Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Looking for reccomendations for a dual-output workstation video card

Looking for reccomendations for a dual-output workstation video card

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - Looking for reccomendations for a dual-output workstation video card

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This seems like a fairly simple task but is turning out to not be so.

At work, all of our workstations are Dell Optiplex 755s. We are interested in having several choice machines be dual monitor systems.

I have the following requirements:
- PCIe x16
- Half-height (the Optiplex cases are very thin and don't have room for a huge card)
- Relatively low power consumption (280W power supply)
- Cheap. We don't have a big budget. $50 is my target price
- (optional) VGA outputs. All of our monitors are VGA, but if there is no option I can buy adapters

I've browsed newegg, and I couldn't find any cards that meet my requirements. They divide their video cards into desktop and workstation cards, which mostly seems to mean that desktop cards are giant gaming cards for home machines and workstation cards are the dinky half-height single-output cards (although they all seem to be overpriced for what they are). The only cheap dual-output cards I found were the huge desktop cards.

So, from this comes my question: Can anyone recommend me a card that meets my specifications? It doesn't need to be powerful at all, the most graphics intensive tasks that will be performed on these machines is simply website-based flash with the occasional video or three.

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Bump.

------------------------------ -Dan Williams
Reply to DWilliams

Sapphire HD 4650 - $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102829

Low Profile
1 x DVI
1 x HDMI

Use adapters to convert HDMI/DVI to VGA.
DVI to VGA
HDMI to DVI adapter

Use one DVI to VGA adapter on the DVI port. Then a combination of the HDMI to DVI adapter and a second DVI to VGA adapter on the HDMI port.

Reply to TheViper

@DWilliams -

Go back to Newegg. Click on the Power Search feature (left side). The third option down on the Power Search page is Form Factor. Select both Low-Profile and Low-Profile Ready. The next category is Interface. Select both PCI Express x16 options. Click search and you have your lists.

Personally, given your usage and budget, I'd probably recommend an HD4350

-Wolf sends


Message edited by Wolfshadw on 11-10-2009 at 12:16:38 AM
------------------------------ System Specs:
Gigabyte EP43-UD3L Intel Core2Quad Q8400 8 Gig RAM
NVidia Geforce 8800GTS-640/Creative X-FI Extreme Music/Dual-Boot XP-64&Server2008
Reply to Wolfshadw

What you REALLY need to find is a few Nvidia Quadro NVS 285 cards. They consume like 21w and have a single DVI but an adapter that splits it into 2 VGA's. They also come with a low pro panel. I used them at my last job and were like $100 at the time, but I've seen them for like $30 on ebay. Not sure where you can find them new.

------------------------------ Big Brother Rules with an Iron Fist
Reply to jay2tall
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Looking for reccomendations for a dual-output workstation video card
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