Need some Hardware Help

S

sevisehda

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 1, 2003
Messages
281
I'm looking to upgrade(replace) my HTPC, NF7-S w/ Athlon 2500. For a MB I was looking at ABIT AN9 32X, although its somewhat overkill but meets the reqs of 6+ sata slots, raid 5 capable, and dual nics. For a CPU I'll be going as cheap as possible. For a tuner I'm leaning toward a WinTV-PVR-500 for some dual tuner action.

Now my issue lies with the graphics cards. I need to drive 3 displays, a pair of 20 LCDs on my desk with the desktop spanned across them. Then mirror 1 of those displays to my TV(46" HDTV running off a DVI connection). My main issue is finding a cheap dual DVI card. Can anyone point me to a cheaper DVI with good qulaity but a low price?

I won't be gaming on this box at all, just basically being used as a DVR, watch TV, play movies and music, run AIM, and do some file sharing. No gaming.
 
I don't know if current ATi/nVidia drivers will allow you to stretch your desktop across two monitors and mirror one of the monitors to your TV. I guess you could try to find some sort of DVI "splitter", but I'm not too hopeful. If you just want to send video to the TV, I believe ATi drivers will let you set the overlay to whatever monitor you want. In that case, you could use one card to drive the two LCDs, and a second card to drive the TV, and send the overlay to that second card. Alternatively, you can turn off the overlay in some programs, and the video will play on any screen.

Newegg has a selection of dual-DVI cards. (Don't be fooled by the SFF cards--they have a breakout cable to get the two DVI plugs) I'd suggest getting one of them and playing around with it--hook up your two LCDs to the DVI connections, and the TV to the S-video. Who knows--it might turn out ok.
 
I was planning on having 2 cards. 1 of which would need to be dual DVI the other could be single(which I have a few of laying around). Most if not all the dual DVI cards at newegg are overkill for my use. Just looking to save a few bucks.


Not sure if I'll sell the NF7, Its been with me for a while and was part of my first 'high;y' modified OCed systems. It has alot of sentimental value.
 
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