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XMAS new PC?


Gowator
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First off I'm pretty much set on a dual core for reasons of using Xen...

Now what is REALLY important after that is multi monitors in a serious way...

 

Im basically looking at a AMD 4600 dual core with 4GB RAM... but the connectivity is important...

 

Basically I need 4 monitors .. my present mobo is an old AGP and PCI I can do two monitors easily but the third is the problem... I don't have any old PCI cards capable of the resolution needed ... I got an old 1MB mystique and I can get it working at 640x480 ....

 

My set up is 2x montors for basic working... 1x projector and 1x a nxclient onto a server .. this cuts down significantly on keyboards and mice/KVM switches etc., and space is the prob...

 

I ca find mobo's with 1 PCIE 16, 1 PCIE 4 2 PCI 1 and 3PCI.... eg ASUS M2N-E and Im happy with PCI-e 4x (or 1x) on the graphics ... the problem is where to find a PCIe 4x card...??

 

I don't know if I should look for a dual 16x or look for 4x graphics cards???

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First off I'm pretty much set on a dual core for reasons of using Xen...

Now what is REALLY important after that is multi monitors in a serious way...

 

Im basically looking at a AMD 4600 dual core with 4GB RAM... but the connectivity is important...

 

Basically I need 4 monitors .. my present mobo is an old AGP and PCI I can do two monitors easily but the third is the problem... I don't have any old PCI cards capable of the resolution needed ... I got an old 1MB mystique and I can get it working at 640x480 ....

 

My set up is 2x montors for basic working... 1x projector and 1x a nxclient onto a server .. this cuts down significantly on keyboards and mice/KVM switches etc., and space is the prob...

 

I ca find mobo's with 1 PCIE 16, 1 PCIE 4 2 PCI 1 and 3PCI.... eg ASUS M2N-E and Im happy with PCI-e 4x (or 1x) on the graphics ... the problem is where to find a PCIe 4x card...??

 

I don't know if I should look for a dual 16x or look for 4x graphics cards???

/me makes small bump

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are you looking to build a whole new system...new vid cards and all?

probably.... that way different people can buy different parts....

sorts out the XMAS list a lot easier if everyone can choose something in their price range and prevents me getting new socks, slippers jumpers I have to give to charity

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Some good multi-monitor cards were Appian Jeronimo's that could have 4 monitors connected. I think they even did other cards that could take more. Not sure how current they are nowadays though. Can check if they got some new models perhaps.

 

I've had ATI Radeon VE's using two monitors connected before now.

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get an intel core duo based system, the linux support is far better and it will be more reliable. there's plenty of @intel email addresses on LKML -- intel despite some of their fopars, do have a strong interest in linux. Goin with an AMD based system, you're much more likely to find oddities in the chipset support or even minor stability problems -- sure they work, but they take longer to get to the level of stability of the intel chipsets.

 

afaik there are no PCIE4x gfx cards. May as well just get a mobo with two PCIE card slots, there's plenty of them out there. I like asus, but lets not turn this thread into a brand war :) You'll have a hard time finding decent PCI cards, let alone getting them working in anything more than vesa, and I dont think there are many mobos out there now with PCIE and AGP.

 

James

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Yeah I guess that's market forces..... the only PCI cards seem to be really really expensive... but I guess that is due to ATI/NVIDIA controlling over 90% of the market... I think Im fixating because Ive thrown/given away exactly what I need right now 5x over... I don't need a blisteringly fast PCI-e x16 as my primary card, let alone my second one but lets say for arguament I decide Ill pay for speed and power consumption I don't want/need and find some way to underclock the card low enough for it not to need a fan ... I then it seems need to buyt a 2nd one and underclock that as well....

 

Does anyone have experience underclocking ? Which cards can be used fanless?

 

When I moved I threw out the PC I need.... ?? either the CPU was toast or the mobo and I couldn't afford the time to work out which ... but I had 5 PCI slots and an AGP.... I could have run 8 monitors off it on $25 cards... if I'd wanted to..(I was running 4). but I threw out the case with 2x PCI cards and all... just ripped out the AGP card ... and this was a $50 or less mobo.... and $30 CPU.(well it was an old CPU so didn't cost me anything)... I doubt I paid more than $30 for the PCI cards with something like 64MB or 128MB on each......

 

something is going fundamentally weird.... PC's are starting getting more expensive to achive the same stuff..

 

tyme can't find a 939 X2 Im going to have to throw out my 734 3000+ because its simply not worth upgrading to anything worthwhile....

 

I remember when you could buy a 486sx25 run a ISA graphics card at 1024x768 and as chips got cheaper just stick in a DX2-66 or DX4-100 and start filling the 8 SIMMS slots starting off with 2... and then incrementally add 1 or 2 PCI cards ...

 

Now it seems completely the opposite (or is it just me getting old) .... I bought in at AMD64 3000+ (pretty near the bottom) when it was new... and I can upgrade to what a 4000+ say 25% increase vs 400% on the sx-25?

 

My GPU needs active cooling and my CPU its own dedicated power... incompatible across differences in chip?

I had over 100 graphics card manufactuerers to choose from....

The whole scene seems disposable.... its almost impossible to find a cheap mobo without built in NW/sound etc. I did a quick audit the other day.... in my bits n pieces boxes... (looking for a decent PCI (i.e. 1024x768 at 24 bit) card)

I have 3 TV tuners, 4-5 NICS excluding good stuff like 3com 100tx which I threw out because it was ISA... 4-5 athlons from 600-1200, 3 soundblaster pro's countless unusable memory from EDO to ?? all of it essentially trash...

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you dont need to underclock to get a fanless graphics card, there's plenty of vendors that sell affordably priced fanless cards. nvidia's 6600GT for example has a huge range of fanless cards, and plenty of the newer GT's have fanless versions available. I use a fanless gigabyte nvida 6600GT graphics card myself.

 

There's still mobos with plenty of PCI slots, so goin the PCI route isnt impossible, but the older parts you would use are goin to be a bit more difficult to find.

 

James

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