30monitor for old PC

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sound31

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Mar 17, 2008
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I have an old PC and I wonder if I could attach a 30 inch monitor to it.
I don’t game at all, just need a big desktop. I don’t like the idea of two monitors.
My current GPU cannot support a 30 inch so I am planning to purchase an AGP card with dual-link DVI from ebay.

My PC:
CPU : P4 1,7 MHz
Motherboard: QDI PlatiniX 4X AGP X4
Memory: 512mb Rambus

I would like to ask
1. Will I be CPU limited and not able to make it work?
2. Is the GPU going to function properly on a motherboard a few generations older?
3. Given that I do not play games will my old PSU cope with the new card? Any special specifications I need to check?

Please recommend a card if you have some experience of a similar setup.

Thanks a lot
 
CPU limited? No, at least not for 2D windows apps.

GPU should be fine as long as you can find an AGP model. If your mobo was 2x AGP you might have run into problems though, as newer AGP cards couldn't necessarily handle the voltages 2x boards used. I forget the exact numbers, I think they were 1.5V and 3.3V, but basically at 4x they started using 1.5V. My memory is fuzzy on exactly how it worked out, but there were boards and/or cards that could support both voltages for a while. Since you've got a 4x slot you shouldn't have much trouble, as any board that supports dual link DVI will presumably be new enough that it'll work with 4x 1.5V signaling. If you can't find an AGP card, you could use a PCI card. PCI should be ok for 2D use, though AGP would be better.

I have no idea on your PSU, but generally it depends on the board you get. You'll probably be ok if you get a board that doesn't require an additional power connector. Just go for a low-end GPU that doesn't use a lot of power. You don't game, and that machine will fall over and die if you try putting vista on it, so you really don't need 3D capability. Faster 3D is all you really get out of more powerful cards these days, and it's been that way for years. We might be able to guess, but we'd need to know what board you were looking at, the rail & total output ratings on your PSU, and what else is in the system.

Just out of curiosity, how old is that machine? I got a P4 1.7 for work in 2001.
 
Good luck with the upgrade. I tried the same thing and eventually had to give up. My old computer would not even boot with the 3650 vid card installed. The motherboard needed a bios upgrade, but HP does not provide the needed upgrade for their slightly modified version of a standard ASUS motherboard. The good news is that my 30" HP monitor works great with my new computer. I probably will never buy another HP desktop computer because of this.
 
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