Basic graphics card question

frobisher

I am about to buy a dual head graphics card but it's AGP instead of PCI. It's been a while since I slotted anything into a computer, will my 2 year old Dell have an AGP slot or do I need to get a PCI card? Or where can I check on the computer to see (without popping it open!).

Ruu_Old

It should have an AGP slot, there should be some sort of search on the Dell website where you enter your details and it'll bring up your configuration. What is the model of your Dell?

frobisher

It's a Dell 2400.

frobisher

As above, it's a Dell 2400 which from my searches on the net seems to mean that it has no AGP slot. Darn!
I won't be using the computer for any gaming, just audio and a little vide editing so will buying a powerful card (128m +) have any drawbacks? (there are bargains for them on eBay and I'm guessing it might be easier to re-sell a powerful one, just want to make sure it'll do what I need).

Ruu_Old

Yep looks like it is just a standard PCI slot, I can't see you having a any problems buying a powerful card unless there is some power issue where you're power supply can't hand it, which is unlikely.

TerrorFirmer

The only problem is that PCI cards are ancient and woefully outdated - however, you should be fine for audio and video editing with one.

The best card available in pci is an Nvidia 6200 - the most common is probably an fx5200. Neither are any good for games, but again, will be more then sufficent for editing.

PC World stock pci 6200's, komplett stock pci fx5200s.

juliuspret

Do you really need a graphics card?

Intels onboard graphics isnt too bad so spending €75+ for a graphics card 1 or 2 generations out of date doesnt make much sense.

frobisher

Yeah, I'm starting to feel that alright. The problem is that I need (and have bought and paid for!) 2 monitors showing different images at the same time. I've been adviced that a dual head card is the best way to this. Although I wonder if I could get a cheap as chips regualr PCI card and use it alongside the on board graphics showing two images?

Ruu_Old

That would probably be the easiest way, get a bog standard pci video card and have it plugged into a another monitor via the VGA port.

frobisher

Would that definitely work? I just saw one cheap so it'd be great if it did!

Ruu_Old

Its as simple as that, will definitely work. Have a look here, has some screenshots that will give you a better idea on how it works, really simple though.

K.O.Kiki

Since you're already eBaying it, just look for a cheap PCI card with 2 outputs anyway... not like they're more than a few bob...

frobisher

K.O.Kiki wrote:

Since you're already eBaying it, just look for a cheap PCI card with 2 outputs anyway... not like they're more than a few bob...

That's not quite true. Many of them on eBay from Europe are single outputs with a splitter cable (I'm guessing this is just the same image twice?) and the cards from the US are cheaper but cost more to post than buy.:eek:

irlrobins

Does the on board graphics card not disable if you have a secondary card? Could be wrong on this, but it just entered by head there....

zilog_jones

Ruu wrote:

Its as simple as that, will definitely work. Have a look here, has some screenshots that will give you a better idea on how it works, really simple though.

It won't definately work - many motherboards don't allow you to use the on-board graphics at the same time as a PCI/AGP card. And from my experience, the BIOS settings on Dell PCs are usually very limited with regards to stuff like this.

TerrorFirmer

Yeah, the biosvideo options in most Dell PCs are as simple as onboard only or auto - in which case only one or the other would work. Good thinking irlrobins, didn't even cross my mind...

Ruu_Old

irlrobins wrote:

Does the on board graphics card not disable if you have a secondary card? Could be wrong on this, but it just entered by head there....

Ah hadn't thought about that one at all. However I do have a PCI graphics card installed in a very old Dell that also has onboard graphics as well,works fine but there may be conflicts I guess in other machines. I know you can't mix AGP card with a motherboard that is always using AGP bus for the onboard for obvious reasons.