I am thinking of picking up a few ultra small profile P4's, but have only found ones that have imbedded graphics. Relatively speaking, how bad is video performance with imbedded graphics (Intel Extreme) when there is plenty of system Ram, 1G +, versus performance with a dedicated video card with its own dedicated memory? Thanks.
i got a new dell 1.8 with imbedded graphics. it sucks. everything is slow comming up on the screen. i think thats what is causing it.
It depends a lot on the card and how it was embedded. Also, the really good cards are always better than any embedded ones. Mostly that's because the high end cards are >$200, which is about twice what a decent single CPU mainboard will cost you.
Obviously you wouldn't want onboard graphics for anything high-end. However, for regular functions, I find it quite satisfactory. (I use it on my J-Trader) I can tell the graphics are low-end by grabbing a dialog box and shaking it... leaves slight ghosting tails like laptop's used to... and my favorties list comes up in about 1 second first time I access it... that could, however, be something besides the graphics as it's a cheapo Compaq. But if you're just doing the web, word processing, or even a single screen trader, etc.. it will likely be OK.
Basically, the embedded graphics systems are not intended for use with 3D graphics although sometimes they will work anyway. For strictly trading purposes, I don't see why you need 3D. As for multiple monitors, I have XP and it can utilize my embedded graphics system and my PCI graphics card at the same time, my PCI card can handle two monitors and my embedded can handle one, for a total of 3 monitors if I wanted too. The main drawback to embedded video mother boards is that they usually don't have an AGP slot for future expansion to a very high end video card if you wanted one later. However there are still some pretty good PCI video cards out there, probably due to this problem.
Most of those boxes have an AGP slot so you can bypass the internal on board "card." You don't need a high end gaming card for $200 up. A good 64K card should do fine for trading with a single monitor.
Check that motherboard has jumpers to disable the integrated card and that it has AGP and PCI slots. If so, you can install better video cards and even have second monitor later on
Max, I need your phone number My son decided to re-format his computer a few days ago. I was on the phone with Linksys last night for an hour getting my wireless router working correctly. The people there really do give excellent phone support (although I had to wait a while before getting someone to talk to me). But so far, I have yet to speak to one support person there (I have called maybe 3 or 4 times...) who I could understand easily. Every one of them has had a thick accent. And none of them were very "entertaining". Just competent. If I could have called you, I would have had an ideal combination of competence and entertainment. Along with the pleasure of knowing I was not the only nut on the East Coast playing with my computer at 3 am How 'bout sending me a PM with your phone number so I can wake you next time and know I am in good hands? Still my offer to buy you drinks stands. I will up it to dinner. Anytime you are in the neighborhood (as I know you were only blocks from my house 2 weeks ago at the auto show at the Polo Club...walking distance, literally). Peace Brother Max, rs7