I have a Dell Dimension Pc with a 22" monitor(1680x1050) and recently got a sweet deal on a second. I was wondering what my best option was to run a dual monitor setup? My current display adaptor is an Intel G956 Express Chipset GMA 3000, which I believe is integrated into the motherboard. Also I have PCI, not PCIe 16x.
I'm thinking I have two options, I could add a single VGA card to what I have now, or get a dual VGA card (and disable the current display adaptor?)
Anyway, I was wondering what route would be better and which video card would be the most economical? I saw a PNY Verto GeForce FX 5200(dual VGA) on TigerDirect for $60. I don't game on my PC, mostly just surf the net and play videos and music.
Thanks for any help I can get. Also, great forum you have here, Its a great resource for anything A/V.
I just had a look on tigerdirect and I think I saw the fx 5200 you were talking about, but they are rather old and you can get an 8500 for about the same price. They may look like they are the same, as they have the same amount of memory, but trust me the 8500 will be much, much, much faster.
With that GeForce 8500 GT can I can use the VGA and DVI at the same time? Is there that much of a picture quality difference between DVI and VGA? And if I get this card, do I just disable my current display adaptor.
Also, would there be any heat issues with the 8500 GT you linked to, given it has no fan? Thanks for the link by the way, it looks really good for the price.
Nah it should be fine without a fan, if you aren't gaming then it isn't going to get hot. Yes you can use them at the same time as far as I know, and I don't really know about the quality difference, I find it hard to notice on my dual input monitor. You don't have to display your current adapter if it's integrated, the computer will just know to let the video card do it's work as soon as you plug it in. As far as the 7300 is concerned, it should do fine with dual monitors, and if you ever want to play the occasional game (as long as you don't try to jack up the detail) it should do alright there as well.
Personally, I would still go with the 8500 because it has great bang for its buck, but then again it really is up to what you think you need :)
rubixcube, edit your sig to conform to forum specs ASAP. yours is 500x200 4. If you want to use both text and image in your signature the image should not be more than 500 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall, and you can use up to three lines of text.
