right?

Yep, quite a bit better but not worth the price difference really IMO.

If you are seriously considering the 4850 BTW, get the 4830 for less money. They can be overclocked to 4850 levels and above with relative ease.

 

[K.Jack]

Thanks for the breakdown!

No problem. I'm always on the go, and gaming notebooks have always been my only option, so I'm quite fanatical about the tech.

To be honest, I may have been a little bit hard on the 9600m. It will be a viable gaming card in 2009, if you aren't opposed to playing games at 1280x800 or lower and at medium settings. The 9600m is 2009's 8400m, the Nvidia card that you want no lower than. ATI's HD 3650 and the ddr3 8600m round out the bottom rung of what can at all be considered a gaming notebook. It's not that these are scrub cards, it's just that these 128-bit, 256MB equipped GPUs are going to have a rough time keeping up with the system requirements next year.

Then again, if every game is coded and optimized as well as Dead Space, you'll have less to worry about until 2010.

On another note, if rumors hold up the Mobility Radeon HD 4850 might be coming out at 570/750 DDR3 with 800 SPs, rivaling the desktop 4830. If so, fuuuuuuuuuuuck I'm getting one.:lol

Can someone please help me decide between these two laptops?:

ASUS N80 Series N80VN-GP011C NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8600(2.40GHz) 14.1" Wide XGA 4GB Memory DDR2 800 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT - Retail

MSI GT735-024US NoteBook AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82(2.20GHz) 17.0" Wide SXGA+ 4GB Memory 320GB HDD DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3850 - Retail

I like the portability and power of the ASUS, but if the MSI has better performance then I'm ok. I just don't trust that AMD processor.

If someone has a suggestion for something similar or better around 1000$~1100$ I'm willing to hear it too. I'm fine playing games on medium settings.

I'm so against AMD processors, but that 3850 absolutely slaughters the 9650.

I'd take the MSI if this is not a decision based on portability. Unless Best Buy drops the Asus G50vt-X-1 to $999 again, or Newegg drops the A-1 to $1200, the MSI is the best GPU you'll get at that price.

 

[Baloonatic]

I've decided against that ebay place as I think they must use some cheap branded components to sell at such a low price. I'm considering buying this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151911

And then buying a separate video card to fit into it myself. Either:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151485

or

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148468

Anyone think of any problems with that? I already have a 500W power supply so I'll replace the one that comes with it.

Edit: And why is this 4870 so cheap?

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=342514&Sku=OB138684

Would I need more than a 500W PSU for a 4870?

 

[Angry Grimace]

Got myself a shiny new i7-920 for Christmas from the fiancee (who yes, did get a fabulous ring).

Now the question is, motherboards!

I'm inclined to just go with the P6T Deluxe, but when pricing it all together on newegg, I noticed there's a P6T non-deluxe for $249.00. Based on the specs, I can't tell what the difference is other than number of overall USB ports and one less ethernet port.

Can anyone clue me in here?