Dell Dimension E521 I'll order an adapter when I order the video card just in case. Will any GeForce card work? Why the big difference in card prices? Boli and everyone: thanks I appreciate you taking the time
Yeap. E521 has an onboard video on the motherboard. http://www.targetpcinc.com/Details.asp?ItemID=74178 According to this post: He has an added on "NVidia 7600GS card with dual DVI out" and was asking whether he can have all 3 monitors working. Some said no. But this reply said yes by changing the BIOS setting. You may need to experiment with it. http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-62...=215519&messageID=3177149&tag=content;leftCol RE: Will any GeForce card work? Why the big difference in card prices? The other GeForce cards will definitely work with the onboard video disabled. Whether you can get the onboard video to work in conjunction... I think you need to experiment with it (as using the suggestion in the post linked above). Prices vary because of the graphics chipsets used, the quality of the circuit board components (e.g. capacitors ), and manufacturers' profit margins, etc.. My view on this has been: I use my computers for trading only and for displaying 2-D charts, I get by with the most affordable models and see no reason to get sophisticated or top-of-the-line models that are designed for high-speed photo-realistic 3-D gaming. I have been using the "cheap" PNY Technologies and EVGA cards and they have been working fine for my purpose.
Get an inventory of the whole computer and keep it at hand for reference. Speccy helps in doing that and it's free : http://ihaveapc.com/2010/10/how-to-easily-know-system-configuration-details-with-speccy/ Hope this helps. Best, Max
A good majority of the system info (e.g. CPU type, speed, memory, disk drive string (on IDE, SATA), etc.) can be found by getting into BIOS before you boot Windows. Except the plug-n-play devices. After booting Windows, one can use the Device Manager to find more information - assuming the proper device driver has been installed. By downloading this, downloading that... especially "free" stuff... opening yourself up to viruses, spyware and all kind of risks. It's not necessarily the freeware provider that hurts you. But there are many mimic downloading sites trying to fool you as the download site for those freewares. Be careful. You should know what your system configuration is. If you buy a box off-the-shelf from the major hardware vendors, you should be able to look up the components from the technical spec based on the model number. If you have built the box yourself, you better know what components that went inside the box. On the add-on hardware cards, there usually are engraved marking or sticky labels. Some printed the model number on the circuit board.