Really necessary ATI graphics card?

[unamed]

My first post.

Hello. I've recently bought a T400 (NM9R1SP) core2duo 8400, 2Gb DDR3, 160 Gb HD, intel 5100AGN, integrated camera, 6 cell battery etc... but without ATI dedicated graphics card.

(First impressions, good quality, quite fast, and very easy to use. Amazing battery)

The thing is that I really was looking for some more memory (about 4Gb) and more HD space, (about 320Gb, or less but in a SSD), but I had the chance to buy this t400 for a good price so I thought i would upgrade it afterwards (not now that DDR3 are very expensive).

The think is what it took me much time to decide is if I would need or really appriciate to have the ATI dedicated graphics card (as the provider wasn't offering models with ATI dedicated graphics card).

Do you think that, if I'm not planning to game with it is really interesting (in the sense that desktops such as GNOME or even VISTA or KDE are using every day more 3d facilities)?

Is it possible to add ATI once bought whitout it? (I don't think so, but I ask you in case )

And what is the limit of RAM that motherboard has: 8 16 32 Gb? I would consider to upgrade it to 4 or 8 Gb in a year or something like that)

Thank you in advance, and very interesting forum!

[truk]

It appears that the GPU is attached to the motherboard, so you can't add on the video card. The only reason you should need it is if you play a lot of 3d games. I think the mb can support up to 16g of ram (check the tawbook to make sure,) but what OS are you running? If your running Vista 32bit (or any 32bit os) you can only use 3gigs, so upgrading is useless. You need a 64bit OS.

[unamed]

It appears that the GPU is attached to the motherboard, so you can't add on the video card. The only reason you should need it is if you play a lot of 3d games. I think the mb can support up to 16g of ram (check the tawbook to make sure,) but what OS are you running? If your running Vista 32bit (or any 32bit os) you can only use 3gigs, so upgrading is useless. You need a 64bit OS.

Thank's for your answer.

I know 32-bits like only can access to 3Gb, but I amb going to be using Debian 64bits (AMD) so there's no problem.

Regarding ATi, is it very difficult to add the video card? I mean does anyone has done it succesfully? (I'm not planning to do 3d with it, but you never know...)

Thanks!

[truk]

VERY difficult. You need to do ball grid array attaching, and it would be easier to get a new motherboard than one of those. Now you say AMD? You have a 64bit processor already, and this machine can't take anything but an intel core 2 duo. Were you talking about the processor?

[tylerwylie]

VERY difficult. You need to do ball grid array attaching, and it would be easier to get a new motherboard than one of those. Now you say AMD? You have a 64bit processor already, and this machine can't take anything but an intel core 2 duo. Were you talking about the processor?

64 bit AMD arch is what he is talking about, as that's what Intel Core 2 Duo's implemented

[unamed]

VERY difficult. You need to do ball grid array attaching, and it would be easier to get a new motherboard than one of those. Now you say AMD? You have a 64bit processor already, and this machine can't take anything but an intel core 2 duo. Were you talking about the processor?

64 bit AMD arch is what he is talking about, as that's what Intel Core 2 Duo's implemented

Exactly!

Thank's truck for your answer i will forget it!

What I didn't thought about is that Lenny debian version is still in beta state (I tought it will be a stable version already).

So I have 3 options:

- Install Debian lenny (beta)
- Open suse 11.0 (updating kernel to 2.6.26 as intel 5100 is not supported in 2.6.25) or Opensuse 11.1 beta3
- Ubuntu 8.10: stable version in a few days (prefer the other options)

Does anyone have installed anyone of this distributions in a T400?

Thank you