PCI Video Card Recommendations.

[Gilbo]

I need a PCI video card. I'm setting up a pair of headless servers in my house, but the boards' BIOSes are configured out of the box to halt without a graphics card. I can't change this BIOS setting without being able to see the BIOS menu, so, unfortunately, I can't do a headless install over the network like I originally planned.

I've been looking around and this ATI Radeon 7000 PCI is the cheapest card I've found. Alternatively, I was thinking about going a more pricy route with a Matrox Millenium P650 PCI, because it's very likely I'd be able to put the card to good use in another box some time in the future. It's a damn expensive way to get dual DVI though.

In fact the dual DVI, isn't even that important, although it reassures me I'll get long use out of it. At the moment, the two screens I'd most likely use are two 22" Philips CRTs I have lying around. The problem with the ATI 7000 is that I don't trust its RAMDACs at 1920x1440 @ 85Hz. I can't find good specs on Power-Colour's websites, but even if both outputs had 400Mhz RAMDACs I bet they'd be blurry as hell at 1920x1440.

With that background, does anyone else have any thoughts, or alternate recommendations as to what I should take a look at? Any other nice dual display PCI graphics cards at reasonable prices, with solid 2D quality out there?

 

[blakerwry]

I'd just get the cheapest PCI graphics card you can and keep it around as a spare incase you ever need to test a box.

A radeon or newer Matrox might be useful for other purposes, but it is nice to have a spare PCI vid card when you need one and there really is no reason to get PCI graphics in a desktop machine anymore.


Looking at newegg they may have dropped the ATi mobility and mach64... so a radeon 7000 might not be a bad route. Or fleabay should be full of cards for under $10.

 

[blakerwry]

ps. let me know if you are interested in a used PCi card, I can probably swing one for $5 + s/h

 

[Gilbo]

There's a small army of ATI Mach64 cards on ebay that no one wants. That might be a good route Blakewry. Now that I think about it, were there any AGP ATI Xpression cards made? I think I have a pair of those in the basement somewhere. Hopefully they're PCI. That would be convenient .

The only problem is that I don't have a paypal account, but that's rather easily rectified.

I just noticed your last post Blakewry, I might definitely be interested in that used card you have lying around. I vaguely recall that you live in Canada? I'm in Halifax. The funny thing is that shipping might be cheaper from the U.S. depending on how far west you are.

 

[blakerwry]

Must be mistaken, I'm no Canuck. Kansas City's my home.

 

[Tannin]

Much as I hate ATI, the Mach 64s (once you figure out the horrible drivers) give excellent picture quality.

I have a box of maybe 20 PCI video cards lying around, you'd be welcome to half a dozen - but the freight would kill us.

 

[MaxBurn]

I think an older matrox would fit the bill too. Something from the G200 or G400 line. No fan and good drivers. Matrox always used to be known for it's good picture quality. I run a Milennium II to add a third monitor, had the card for years and it's great. G400 looks like AGP only though?

 

[Explorer]

I think an older matrox would fit the bill too. Something from the G200 or G400 line. No fan and good drivers. Matrox always used to be known for it's good picture quality. I run a Milennium II to add a third monitor, had the card for years and it's great. G400 looks like AGP only though?

There was a PCI version of the G450. Since then, there have been a few more PCI models.

The *OLD* ATI Rage for PCI lives on for the bottom of the proverbial barrel. I suspect it must cost ATI about 79¢ each to make 'em, then they charge their volume server customers about US$4.99 each to make them attractive.

 

[Fushigi]

Gilbo, to me it seems like you need to decide what your priority is:
- Cost: Buy the cheapest ATI or whatever PCI cards you can find. Running them in stock VGA mode removes driver issues. Since the systems will ultimately be headless, why run anything that could compromise the system stability?
- Re-usability: Use the card to build the servers but then re-provision it to another workstation. In this case, you still want something with stable drivers but it also needs to meet whatever your display criteria are (speed, quality, dual-support, etc.).

Me, I'd go the cost route for the servers and leave the cards installed for future troubleshooting. Then, when needed, get a decent PCIe/AGP card for the main workstation.

Of course, you could also ebay the boards & buy new ones with VGA on-board. :lol:

 

[Gilbo]

It turns out I just managed to dig up an ATI Mach64 GT from an old computer in my basement, which simplifies things quite nicely. I'm not going to bother with anything else.

Oddly enough, I have two of these identical boxes, but only one still had its video card. For the life of me I can't remember what I did with the other one. Makes me worry about my memory a little bit... :-?