Graphics Card note 1

Since my 4870 is on the fritz and my cool 7600 passive is in another PC, I'm currently using my trusty S3 Savage4 by Diamond from 1999, a PCI card. It works ok, but doesn't support widescreen modes. On a sidenote, my Elsa Erazor X Geforce 256 from 2000 does that without any problems (and has better image quality imho), but that's because nVidia survived, while S3 didn't. Unfortunately the Geforce is AGP, so I can't use it in my PC, but the PCI card worked without driver issues (XP SP2 though), despite being over 10 years old. I bet an even older VESA type PCI card would work just as well.

Scrolling is terrible by the way, Flash fullscreen stutters, the start menu fade halts the system for 100ms and so forth, but Media Player Classic works great.

Graphics Card

My trusty Palit 4870 512MB died a few weeks before christmas and I RMA'ed it on 15.12.2009. A while ago my seller - Alternate.de - contacted me, as they hadn't heard beack from the manufacturer. They offered me a 4890 at no charge, but I didn't want an even bigger power hog in my system.

The 4870 was quite loud to my taste and since I used folding@home to keep it busy, I guess it burned through quite a few kWh's.

So I asked for a Sapphire Vapor-X 5770, which has about the power of a 4870 1GB, but is far quieter, consumes less power and is of a newer generation, supporting OpenCL. A day later they mailed me, that they had shipped the 4870 and I considered it settled.

Through completely independent circumstances my PC is afflicted with a less powerful PSU, that doesn't have the PCI-E power connectors (6- or 8- pin) that the old PSU had, so I feared that with the 4870 I'd have to buy a new PSU.

But the 4870 didn't arrive. I called my seller yesterday and they said: "There was a screw-up, you get the 5770". And damn was I happy! Now the 5770 still needs a 6-pin power connector, but I calculated that it'd be no problem to connect that via 4-pin molex. Still I'd need to buy an adapter. But guess what: The Sapphire 5770 comes with just such an adapter!

As they say, sometimes you just get lucky. After the whole DS saga, maybe this was the deserved karmic backlash, but the main lesson is clear: Buy from a reputable seller, because support is king.

DS epilogue

I'm through the first Professor Layton (loved it) and thought I'd take the time to sum up expenses considering the DS adventure. I got a letter from the GdSK, demanding immediate payment of their handling fee, about 37€. So let's take a look:

1. DS console, eBay from China - 90€
2. Customs and taxes - 24€
3. Return shipping costs - 9€
4. GdSK fascism dues - 37€

So that adds up to a total of 160€, which is 10€ more than what a new DS would cost, if I bought it from a store. Of course mine comes with a 4 month waiting period, hassle and no warranty.

Not completely over the top, and I guess if it was the red dragon model I'd still be happy, but still quite a misfortune. In any case, buying from Hong Kong is quite feasable, but you should always insist on a reknowned carrier (EMS shipping came with the GdSK fee, which is outrageous), and don't be too shy about bullying your seller if something goes wrong.