2nd video card for older Dell

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by bugscoe, Jan 15, 2008.

  1. I've got a Dell 8300 purchased in 02-03. It has a Radeon 9800 AGP card in it.

    I currently have 2 20" monitors hooked up and would like to add a 3rd. I believe my machine has standard PCI slots.

    What are my best choices? Do I find another card or look for a quad card and replace my current card?

    Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks.
     
  2. mokwit

    mokwit

    Sorry if I am hijacking your thread but it is related............

    I am buying an old Dell with an onboard video card which presumably I would need to disable if I were to add a dual port video card.

    Would appreciate if someone could tell me how to do this or if there is a way to keep the onboard activated so I can run 3 retaher than 2 monitors.

    TIA
     
  3. You can pretty much buy an inexpensive PCI card and pop it in...I have a matrox dual head and then a $10 pci card running the 3rd monitor. Works great.
     
  4. You should have a few pci slots...you can leave what you have in and then add a pci card to run second monitor...or get a set up like I mentioned in my previous post.

    When I did this 6years ago I almost brought it to a shop to have it done. The guy wanted $200...f that...I got the matrox on ebay for $40 and the pci card on sale at compUSA for $11.99 I was hesitant about doing it but it was VERY easy to do.
    Still going strong :)
     
  5. Is your PCI card also a Matrox?
     
  6. I ALSO had a Dell 8300 running on Windows XP.

    It came with an Nvidia GeForce driven AGP card, so I got a PCI-slot card ( a 64mb BFG Technologies, GeForce MX-440 ) and I was able to support 3 screens with ZERO conflicts.

    Due to your AGP being ATI Radeon, you will most likely have to purchase an ATI Radeon PCI-slot card for compatibility purposes.

    Should be an easy install.
     
  7. I believe its an AGP.
    I bought it on ebay for about $40 I think the model is the 450G.