Converted server gaming machine. Need part.

[dragonorb13]

Approximate Purchase Date: Today, if possible 2/17/2011

Budget Range: about $50 'out the door' (after instant rebates, discounts, etc, but before any mail in)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (WoW, DDO, that kind of stuff. No Oblivion), home photo editing, movies, surfing, yatta yatta yatta...

Parts Not Required: power supply (unit has twin 585 watt power supplies, so no concern), sound, mother board, CPU, RAM, HDD... Know what, I'll make it easy. I ONLY need a video card for this unit. have gotten most of what I need for the thing.

Preferred Website for Parts: any/none... as long as it's in the budget, I'll go there

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: PCI or PCI-x. No PCI-e. I'd rather not spend 50 just for the new riser

Overclocking: Probably not, but it's not outside the realm of possibility

SLI or Crossfire: Yes

Monitor Resolution: 1600x1050

Additional Comments: Current unit is as follows: IBM X336 Eserver 1u rack server. 8g ram. Sound Blaster Audigy2 sound card. Twin dual-core 3.0 processors. 2 PCI-x slots, one reg one low profile. Monitor is a 19" TV I got from wallyworld.
Video is just the on board. I need info on a PCI video card that is known good with servers in general, and with THIS server specifically if possible.
The last one i got is probably a bad video card, but PNY whines that it's not compatible with any form of server. <insert thick India accent> I've never know any of our video cards to work with any server unit <end thick India accent>.

 

[jalexbrown]

I doubt you're going to find a good PCI or PCI-x video card. I'm not an expert of server stuff, but I doubt you're going to be able to run most games at 1600x1050 with good settings without PCI-e. I know that's not necessarily the helpful answer, but it's the best I can offer. Hopefully someone can prove me wrong about this.

 

[AstroTC]

Yes jale said it best PCI cards are garbage but if you must get one http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=RVCGFX522PXB-PB-R&cat=VCD *I do not recommend it*

 

[yyk71200]

$90 for that?!! Facepalm... $20 is too much for that outdated contraption.

 

[AstroTC]

as we said before PCI is crap...If we could convince you to use PCIe and you have good cooling MAYBE this would do you some justice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161343

 

[dragonorb13]

Thing is, I wouldn't have an issue with a PCI-e (actually have a PCI-e x16 that WOULD be nice in it if i had the riser for it) if it weren't for the fact that every IBM compatible PCI-e riser had either been an x8 or 20 before shipping... then another 20-30 for shipping. Hence why I've been looking for the PCI.
Besides, a PCI card with a 400 mhz core clock is less pathetic in a 133 mhz clock speed PCI-x bus than a 33-66 mhz PCI bus.
Also, since i didn't think of it at first, the card has to be one of the ones that has a thin fan (or has a heat sink no larger than said thin fan) it's a 1u rack-mount server
Cooling is far from a problem, thing has like 12 of those mini-jet fans that puts out as much cooling power at the huge 6" square super fans in a 1" cube unit (sounds like a small jet is sitting on my desk when it kicks to full power)
As to the resolution settings, that really isn't a big deal, I just tossed out a random res setting.

 

[jalexbrown]

The point still stands: PCI just isn't going to offer you any sort of worthwhile performance. This is one of those instances where I don't think there's much you can do aside from building a new PC if you want any sort of significant performance boost.

 

[dragonorb13]

It's not so much that i need a performance BOOST so much as performance to begin with. My 'current' gaming machine is my laptop, 1.6 ghz, 4g ram, and an on board 256 ATI-Radeon Mobility GPU.
I realize a PCI card doesn't offer as much as a PCI-e, but I have two major issues:
1) I don't have the budget for a whole new system, in fact I lucked out that Geeks.com didn't realize that the server i bought was a twin dual-core, rather than the advertise twin single-core it was marked as. Got it for 150.
2) I can't seem to find either a riser card for the blasted thing or a PCI-x to PCI-e bridge of any kind.
Put a thread up on the Other Components subcat of the CPU and Components topic set and, despite pictures showing the part I have and asking about a similar unit, but Express rather than Extended, everyone that's posted a reply keeps giving me a PCI-e to PCI-e 90 degree riser. Not helpful when this particular unit doesn't have a PCI-e slot on it to start with.