[geeks] PCI graphics card?

[Lionel Peterson]

On Jan 10, 2010, at 1:58 AM, Bill Bradford <mrbill at mrbill.net> wrote:

> I've got a Dell GX60, upgraded from a Celeron 2Ghz to a P4 2Ghz  
> (400Mhz
> FSB) with 1G of RAM.  I put a PCI GeForce FX5200 in.  Running at  
> 1680x1050
> on a HP 20" LCD, I have visible/noticeable redraw issues under Win7.
>
> Is this due to the PCI bus, or should I look for a better card  
> (8400GS,
> etc)?  All I care about on this machine is 2D desktop stuff.

You *could* upgrade the graphics card, but throwing $40-75 at this box  
may be of dubious value. With a 400 MHz FSB, a 2.0 GHz P4, and a Gig  
RAM this machine would be hard-pressed to deliver a 'pleasing' work  
experience (IMHO), your in the netbook-type experience.

The PCI bus can likely deliver better bandwidth than this P4 can use,  
so the interface isn't likely to be the limiting factor.

I'd question putting money into this box, but where I live I can get  
(for example) a dual-proc Xeon Dell Precision workstation with a Gig  
of RAM and very decent workstation graphics for $60, obviously YMMV.  
It can take up to 4 Gigs of DDR 3200 RAM, but I'm not sure it's worth  
the investment.

I just dropped a Dell SC1425 onto my network at home, dual 3.4 GHz HT  
Xeons, 8 Gigs of RAM, came with two 10K RPM SCSI drives and an Adaptec  
39320 adapter for under $300, including rails. I've swapped out the  
SCSI subsystem for two 500 GIG SATA drives and got it running Windows  
Server 2008 R2 (x64)... A very nice 1U server, though Windows Server  
2008 isn't supported by Dell on this box, I had to google-up a driver  
for the video, a Radeon 7000m video system, from IBM. ATI doesn't  
offer asigned driver. Now I need to find asigned Windows Server 2008  
driver for a Sil3124-2 PCI-X SATA controller, Sil dropped it at  
Windows Server 2003 it seems...

Lionel