Video card for Inspiron 530S? Half-height?

[oboeguy]

A coworker wants to go to two monitors at home so the onboard video is not gonna cut it. I looked at the original order which had a TV card listed as "half height". Pics of the system make suggest that it's a pretty small case. What is this half-height business and could someone suggest an inexpensive video card upgrade? Presumably PCI Express as the box is only two years old. Thanks!

 

[oboeguy]

Anybody? Bueller?

 

[ViRGE]

Half-height cards are cards that are roughly half the height of normal PCIe cards. They're for use in smaller computers that for whatever reason are built to use half-height cards to save space.

As for what card to get, it's entirely dependent on what your coworker wants to do. Are they wanting to game? Or just watch movies? Etc. And how much are they willing to spend?

You don't really have a lot of choices since the half-height form factor limits the cooling options (and hence overall performance) of the cards, but there is some difference.

As far as your most modern options are concerned, AMD's bottom-two cards in the Radeon 5000 series - the 5450 and 5570 - are both half-height. There are also older low-end cards from the last generation that tend to be cheaper, and there are a few one-off custom designs such as Sparkle's half-height 9800GT which attempt to squeeze a more powerful card in to the form factor.

I'd suggest starting your search by looking at what Newegg offers. They have their half-height cards organized as being "low profile" and "low profile ready", so it's easy search by just half-height cards.

 

[oboeguy]

Thanks for the info, that was very helpful. Quesiton: are there any low-profile ready cards that support both monitor ouputs in the low-profile configuration? The low-pro backplates I see on Newegg clearly DON'T.

 

[ViRGE]

Thanks for the info, that was very helpful. Quesiton: are there any low-profile ready cards that support both monitor ouputs in the low-profile configuration? The low-pro backplates I see on Newegg clearly DON'T.

I'm not sure what you mean by "support both monitor outputs". Many of these cards have 3 outputs: DVI, HDMI, and VGA, with the first two being available with the low-profile bracket.

 

[oboeguy]

Is there such a thing as an adapter from HDMI to DVI? I'm fairly certain that two DVI or VGA cables are involved.

 

[ViRGE]

Is there such a thing as an adapter from HDMI to DVI? I'm fairly certain that two DVI or VGA cables are involved.

Yes, there is. HDMI is just DVI + Audio, so a simple mechanical adapter works. Most of these adapters are short, stubby things though that would likely block access to the first DVI port, so what you may want to do is use a full-length HDMI to DVI cable going straight to the monitor, instead of using an adapter.

 

[oboeguy]

AT delivers yet again, thanks! A little more digging also shows, for example, a rare card that will occupy a second low-pro slot to expose all three outputs (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121310). Lots to choose from with this good info in hand. Thanks again.