Need a bit of help - PCI cards

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scauffiel

Senior member
Aug 11, 2000
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I'm updating many of our older Dell workstations at work to Windows 7. By older I mean anywhere from 3-6 years old and due to that I'm dealing with mostly PCI only machines. Some of them have AGP but I want to stick with PCI so I can buy multiples of one video card and not have to worry about if the machine is going to have an AGP slot or not.

Okay, so, they don't need high end, super fast cards. What I AM looking for is a good, solid, reliable PCI card from one of the reputable joints (Nvidia or ATI typically) that has at least 256MB, has dual VGA outs (or a way to run dual VGA with a DVI adapter) and is Windows 7 compatible, both 32 and 64 bit.

Doing a search is flat out kicking my butt because invariably I finally find out that they're PCI-Express cards or that they don't support W7 or no dual out or or or...

Does anyone know of something that fits the bill? I'd like to stick in the $50-$90 range but I'll take a look at any and all ideas.

I appreciate any help,
Steve
 
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ModestGamer

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Jun 30, 2010
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umm m I would leave them on XP the performance hit from 7 isn't worth the bother on hardware that old.PCI was severaly bandwidth limited so I highly doubt your going to find a pci card that meets even those specs. I don't remeber any.
 
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scauffiel

Senior member
Aug 11, 2000
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ModestGamer said:
umm m I would leave them on XP the performance hit from 7 isn't worth the bother on hardware that old.PCI was severaly bandwidth limited so I highly doubt your going to find a pci card that meets even those specs. I don't remeber any.
Click to expand...

The six machines I've already done it to so far are having zero performance issues. I want to do a bunch of stuff that only flies on clients running 7.

Lonyo said:
I'm not sure why you are finding this such a problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e%209%20series

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...04000%20series

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e%208%20series



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-001-_-Product
Some of these if they don't come with adapters.
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I'd love to check out some of those links, too bad that BS detonator.dynamitedata crap is jacking them up. From what I can see, you're telling me to look at entire lines of video cards and I've already done that. Also from what I've seen the majority of those lines are not PCI but are PCI-Express and that won't work. The rest tend to be low profile variants. Will half height/low profile typically work in regular sized towers; as a rule, do they come with full height brackets? Obviously I'm not a video card purchasing guru. :)
 
M

ModestGamer

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Jun 30, 2010
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scauffiel said:
The six machines I've already done it to so far are having zero performance issues. I want to do a bunch of stuff that only flies on clients running 7.
Click to expand...


I know how that is. I had a win 98 machine I had to upgrade to a windows XP recently. Total pain in the ass. I really don't think you'll find much with the exception of maybe matrox cards but they had a pretty high mortality rate.
 
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Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
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scauffiel said:
The six machines I've already done it to so far are having zero performance issues. I want to do a bunch of stuff that only flies on clients running 7.



I'd love to check out some of those links, too bad that BS detonator.dynamitedata crap is jacking them up. From what I can see, you're telling me to look at entire lines of video cards and I've already done that. Also from what I've seen the majority of those lines are not PCI but are PCI-Express and that won't work. The rest tend to be low profile variants. Will half height/low profile typically work in regular sized towers; as a rule, do they come with full height brackets? Obviously I'm not a video card purchasing guru. :)
Click to expand...

You can specify the card type, that's the 9400, 8400 and HD4350 cards which are on PCI only (not PCI-Express) from NV/ATI on Newegg.
Low profile cards usually come with two brackets, one for regular sized cases, and a second which can be put on for half height use. Then there's a simple DVI->VGA adapter which may be required. While most of my cards in the past have come with DVI->VGA adapters in the box, I don't now if all will, but they are only $4 each.


http://bit.ly/paL57
This is the cheapest, a simple 8400GS for $40 (cheapest 8400)

http://bit.ly/bFDdzG 9400GT for $70 (cheapest 9400).
http://bit.ly/bzwMLm $3 DVI -> VGA adapter in case they don't come with one in the box.
 
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scauffiel

Senior member
Aug 11, 2000
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Okay, sweet, thanks for all the help guys, especially you Lonyo - I really appreciate the direction and will most likely be ordering a half dozen 9400's tomorrow.

Thanks again!

Steve
 
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