Hi, I'm a mechanical engineering grad student buying himself two 19" LCD monitors for Christmas, to replace the giant 19" CRT that currently takes up half my desk.
I would say I am at least moderately computer literate overall, but less than average wrt video cards. Actually I'm pretty much clueless in this area, and could use some guidence.
Here's what I think may be relevent info:
System specs:
HP media center PC m7250n
2.8gHz Pentium D
4gb RAM (because it was near-free)
The stock video card's specs from HP's website:
ATI Radeon x300se
128 MB DDR memory
I/O Ports: Composite, S-Video, VGA
What I need to do:
NO gaming, not even solitaire
NO htpc stuff
CAD/CAM stuff, FEA
other stuff that's not difficult (word processing, spreadsheets)
Budget:
As little as possible? I did just buy two monitors...
As I said, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to video cards. I don't know what brands are good, or just acceptable. I don't know what kind of performance I need from a video card for CAD work. I don't even know what kind of coin I'm looking at shelling out, be it for acceptable or for good performance. ****, I barely know what defines 'good performance' for a video card.
It looks like I may be able to run two monitors with the video card currently in the computer, but I'm not sure. Plus, I think it would be better to have a card with dual DVI outputs so both my new monitors could be hooked up the same way (tell me if this assumption is wrong).
Help!
Mac
I would say I am at least moderately computer literate overall, but less than average wrt video cards. Actually I'm pretty much clueless in this area, and could use some guidence.
Here's what I think may be relevent info:
System specs:
HP media center PC m7250n
2.8gHz Pentium D
4gb RAM (because it was near-free)
The stock video card's specs from HP's website:
ATI Radeon x300se
128 MB DDR memory
I/O Ports: Composite, S-Video, VGA
What I need to do:
NO gaming, not even solitaire
NO htpc stuff
CAD/CAM stuff, FEA
other stuff that's not difficult (word processing, spreadsheets)
Budget:
As little as possible? I did just buy two monitors...
As I said, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to video cards. I don't know what brands are good, or just acceptable. I don't know what kind of performance I need from a video card for CAD work. I don't even know what kind of coin I'm looking at shelling out, be it for acceptable or for good performance. ****, I barely know what defines 'good performance' for a video card.
It looks like I may be able to run two monitors with the video card currently in the computer, but I'm not sure. Plus, I think it would be better to have a card with dual DVI outputs so both my new monitors could be hooked up the same way (tell me if this assumption is wrong).
Help!
Mac
