I am thinking of building a new tower. Parts will be : Celeron 1.7 Ghz ASUS P4S555 (or Abit equivalent) DDR PC2100 Major 256Mb (or 512Mg depending $$ left ) Win 98SE for now, and in the near future, Win XP (don't know which version yet) My question is about the video cards: I lilke the ATI All In Wonder Radeon 7500 for it's TV features, as well as the video in/out. However, I don't think the AIW allows two monitors (one monitor and one TV or flat screen only, but not 2 CRT's). I found on Ebay a ATI Radeon 7000 PCI for 50$US. My idea is to get the ATI AIW Radeon7500 on AGP and the ATI Radeon 7000 on the PCI, this will allow me at least 2 monitors, if not 4 (2 on Radeon 7000 and one on AIW 7500 + 1 TV) Anyone have the same setup, or could think of possible conflicts? Thanks !! Cheers !!
I dont think you will have trouble with that setup..on XP.. But not sure on 98...(once you use XP u can not stand using other version of windows.. its awesome.) Just make sure you get the latest drivers for all of your components. and upgrade your OS as soon as possible
The new Matrox Parhelia I think is the best card given your specs I think: http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/parhelia/home.cfm nitro
That's the card I bought to use w/my new P4 system ..ati all in wonder AGP 7500... apparently it will Not work with other PCI cards...call ATI's tech support and ask yourself, Before buying the card.. that's what they told me, it won't work w/other cards on the same m/b. It works well enough by itself, if you just need a single-monitor type solution (note the other vid out is only for a flat panel or tv, eg a dvi out, not another monitor out). I need multi monitors, so, I guess it becomes the new vid card for the wife's pc instead. Anyways, many problems getting it installed and working correctly too, pc would reboot too w/o reason. ... never had that problem before, likely an issue with the new p4 based gigabyte m/b I am trying. Sticking with Matrox cards still from now on. Lessons learned: matrox for video cards, sony for monitors, asus/tyan for motherboards. other stuff, has caused probs for me at least , fwiw. Ken
[Somehow my last post got included in Ken's] Maybe later models of AIW don't work so well with other cards??? I run AIW 128 PCI + 3 Xpert 128s. All work fine in Win2000. These kind of gremlins are probably a good argument for having a clone shop build it. Then, if there are incompatibility or MB problems, they will be able to work it out and deliver a machine that functions as the trader wants. Probably worth a few bucks unless you are savvy enough about the hardware. (Listen to me... I bought a minimum machine, stuck in the extras, and it all worked. Maybe I was just lucky? Next time I'll probably have the clone shop do it.)
Thanks guys for all the inputs. Maybe I'll just get one of the older ATI Radeon (7000?) AGP for 2 CRT's , and add the ATI TV Tuner PCI for the TV and video in/out features, and skip the AIW Radeon 7500. Cheers!!
REALTIMESOFT.COM is a site that has a database with over 4000 cpu video card combinations described for people with 2 or more monitors. This is a great database, because people describe problems, if any, with different combinations. I just bought an AGP Matrox G450 dual head 32mb ($110.00) and it works great to drive a couple of LCD's. You can add a pci version and add two more monitors.